Blogging Days of My Life

First of all, I would like to apologize to those who'd call and enquire for any latest posting in this blog, as well as those who'd been here only to find out that it has been static for the past 4 days. There's a slight difficulties getting access to the net through my usual connection. Anyway, it is fixed now and hopefully it'll stays for long.

Below is the extract from an article I'd read yesterday by Donna Gunter, an Online Business Coach and Business Manager of The Online Business Coaching Company about how you could start your own blog in 10 simple and easy to understand steps. It is informative enough if you are new to blogging and thinking of having one as your own, sooner or later.

Please review this and possibly create your own checklist based on the points given.


How to Create Your First Blog
By Donna Gunter (c) 2007


How do you begin to blog? Here are 10 simple steps you can follow:

1. Blogging platform. The easiest way to get started is to use the frëe service found at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. The ability to customize your blog is limited with the frëe services, so I urge my clients to subscribe to Typepad.com, which will host your blog for you on their servers, or purchase a hostíng account where WordPress can be installed. The downloadable version of WordPress is located at Wordpress.org and is frëe of charge if you need to install Wordpress yourself on your hostíng account. I use Typepad for my blog, so many of my examples will relate exclusively to blogs hosted on that platform.
   
   
2. Name. What do you want to call your blog? Blog names tend to be attention-getting and off-beat. However, for service businesses, I encourage my clients to use keywords important to their business when naming their blog. You will also want to acquire the .com version of your blog's name or your blog's name with the word "blog" attached as your blog URL. After you have set up your blog, your blog provider can give you more info about how to map your domain to your blog. (Note: You don't want to simply forward your blog to your domain name, as that impacts the URLs of your individual blog pages).
   
   
3. Look and Layout. How many columns do you want to display? Do you want links to static pages? What colors do you want to use? How about a signup box for a frëe giveaway? Should you use one of the templates provided or have something custom designed? Do you want your blog archives displayed? Do you want to be the only author or do you want to permit others to make posts, as well? There are many questíons you'll be asked in the startup phase about the look of your blog. A Typepad blog permits you to change your mind about your layout at a later date. The best way to determine the look of your blog is to look at the layout of other blogs and determine what appeals to you.
   
   
4. Widgets. There are a number of widgets, or add-on programs, that you can incorporate into your blog. Chëck your blog software's site for more info about what features you'd like add to your blog. At a minimum you'll want to give visitors a couple of ways in which they can receive blog updates through various updaters, or feeder services, as mentioned earlier.
   
   
5. Comments. The newest spam making its rounds online is comment spam. Don't these guys have anything better to do? Set your comments to moderated, which means that you have to approve any comments to your blog before the post goes live. You'll save yourself a great many headaches and time by choosing to moderate the comments.
   Once you've gotten this far, you should have a basic blog established and are ready to begin to blog.
   
   
6. Blog content. The time has arrived -- your blog is ready to accept posts. What do you write about? You can post content rich articles of interest to your target market, comment on a current event, answer questíons from your visitors, present a before and after case study outlining how your business helped someone, etc. Keep your eyes and ears open for information relevant to your audience. I use my blog to bring forth info that doesn't fit well into my newsletter format or something that arises between newsletter issues. I post my ezine content to my blog, as well.
   
   
7. Posting frequency. Blogs are just like gardens -- they need watering regularly and require some care and attention. For maximum effectiveness, you need to post several times a week to your blog. I try and post 4 times per week in my blog -- 2 posts are items I run across or comment upon as noteworthy in the moment, and the latter 2 are the contents of my ezine posted over 2 days. And, respond to reader's comments when they arrive -- blogs provide a great forum for ongoing discussions.
   
   
8. Blog traffíc. In the same way that you publicize your website URL on everything that you do, you can similarly publicize your blog. Submitting your blogs to blog directories is another way to get traffíc. A very comprehensive líst of blog directories, RSS Top 55 has been compiled by Robin Good. Searching out blogs that appeal to your target market and making comments to those posts will also drive traffíc to your blog. Another trick is to post your blog on social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us.
   
   
9. Measure the results. Some blog programs, like Typepad, have built-in statistics so you can view details of your blog traffíc. Some of the feed/updater programs have built-in statistics as well, or you can install a metrics program as an add-on to your blog. Review your statistics regularly to determine how much traffíc your blog generates.
   
   
10. Rinse and repeat. Don't let the novelty of blogging wear off. Blogging is effective only if you continue your blogging efforts regularly over a long period of time. I know of several individuals who have gotten book deals from their blog and radio and TV interviews as well. Just think -- your blog might be your ticket to fame!

Labels: Blog Tips, Blogging

Posted by Matlan at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

Choosing which blogging platform to use is one of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and the wrong platform can make blogging a chore. Because the program that you use to blog with is such a powerful part of your blogging experience, it is well worth putting in the time to find a platform that provides your ideal balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique. Finding the right platform isn't always easy, but with a little bit of contemplation and a little bit of research, you will be on your way to finding the perfect blogging platform.

For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular blogging web sites like Blogger (Blogspot) and Wordpress.com allow users to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all. One thing to remeber though, there is no such thing as a blogging platform that is objectively the best platform, because every blogger has unique needs. The blogging movement is very much about individuality, so it makes plenty of sense that there would be many different platforms available that are designed to meet the needs of different kinds of individuals undertaking different kinds of projects.

Choosing a free blogging site can be overwhelming because there are so many options. It is a great idea to learn about all of the kinds of free blogging tools that are available so that you can make an informed decision about what to add to your blog. Reviews is always a good place to start. When you are reading reviews of different platforms, try to keep your priorities in mind and do your best to take into account the position that the reviewer is coming from. For example, a negative review written by an accomplished software designer who complains that a popular platform is too limited may tell you that the platform in question is ideal for a beginning blogger.

With many free blogging tools on the market, loading up your blog with all of the free accessories that you can find isn't necessarily a good idea. The answer lies in the true purpose of your blog website. If your primary goal is to share your opinions and ideas with the general public, you would want to utilize a different blogging tool than a user who was creating product blogs as a commercial sales effort, while a blog for search engine promotion would have entirely different requirements.

There are several large free blog-hosting sites that dominate the blogosphere, but there are also smaller sites. Reliability is perhaps the best reason to opt for a large and well known free blogging site. Choosing to have an established brand to host your blog, you can feel secure that your blog will not crash often and will not disappear in the middle of the night. A company that has been around for a while is likely to have the resources to make sure that its clients aren't unpleasantly surprised by any technical glitches.

Wordpress.com, another free blog-hosting site is a hosted version of the open source package where you can start a blog in seconds without any technical knowledge. WordPress.com currently is under a very active development, which roll out updates almost frequently. The software on WordPress.com is almost similar to what available in other free blog-hosting sites, with dozens of servers to avoid severe traffic congestion.

Once you’re through the easy set up process, hosted blogs are usually pretty simple to run. You will obviously need to learn some basics, but these days most blog platforms come with very user friendly features. Posting is as simple as filling in a few fields with your options, choosing a template design and hitting publish. They are ideal if you know nothing or very little about the technological side of blogging. However, if you are new to blogs and to internet technology, you may have to sacrifice the intention to create a custom background design or to integrate a unique font into your template. There are limitations in terms of features and ability to design a professional running blog, making many free-hosted blogs end up looking almost similar to one another.

However, there are bloggers who choose to go with smaller, newer blog hosting sites for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the number one advantage is a fairly abstract one. Bloggers tend to relish the fact that the internet is a place where the underdog has a strong chance of success, and by choosing to have a small company as a blog host, a blogger is casting his or her vote for their favourite paltform.

Free blog site does encourages people to start blogging, because the fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of the tools that you need to get your blog up and running without spending any money means that you have nothing to lose by starting a blog.

Labels: Blog Tips, Blogging

Posted by Matlan at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments