If you are interested in starting your own site then here are a few guidelines to follow when starting up.
First pick a topic. If you already have a topic then decide what direction you want to take it in. For example, if I were to blog about my dogs I could either do short stories, picture posts or video posts. Would I want to allow others to share there pictures, stories, videos etc or not. Would I want to have advertisements on my site or not, would i want it public or private. There are quite a few things to consider and this is a very basic subject, if you are blogging about more complex topics then you will have different aspects to consider. I would suggest searching for other blogs on similar topics to get an idea of what you can include and what people find more interesting.
Secondly pick a host. I have reviewed several of the more popular blog host if you are unsure. If you do go with blogger.com or a similar site just remember that you will have the .blogspot.com at the end of your url along with the other sites at blogspot.com and you will not have control so if you ever wish to own a domain and redirect to the new site for instance you will be unable to. You may also host your own site with a free software like wordpress.org this gives you much more freedom with your site, but is a little bit more complicated to setup than other sites that just take a 2 minute sign up.
Thirdly pick a domain. You may find this difficult since there are so many sites out there that your first few picks will most likely be taken. So brainstorm up some ideas because having a memorable catchy url is sometimes the key to a successful blog. Once you have decide how to host your site, then go ahead with setup.
Fourthly start blogging. Now you can start ranting about your topic. It is good to develop your site before you attempt to advertise or promote your site. If you start by filling out your site so that it doesn’t look empty people will be more prompted to browse then click the back button.
Now that you have your site up you may want to consider weather you want to really promote it or if it is more for your personal circle of friends. If you really want to promote it then you will want to make sure that you have a good design, which may require you to hire a designer or install a impressive theme. Then when you decide to promote it consider the advertising options. You may want your site to be at the top of the search engine result and in that case you will want to do some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your site or find a marketer to do the SEO for you. There are other ways to get your site found though so keep your mind and options open.
Good luck!