There can be no better way to interact with people across the globe, than by blogging. You can meet people from different cultures and geographical locations online, whom you would never have met or connected with otherwise. Further, you gain new knowledge, as you pen your thoughts about certain topics that appeal to you, and permit people to discuss them.

There is sharing of opinions amongst a multitude of Net surfers, considering that blogging is taken up for different reasons—entertainment, generating revenue, starting up new friendships, garnering public attention, publishing a personal journal that focuses on day-to-day activities, linking up with affiliate programmes, and so on. Blogs are far more interesting in comparison to articles that are submitted to directories, for the sheer reason that they are constantly updated.

Maintaining a blogging site or blog is not so easy sometimes; you will need help. Once you have built up a loyal fan base, you can be bold enough to request your readers for donations in order to keep the website going. While some part of the donations can go towards maintenance, the rest of it can become your personal income. So do not hesitate to ask for money when you require it, but leave the amount to the readers' choice. Alternatively, you can use your blogging site to sell some products. These could include a personal logo that becomes your brand name, designed T-shirts, and so on. Your regular customers will not hesitate to spend some money.

There are several types of blogging platform….
and they cater for different tastes. It is up to you to decide the type you wish to go in for.

(1) One such blogging platform is the stand-alone type. This software can be downloaded and installed quite easily on personal computers. Some owners ask for a nominal fee; others offer it for free. This platform helps you to have some control over the designs on your blogging site. You can even make use of the many themes on offer, to decorate your web pages. The only extra thing required is a web host, for you must have a place to post your blogs onto.

If you are the kind of blogger, who wishes to have the freedom of customising your blog posts, then, stand-alone platform is just for you. If need be, browse for some designed templates and additional functions that you can add to your blog pages. There is one snag, however. You need to be informed about technical issues. Should something go wrong, you should be able to handle the snags yourself. Otherwise, keep an expert handy at all times.

(2) Another type of blogging platform is hosting weblog providers. All that you need to do is to sign up at such a site, and set up your own blogging account. The advantage here, is that you do not need to download any kind of software and install it on your computer. You just register your name at a site, and publish your posts. And you are well aware that registration processes are very simple—just filling up forms with required information.

You would be well advised to go in for this kind of blogging platform, if you are a beginner in this arena. The first thing you do is to land on the web pages of a particular site, and open up a new account. Type in the required information, and then, create your own customised blog page. You need not worry about the process, since step-by-step instructions are provided for you. You will receive guidance regarding themes, designs, colours, fonts, style regarding blogging, and so on.

May be you should begin with this platform, since you have very little knowledge about technical programmes offered by websites, or programmes such as CSS and HTML, etc.

(3) Finally, there is the remote blogging platform. Here, you will need to imitate the blog host provider, considering that the set up guidelines are similar. You can go in for this kind of platform, if you wish to have your blogging website hosted by other websites. In case you desire to go in for your own domain, take care to provide your FTP details to the remote web blogging system; it will take care of the rest. You will need to provide your FTP address, FTP user ID and password, and so on. Thus, you can go in for your own domain, or host the remote blogging system in the integrated blog host.

If you are reasonably experienced in technical matters, as well as blogging, then go in for the third variety. If you are an amateur, then you better opt for either of the previous two platforms. You can go in for the remote blogging platform later on.

I hope this insight into the different types of blogging platforms will help you choose the right one!