BRIGHT IDEAS: So You Want to be a Blogger

Interested in blogging on your favorite indie finds? Perhaps you're a crafter right now who'd just like to keep your customers in the loop on upcoming projects. Here's a quick start guide to various blogging services as well as blogging programs (if you have your own server/hosted site you might want to go this route), and some basic HTML tutorials to help make your blog a little extra special.

Blogging Services
Blogging services are websites that have already integrated their blogging program into their site, so when you create an account, you're already set up. There's nothing to install, and unless you want to customize your layout in anyway, you blog can be up and running the moment you log in. Most of these have free and paid accounts; if free accounts are available, they have specific limits on them (full layout customization not available, only one author allowed, et cetera). Here are some (of many) services you can choose from, listed alphabetically. This list is not all-inclusive, of course, because there are so many options to choose from nowadays!

Blog.com
Blogger
LiveJournal
SquareSpace
Typepad - the service I use and recommend
Wordpress

Blogging Programs
These guys are the actual programs that services have installed on their sites to produce your blog. Most are Open Source (free), but don't rule out paid licenses - they often have features and support that Open Sources don't offer. Open Source programs usually have modification sites tied in with them; users, rather than the original program writer, create features they need and will direct you how to edit the code to attain that feature yourself. Some edits are easy, but if you're a beginner at HTML and program language, this is not recommended - you may break the program and not know where you went wrong. Either trade up for the paid license that includes the feature you need, or find someone knowledgeable to help you modify the files for you. Please note this is also a limited list - I'd be here for hours compiling all the programs available!

BBlog - free
Greymatter - free (I used this program for a long time for my personal site and loved it)
LiveJournal - free (powers LiveJournal and a few others)
MoveableType - paid (powers TypePad) - is releasing an Open Source version soon
Wordpress - free (powers Wordpress)

HTML Guides
Most blogging programs need very minimal HTML knowledge - if any! - but what happens when you want to center something or include a picture, but there's no button to do it for you? That's where these guys come in.

HTML Code Tutorial
HTML Goodies
HTML Source
Webmonkey - the primary source I used when I learned HTML (gulp) about 10 years ago - and the layout still hasn't changed! They do a great job of simply explaining everything, so you can "get it" quickly.