Roll Your Own Blogging
Allen Bohart, Compulatelist
A second approach to setting up a blog is to “roll your own.” Basically, this means that you start with a barebones web server installation and you set up some sort of blogging software to begin building a blog. Blog software can be obtained by purchase, by free download, or by programming it yourself. The first and third options should not be explored by the average blogger unless he/ she has some way to recoup the investment they put into obtaining the software.
It should be noted that the “roll your own” approach to blogging should not be attempted by those who do not possess at least some technical skills. All blogging software requires that you set up some sort of database as a backend to the software. Additionally, you need to know your way around a Unix filestructure and ftp software to use these software packages efficiently and effectively.
I chose the middle ground on this by using a web hosting service with a MySQL database already installed. This simplified things a bit in that I did not have to install and configure a web server and database software. As an IT Manager and long time IT professional, I know my way around this stuff pretty well, but it still took me several hours to get it set up and working properly.
Once the software is setup properly, however, blogging is a breeze. All blogging software packages come with a control panel that lets you type in clear text and create links and image uploads with little or no html knowledge. I use a software called WordPress www.wordpress.com to update and maintain my blog. It is probably the most popular software for blogging on the Internet. Figure 2 shows the screen for writing a new post to the blog.
Adding text to your blog is easy as creating an e-mail.
As can be seen above, it is very easy to just jump in and start publishing to your blog. There are even buttons to allow formatting of text and create links to other pages without knowing any html. With a simple click on the “Publish” button, the post is written to the home page and is viewable by the entire world.
There are other steps to be taken if you would like to have a completely personalized and customized blog. The first step is to register your own domain name and have your ISP point to the correct DNS servers. If you don’t know what this means, don’t worry because your ISP will know and will be able to handle it for you.
The second step is to customize the web pages and configuration files to fit your needs. This allows for things like pictures in the header and varying the size of each section on the front page. With my setup, the amount of customization is unlimited, because I have access to the source code of the software. Again, your ability to customize will be limited by the amount of technical skills you possess. In particular, for customizing blogging software, one should know html, CSS, and PHP.
In summary, there are a lot of options and approaches to setting up a blog of your own. The options available cater to nearly every level of technical expertise, so if you wish to set up a blog, this should not be a limiting factor.
Anyone who wishes to set up a blog and would like some assistance or advice should feel free to contact me at allen.bohart@gmail.com. 
