HOW-TO-START-BLOGGING.............Like every thing else, the first step to successful blogging is knowing what blogging is, and how to achieve success andsatisfaction towards your blogging experience. Here, I want to start by trying to explain what comprises blogging, probably the definition of BOGGING! According to Wikipedia.Org . Blog is a contraction of the term " web log " which is a type of website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events known as Post, or other material such as graphics or video. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to add content to a blog . Many blogs provide commentary or news ona particular subject; A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages and other media, related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many a blog. Most blogs are primarily textual,although some focus on art, photographs, videos, musics (like mp3 blog) and audio known as podcast. Simpler than that, it is easier to blog than to decide what to eat for dinner tonight. Therefore, put away all your fears about blogging and lets see how I can be of help towards the kick-start of your blogging. Before you decide on what to blog on, we have to get down and put first thing first. The check list: Idea - You need to have an idea on what to blog on and you are not alone when it comes to that, there are various means you can use to research your ideas. Download VRE Toolbar from VREToolbar.Com( Not sureabout the stability of the toolbar ) and install it in your PC, its very helpful in many ways as you will find-out. Use it to do your keywords and niche research and come up with idea and choose a Niche for your blogging. Or you simply start with what you are passionate about Register A Domain - Choose a domain that ismost appropriate to your chosen niche or you can make do with a "sub domain" like yourname.blogspot.comif you are using Blogger as your blogging platform or yourname.wordpress.comif you decide to go with Wordpress. I personally blog with both custom domain name and free sub domain name, so the choice is your. I've written about the two Blogging systems. Get A Host - When I say host I mean a webhost, you need this except you are usingfree host provided by Blogger and Wordpress which is ideal for beginners, of course even professionals and long time blogger uses it as well. You can start with the free host or you Get yourself paid host. Please, do further research before you decide on which hosting company to go with. Blogging Platform - Choose a suitable blogging platform: Blogger.Com- This very blog is on Blogger.ComOwned by Google. That means, I use blogger as one of my favorite blogging platform, you needs a Google account and you can start blogging within a minute. Its free to use and comes with exciting features. You can make do with one of the existing templates which is fully widgetized or download and install custom template. Details about "custom template" in my subsequent posts. There areother great blogging platforms and open source blogging softwares like: Wordpress, Typad, Profy, MovableType, Textpattern, Space by MSN etc. One outstanding blogging platform is Profy, a new player in the blogging arena according to Squiddo , is a one-stop web platform for all things blogging. Described bysome reviewers as a social blogging platform, the Profy solution provides a singlepoint of comprehensive access to the full range of activities involved in blogging, fromreading and sharing news to publishing posts and networking with other bloggers and readers. Profy's vision is to provide bloggers with all the creative tools they could possibly want - in one place namely, Profy blogging platform. Keyword Research - Essential if you are blogging for profit and for search engine ranking.If you are blogging for income, you need to know how profitable is the niche you have choosen, that is where Keyword research comes into play. Besides, search engine indexes each blog and website according to its keyword orientation, therefore, you'll need to choose which keyword you would like your blog to be indexed on. Google Keyword Tools is very essential as I aerier mentioned, if you haven't downloaded it, quickly go over to VREToolbar.Comand get a free toolbar. Its free and take less that a minute to install. When you install it, scroll over to keyword section, pick your search option begins your research. Social Bookmarking -Subscribe to social bookmarking tools like Del.ico.us and others. Open an account with social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and many others but these three are the most popular among others. This will make it easier for your blog readers to follow you onany or all of these social networking places. It easy to get an account with any of these bookmarking and social networking sites, just go over there and follow there the stepsto get a free account.