Get Started Blogging

These questions were asked here: Blog Questions

When and why did you start your first blog?
I started my first blog about a year ago for the sole reason that it was part of an online business I'd joined - but since that time I've learnt a whole lot more about blogging and realised that I just love to do it.

Is there a particular reason you chose the blog platform (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad etc) you use? - ease of use, only one available etc.
My first blog (as above) was on blogger because that was what I got told to do it on - I then moved over to Wordpress and have not looked at any other platform since - WordPress is just so much easier (at least in my opinion) and gives you a much wider variety of themes and other things you can do with it.

Is there any one tip or trick you've learnt while blogging that has made the experience easier or more beneficial etc that you'd like to share?

I've learnt a lot of cool things while I've been blogging, but probably the very first cool, time saving tip I learnt was the auto-ping feature in WordPress - I have a list of ping sites and I just add them to my blogs each time I start a new one - saves a whole lot of time.

Do you have one piece of advice or favourite plugin etc that you now can't live without?
Two of my most recent favourite plugins would be the vipers quick video that makes it really easy to add YouTube or Google videos etc to your posts and the Amazon Plugin that allows you to quickly add amazon products to your posts - WordPress can get a bit funny when it comes to adding javascript to posts and both those make it a really simple thing to do.

Is there anything you wish your blog could do but as yet you haven't worked out how or found the right plugin to do what you want?
Nothing that comes to mind at the moment, though I'm sure at some point I'll go to do something and wish there was an easier way

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