Beginners advice for creating a blog or website

I help run a "Computer Club" in the over-55 retirement community that I live in. A lot of what that club does is just helping people with problems, but we do try to incorporate some education into our meetings.

One of the topics that keeps coming up and never seems to be answered satisfactorily is that which is implied in the title above: how should someone new to the process go about creating a blog or a website?

In the past, I have pushed that sort of question off rather casually. I'd tell them to go to Blogger, or Wordpress.com or even HubPages. This sort of answer really isn't helpful, though, because what should be determined first is WHY the person asking the question wants a web presence.

The answer to that question is the key to what they should do next. Some should be using Blogger and some should be using Wordpress. Some might do very well here at HubPages and others might even find that Facebook or Google+ is exactly what they need. There is not a universal answer to their question.

What are you trying to accomplish?

One of the people who asked this question is involved with another club - the "Classic Car" club.. He's looking to create a place where members can chat and post pictures. A Facebook or Google+ page might be ideal for that.

Another person wants a place to publish poetry. Don't groan - he's actually very good. I'll be recommending HbPages to him. I'd also recommend HubPages to the person who likes to write about history, social issues and various other topics. They could use Blogger or WordPress too - I'll get into the details of which to use and when a bit lower down.

Still another hopeful new web content creator wants to promote their business. They definitely fall in the Blogger or Wordpress camp, though they should also be looking at Facebook and Google+ plus and even Twitter.

Facebook and Google+

People sometimes miss the value that Facebook and Google+ can have for a small business or a club. Both of these make it relatively easy to create special interest pages where you can advertise business services and communicate with customers or club members.

Thes pages can be open to the general public or walled off completely. That latter ability makes them perfect for subscription based services and private clubs.

For business use, see my "Using Google+ Business Pages". The same general advice applies to Facebook.

I particularly like Google+ for clubs because the members don't need Google accounts. You can specify email addresses or Google accounts when you create a Circle (a Circle is just a list of people with whom you want to communicate). Those people without accounts can get your announcements by email without having to log into Google-plus.

Blogger and Wordpress

Blogger is definitely for "bloggers". That is, someone who wants to record a daily (or at least periodic) chronicle of their life and thoughts, should probably be using Blogger.

Businesses should not. Realize that I don't necessarily mean big business or small business: if you are doing anything that involves you selling to customers, Blogger is the wrong place to do it.

If you are serious about business, you should get your own hosted website right now, install (or have someone install) Wordpress or some other CMS (Content Management System - that's what helps you create the pages of your website) and start there. If you aren't sure how serious this will be and you will only be using it to advertise your business now, I'd recommend Wordpress.com. It's only slightly more confusing to get started there than it is at Blogger and you get the benefit of far more features.

There are limitations to what you can do there. This would not be the same as having a real website that you own and control. However, your work will easily transfer to a "real" website should you later decide to do that. Transferring from Blogger would be much more difficult and you'd have a whole new CMS to learn.

Let me clear this up because we did have a comment: Wordpress is a very powerful CMS. Wordpress.com is a hosting site that uses Wordpress. It has limitations that the CMS does not.

Blogger is fine for the casual blogger. It's the easiest place to record the annals of your life for posterity should that be your intent. It's really not suitable for much else.

You could also use Blogger or Wordpress.com or even your own hosted site for the type of writing I do - short articles about random subjects. I think there are better ways.

Hubpages

If you click on my smiling face up in the top right, you'll go to my "home page" here at Hubpages. You can see there that I write about many different subjects. I have no specific "theme".

You'll also find a link there to my business website, where there is a more specific focus. I mention that because I want you to understand that there is no reason you can't do all of these things, each for their own purpose.

There are many, many sites similar to HubPages. I've looked at many of them and have made posts at some. Overall, I think HubPages is the best place to start for this kind of writing.

There are people who will disagree with me. Many of them may have specific reasons that cause them to gravitate elsewhere. That's fine, and I encourage you to explore those other places. However, I think you should give Hubpages a shot too - it's very easy to set up a new account and most of us here are very friendly. We are happy to answer questions in the forums and in comments.

Hubpages is NOT for blogging, though. If your intent is a chronicle of your life, Blogger is the right choice. Hubpages is not the right choice for advertising a business, either and it is definitely not the place for a club.

If you want to review products, make social commentary, write short fiction or poetry, HubPages is the right place. As long as you are here, take a peek around. If it works for you, sign up. I get some brownie points and maybe even some cash if you use my signup link to do so, but that's not important enough to worry about. I'd like to know if you signed up, whether you used my link or not.