Part 2 of 5: Creating a Post & Choosing a Commenting System

Hi jammers! Panda here again, continuing on with the blogging series: How to Build An Epic Animal Jam Blog From Scratch. 

Today (in Part 2 of 5) we will be discussing how to create your first post and how to decide on a topic and how to choose a commenting system. 

Here's a brief overview of the series: (click on Part 1 to view the existing post in this series)

Part 1: Choosing a Platform & Creating a Blog

Part 2: Creating a Post & Choosing a Commenting System

Part 3: Choosing a Theme & Customizing It

Part 4: The Foundation of a Successful Blog & How to Get Viewers + Followers

Part 5: Final Tips to Building + Maintaining a Successful Animal Jam Blog

Let's get started!

In the Blogger interface, find the orange New Post button at the top of the side navigation, and click on it.

You can now create your very first post! Type in whatever you would like your first post to be: it could be a welcome post welcoming visitors to your blog, or it could get straight to the point and begin discussing your blog topic.

Speaking of blog topics, you'll need to decide on a topic for your new Animal Jam blog. There are countless topics that you could choose, but here are a few popular ideas:

• Animal Jam updates blog (posting about new items and updates to come to Jamaa)
• Animal Jam movement blog (posting rants or posts corresponding to a movement)
• Animal Jam stories blog (posting either your own or community stories)
• Animal Jam commissions/graphics blog (opening commissions or displaying graphics)
• Animal Jam blogging tips blog (posting blogging tips and tricks)
• Animal Jam glitches blog (posting new Animal Jam glitches)

Of course, there are many others, and you may want to think about this for awhile. After all, it will be the topic of your blog for a long time. 

Now that you have created your first post and have decided on a blog topic, you can now choose a blog commenting system. You can either use the default Blogger commenting system or Disqus.

Having trouble deciding? Here are some pros and cons of both.

Pros of Blogger commenting system:

• Blends nicely with your blog
• Can be easily customized (admin comment color, font, font size etc.) 
• People can log in using their Google accounts
• You can customize what kinds of people can comment (anonymous, registered users etc.)
• Prevents most spam

Cons of Blogger commenting system:

• Can be very glitchy
• Can be hard to have a live "conversation"
• Cannot easily insert clickable links (it is possible, but can be tricky)
• Cannot insert images

Pros of Disqus

• Can easily have a live "conversation"
• Link/accent color can be customized to blend with your blog
• People can use their Disqus account across all blogs using Disqus (can be more convenient) 
• Prevents spam
• Can easily insert links or images

Cons of Disqus:

• The "Disqus" logo is displayed at the bottom of the comment area
• There are many Disqus features which can draw visitors away from your own blog and onto others

Many people prefer Disqus over the Blogger commenting system, but I personally prefer the Blogger default system. It's up to you though.

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Stay tuned to this series to 1) learn how to choose a theme; 2) customize your blog. To be notified immediately when the Part 3 of this series is published, follow AJGC using the Followers widget in the right sidebar.

I hope this was helpful for all of you who are starting a blog! I look forward to seeing your new, beautified blogs at the end of this series!

-Panda