There are two main reasons why I've chosen Blogger above a possibly richer and more flexible package such as WordPress:
1) it doesn't require any packages to be installed on your server
2) it isn't reliant on any one technology e.g. php, it can be run on pretty much any site

The very first step is to either set up a Blogger account, or use an existing Google account and create a blog that uses a standard Blogger template. If you are new to this, this video tutorial will really help.

Once you've named your blog you can give it a .blogspot.com address. You can use whatever address you like, as when you move it over to your company domain it will assume that URL.

Then you'll be asked to choose a template. Your choice here isn't that important, but go for the simplest to avoid any troubles- Minima is good. Once you've chosen the template "your blog has been created!" and you'll get a prompt to Start Blogging.

This next stage is important, as you need to have posted to your blog in order to see what it looks like when you start creating your customized page. Write and post a blog. Don't use Lorem Ipsum, or content lifted from somewhere else, write your first post and publish it.

Once you've published your post you can now start the process of making the blog look and feel like a page from your website. To begin this process you'll need to go to the "Layout" tab, and then to "Edit HTML":




At the bottom of that page there is an option to Revert to Classic Template, click it:



Once you've done that, copy all the code in the Edit HTML box and paste it into a notepad (there's about 500 or so lines):



Save this for later. It is really important that you keep it, and that this "original blogger code" is not changed or tampered with- it can be a lifeline to have a copy of the original. Later on when you start to actually edit the code to give the blog the right look and design you may need to revert to this- if things don't go as planned, and that may well happen.

Next you should select the page on your site that the Blogger blog will work best with. Blogger needs enough space in width to accommodate the posts themselves, and the narrow right hand side linking elements...



...so choose a page that fits the bill.

If I was doing this for Vertical Leap I would probably use the homepage, as there is a large space on the left, and a sidebar at the right which would accommodate the Blogger sidebar nicely. It would be possible to keep the search functionality and other attractive/useful elements too:



If you can't find a page that is a great fit, don't worry, find one that is good enough, you can always tweak it later. Once you have identified the right page for the job grab a copy of it's source, and save that somewhere safe too. Log out of Blogger.

In my next post I'll discuss combining the code from your chosen page with the original Blogger code.