Makes it hard to keep up on your own.

First, you have to decide if you are willing to use your real name online. Some people do, and others do not. Our gracious hostess, who does not use her real name, has received a couple of sick threat letters. I do use my real name, but since I get about a fiftieth of the traffic Sis does, I haven’t had any problems.

Second, you have to decide whether you want to pay for your site and domain name, or would rather go through one of the free services. I had (and still have) an old blogspot.com site, which is completely free, and has some good initial set-up features to help the beginner. Ichose to get my own domain name and pay for my own site, simply because I wanted it to be mine. It isn’t that expensive: $219 for a year.

And third (didn’t I say that I only had two?), put some thought into your blog name before you proceed, especially if you are going to buy a domain name.