After having two absolutely stunning walks this week, and realising what an array of natural beauty, cool cultural events, places to go, people, history etc there is in my city, I was thinking of blogging about it.

Where's the best (free) place to have a blog? Or is it better on your own website?

That sounds like a lovely reason to get blogging

Blogger's free but in my limited experiece, rather - well - limited.

WordPress is free and on the couple of blogs I've been part of which use it I've NEVER managed to bend it to my will.

Tumblr is perhaps the most painless, and/but you're more part of a community than you are with the more standalone setups.

I think there are other platforms but I don't have much experience of them.

I actually use TypePad, which is not free - £3-5 a month depending on the exchange rate - but for me is the perfect midpoint in having a good deal of scope to customise, but being dead easy to use.

I do think, though, that if you have a website for professional and writerly reasons, it's better to blog within that. If you don't, blogging is a very good way to dip your toe in the water of having an online presence.

yes, that's what I was thinking. Apart from blogging about the place because there's so much to say, I think it would be a good way of beginning to develop an online presence. A lot of my books are set in the area, too - so it's a good way of linking everything in. I've been thinking of blogging for a while, but I think for it to have any impact, you need to have a clear vision of what you're blogging about. Thanks for the advice - I'll check out those options

I've been thinking of blogging for a while, but I think for it to have any impact, you need to have a clear vision of what you're I blogging about.

I think this is absolutely right. People need to have a sense of what they'll find when they land. And yes, if you've got a natural tie-in to your other writing, so much the better.

I must admit, too, that as well as the web presence (and in my case the direct showcase for my teaching), blogging is satisfying in how it reminds you that you do have readers, even if it's only your three regulars and the dog and someone who found you by googling "purple fluffy handcuffs"...  When so much to do with writing takes so bloody long to get anywhere - novels take years, answers to pitches take months... It's very nice to have something where I can write, post, and see from the stats that people are reading it straight away. Even now, I get quite a little performer's buzz on a posting day on the blog...

 

yes, I can see that. I'm quite excited about it!
Watch this space....

 

One other thought - you can set up google analytics for your site, and if you're at all trying to build a presence and get a sense of what works and what doesn't, it's very useful.

But for keeping a day-to-day eye on things, it's worth making sure that whatever platform you're on has some kind of stats setup that you can watch, and which will show who's linking to you. You get a much clearer sense of what posts really hit the spot, and who else is part of the network of links and referrers... It's real time, too, whereas Google Analytics is a day behind - plus it's huge, and lots of the clever things it does don't seem to be relevant to the kind of blogging most writers are up to.