So, you have something to say and have been thinking about starting a blog but don’t know where to start?

Here are sixteen steps that should get you going quickly in the Blogosphere.

1. Plant Your Flag

If you want to people to visit your site you need to tell them where it is. If you want to host your own blog then get a domain name with hosting space or if you prefer to focus on just the content side you can sign up to an online provider such as WordPress.com or Blogger.

2. Get A Platform

This will be determined largely by whether you decide to self-host or use a hosted service. A number of content platforms are available including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Mambo. If you are just getting started and don’t want to get involved in the nitty gritty of downloading software then use a hosted service like those mentioned in the previous point.

3. Get A Style

Blogging is really flexible and there are many different approaches including a themed blog (logo design, books, daily puzzles), a journal blog (ongoing diary or social commentary), a mash up blog (combining articles from other sites), micro-blogging (like twitter for short snappy posts), or video blogging and podcasting. The important this is to decide what your blog is about and try and stick to it, unless of course you want to go free form.

4. Statistics

When you start building content you will want to connect with an interested community and that means thinking about how to reach the community. You may discover blogging is as much about analysing statistics as it is about producing good content so find some good statistical analysis service such as Quantcast, Google Analytics or Woopra. You may also want to dig deeper using a tool like Google Insights.

5. Get Plugged In

Extend your blog with widgets, plug-ins, and modules but do not be tempted to go over the top. It is easy to get carried away with these things and cram your blog full of widgets, counters and other things but try and make them related to your blog and ensure they are appropriate. When putting add-ins of this kind on your blog it is often prudent to download them directly from the official sites, for example WordPress host their own plug-in and theme directories.

Remember, adding too many widgets may detract from your main blog content.

6. Make Your Posts

It is time to start making your posts so think about them before hand. Give a good introduction to your post giving some clue as to what it is about – many people like to skim posts so don’t leave the important stuff until the end. Also pay special attention to the post title, is it catchy? Does it make you want to read more? Include tags to make searching easier.

Try and avoid the “me too” posts that some blogs suffer from as this just adds to the noise. If your content is similar to what is already out there add a new spin to the topic, or add an opinion to it.

7. Try Offline Blogging

Unless it is breaking news, write your blog posts at least a day before publishing them. This gives you an opportunity to reflect on your post before you commit. Once published for a period of time it can very tricky to change content.

I don’t know about you but I have a great deal of trouble sitting at the computer at a flashing prompt waiting for inspiration to come. It is much easier to use an offline tool to prepare your post and formulate ideas then post them when they are ready. Live Writer is a useful tool for this with lots of available plug-ins to extend its use, others are Blogjet and Ecto.

8. Get Pictures

Appropriate pictures add interest to the words in your blog posts and break up the text to make it look more attractive. One of the commonest things I get asked is how do i include pictures in a blog or make them fit in with the text? Using an offline blogging tool, such as the previously mentioned Live Writer, makes this a simple drag and drop process but there are others ways to achieve this.

Before you include images make sure you have obtained permission.

To host your images outside of your blog you could sign up to an online image service such as Flickr or Picasa and link back to your images.

To edit your images you can use online services like Photoshop.com or the excellent online image editor Pixlr.

9. Get A Feed Service

Your new readers may want to subscribe to receive updates to your blog, often known as RSS, using their favourite feed reader so employ a feed service such as Feedburner of Feedblitz. You may decide to change your blog location or you may get other issues so using a third party feed service to manage your feed can be of benefit.

Remember to subscribe to your own blog so you can see how other people are seeing your posts.

10. Get A Feed Reader

To read your feed you will need a feed reader. There are many different feed readers available and different ones can run in your browser, in your email application, or from their own application. You could sign up for Google Reader, Bloglines, NewsGator or download FeedReader.

11. Get Ready For Spam

Unfortunately blogging does not escape from spammers and once you get going you will start receiving all manner of strange comments with spammers trying to take advantage of your commenting system to push their wares. Ensure you have spam software, such as Akismet and Project Honey Pot, in place and consider tools like reCAPTCHA to ensure that bots cannot overrun your site.

12. Attract Visitors And Subscribers

Building your community takes time as it can be difficult to get your voice heard over the noise of all the other blogs. Comment on other peoples blogs, take part in other blogs, leave feedback, link back to other articles as appropriate and respond to people who leave comments on your site. Not everyone understands the purpose of subscribing to a blog feed so it may be worth offering additional services, or information to your regular subscribers.

13. Start Pinging

Pinging is simply a way of telling information services, such as community news sites and search engines about your latest blog update. Some ping services may be included as part of your blogging service however others may be useful additions. Google Blog Search is a good place to start and Technorati also have a Blog ping service. LeeRaito.com has a good list to get you started.

14. Link Up With Other Bloggers

There are many other blogs out there and they may be covering the same areas as you but don’t treat them as competition. Blogging is a good way to build a social network of like minded people and what better than other people who blog about similar things you do. Welcome guest posters to your blog and offer to guest post on other blogs. Working together with other bloggers can be a good way of reaching out to the community with your unique content.

15. Stick To The Point

When you attract regular readers it is because they have interests similar to what you are writing about – if you then start writing regularly about different things it will be confusing and off putting. Imagine buying a movie review magazine and it being all about fishing – get the idea? (Not that I have anything against fishing!).

16. Constantly Review, Refresh and Innovate

Is your blog still on target? Has the subject matter drifted? Take time out to regularly review your blog and ensure it still serves its intended purpose. You can run polls to gain feedback from readers to ensure you are meeting their expectations, never be afraid to ask anyone how you are doing – all feedback is welcome.

Look at the layout and theme of your blog, is it looking tired or has its layout had one too many plug-ins added?

Let us know how you get on with your blog and if you have any useful tips let us know. Good luck.