# Setting up a blog.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 18, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900 "2009-03-18T16:55:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900/1 "2009-03-18T16:55:01Z")

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I think this belongs here. If not, then I apologise.

TL;DR: I wanna set up a blog, but I’ not sure what to do, or what website to use. I’ve heard horror stories about certain websites asserting ownership of bloggers postings, and I’d like to avoid that.

Does anyone have any advice?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900/2 "2009-03-18T17:23:15Z")

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I’ve found [Blogger.com](http://Blogger.com) (owned by Google) is easy to use. I think their terms of use is similar to the one here.

Just go to the site, sign up (you can use your Gmail login if you have one, otherwise it can be any e-mail address), and start blogging.

I also find that Microsoft Live Writer is a great tool for blogging – it works like Word, so it’s much easier to learn and use than the built-in software.

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**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900/3 "2009-03-18T18:02:21Z")

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Ditto on Blogger. I’ve been using them for a couple of years now… their TOS is pretty standard, and they don’t seem to have the same scary content ownership loopholes that I’ve seen elsewhere (Facebook, for example).

I did check out a few other sites when I first set up my blog, and I settled on Blogger because they provide many features for free that other sites would charge for.

Plus it’s really easy to use, even if you’re not particularly techy. There are some basic templates that you can modify using some very easy-to-use interfaces on the site, or you can create your own code from scratch if that’s your thing. The blog posting itself is quite straightforward to, with the same option to alternate between HTML code and a more user-friendly WYSIWYG interface.

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**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900/4 "2009-03-19T00:08:30Z")

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Thanks guys.

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**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/setting-up-a-blog/489900/5 "2009-03-19T03:53:42Z")

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[Wordpress.com](http://Wordpress.com) seems to be similarly hands-off with regards to IP rights.

Or you could always get a hosting package and install it on your own site – no copyright issues there. Some outlay to pay for the hosting package, but it’s pretty cheap nowadays.