Free Blogs/Website

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

If you are just looking for your web ministry to be a simple way to communicate with your church members than you might be very well served by one of the free blogs/website opportunities available. In this article we’ll examine two possibilities for starting a free site. One of them is Blogger.com, the other is WordPress.com.

Blogger.com

Start by going to blogger.com.

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You need to either sign in (if you have a gmail account already) or sign up. Once you have done this you will see the Blogger dashboard. Here you can edit existing Blogger blogs you have or start new ones.

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Go to Create a Blog

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Enter a Blog Title (I used Effective Prayer Ministry). Now you need to select a blog address. This process can take a few tries because a lot of addresses are already taken (I used effectiveprayerministry). Type in the word verification and press continue.

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Choose a template and press Continue

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You now have a blog! Press Start Blogging. You can also use the URL address to get to your blog, for example: http://effectiveprayerministry.blogspot.com

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If you want you can go ahead and get started with a post or you can examinie your settings, layout, or view your blog. Play around with your new free blog. Write some posts and you are on your way. To see what a Blogger blog looks like check out Effective Prayer Ministry.

WordPress.com

Go to WordPress.com

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You need to either sign in or sign up. At this screen you can register a blog.

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Press register a blog.

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Enter in a domain name, a blog title and press Create Blog. You will get a screen that says the blog you just started Is Yours. Press on the link for your new blog or you can type the URL into your web browser.

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You should see your blog! Under Meta press Site Admin

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At the WordPress dashboard go to Presentation and select a theme from those provided. I chose Blix. When you press on the theme you will get to see a preview.

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If this is the theme you want press on Activate in the top right corner of the preview.

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All you need to do now is add some posts (if you need some help with how the editor works read Using the WordPress Write Post and Write Page Editor), and enjoy your new blog.