Step 2: Sign up at Blogger

First, go to Blogger's web site.

The Blogger web page will show you that you can "Create a Blog in 3 Steps". The first blogger step is to create a google account, which you did when you signed up for gmail in Step 1.

The second blogger step is to name your new blog. You should give some thought to this name as this name will become your url. For example, if your new blog is called, "myfavoritecat", then your blog will be accessed at myfavoritecat.blogspot.com. Blogger will then check to see if your blog name is unique. If it's not, you'll have to choose another name until you find one that someone else isn't using. Blogger will let you have several blogs under one account, so you can always change your blog's by simply opening a new account. Or, you can run more than one blog at the same time. TowpathGuy now has 3 blogs at blogger:

• TowpathGuy's Towpath Guide -- this site is the original and raison d'etre for this project.
• SimpleBicycleRepair -- this website is being developed because TowpathGuy realized that there were some simple bicycle repair issues that did not quite fit with the theme of TowpathGuy's Towpath Guide.
• This one.

The third blogger step is pick a "theme" and set up some defaults. A "theme" is the general appearance, colors, etc. of your blog. The blogger site will offer you a selection of about a dozen themes. Pick one that you like. Skip the "Advanced Options" for now. You can set those up later. If you don't like any of the offered options, you can probably find some other templates, but TowpathGuy didn't need to do this so you'll have to look elsewhere for information on how to do this.

Once you've chosen a theme you can start to blog. Or, you can fine tune your theme by selecting "Layout" from the tabbed menu that you'll be presented with. Each of the themes that you were offered earlier has 2-4 variations in colors, etc. that let you customize your appearance if you want.

You'll also want to check the Setting tab and adjust your preferences. For example, TowpathGuy turns off "Comments" so that the blog becomes passive, like an 0ld-fashioned website.