How to Create Your First Blog

I’ve been running a blog for approximately two years, and I’m surprised at the number of visitors I get from my weblog and the variety of folks who inform me that they first heard about me from my weblog instead of my website. The phrase blog is derived from the term “internet log” or a web diary or magazine. If the HBO series “Sex and the City” were being filmed today, I suppose Carrie Bradshaw might be a blogger and a columnist. Why? As she tells her revelations about lifestyles, love, and relationships, she should post them to her blog for the arena to see and remark upon.

Blogging has opened internet sites to almost everybody because it takes little or no understanding- a way to get a blog up and go for walks. Many provider business owners use a blog platform as their number one website, with many developing static pages, as you’ll discover on a traditional internet site. In contrast, others use the platform as a weblog and post updates regularly.

There are numerous advantages to the use of blogs instead of ezines or conventional websites:

1. Search engines love blogs. The approach that seems attractive to serps nowadays is frequently updated content. I can log in to my weblog and post a post at the start of the day. Within 24 hours, I’ll be notified from my Google Indicators account that Google has listed that post.

2. Content can be dispensed speedily. If you coach your visitors to enroll in your weblog through updating services like Bloglines or Feedblitz, they will be notified within hours of any new posts on your weblog.

3. Little web programming knowledge is needed. Once your blog is set up, remember to log into your account, type the info you submit, including pics or photographs as wanted, and publish your put-upon blog.

4. Reader feedback. Your readers can give you comments and comments about your posts nearly once you log an entry. Blogs are an outstanding way to interact with your target audience.

Are ezines and conventional websites lifeless? No, because humans devour records differently. Some are auditory novices and prefer to pay attention to the info (superb audience for podcasting, an audio form of blogging). Some prefer to receive updates as they’re posted (weblog readers), while others like a strong, desk-bound medium to which they can refer. At the same time, they may be equipped (readers who archive ezines or bookmark net pages).

How do you begin to weblog? Here are ten simple steps you could comply with:

1. Blogging platform. The easiest way to get began to use the unfastened provider discovered at Blogger.Com or WordPress.com. The loose services constrain the potential to personalize your weblog, so I urge my customers to join Typepad.Com to host your weblog on their servers or buy a website hosting account in which WordPress can be mounted. The downloadable model of WordPress is located at WordPress.Org and is free of the price if you need to put WordPress yourself into your website hosting account. I use Typepad for my blog so that many examples will relate solely to blogs hosted on that platform.

What do you want to name your weblog? 2. Name. Blog names tend to be attention-getting and rancid-beat. However, I encourage my customers to use key phrases critical to their commercial enterprise while naming their blogs for carrier companies. You may also need to collect the.Com model of your weblog’s call or your name with the word “weblog” connected as your URL. After installing your weblog, your weblog provider can provide you with more information about how to map your area for your weblog. (Note: You do not want to forward your blog to your domain name, as that affects your character blog pages).

3. Look and Layout. How many columns do you want to display? Do you want links to static pages? What colorings do you want to apply? How approximately is a signup field for a loose giveaway? Should you operate one of the templates provided or have something customized? Do you need your weblog documents displayed? Do you need to be the handiest writer, or do you need to permit others to make posts nicely? You may be asked many questions inside the startup segment about the look of your blog. A Typepad blog lets you trade your mind about your layout at a later date. The best way to determine your blog’s appearance is to look at the form of different blogs and choose what appeals to you.

4. Widgets. There are some of the widgets or add-on programs that you can contain in your blog. Check your weblog software program’s web page for more info about what capabilities you’d like to add to your weblog. At a minimum, as stated earlier, you’ll need to give traffic more than one method in which they could receive weblog updates via diverse updaters or feeder offerings.

5. Comments. The most modern sp*am making its rounds online is comment sp*am. Don’t those men have something better to do? Set your remarks to moderated; you need to approve any statements in your weblog before the submission will stay. You’ll shop yourself top-notch complications and time by selecting to negotiate the feedback.

6. Blog content. The time has arrived — your weblog is prepared to accept posts. What do you write approximately? You can submit content material and wealthy hobby articles to your target marketplace, comment on a modern occasion, answer site visitors’ questions, gift a before and after case look at outlining how your business helped someone, and so forth. Keep your eyes and ears open for records applicable to your target audience. I use my weblog to bring forth info that does not shape nicely into my publication format or something that arises among e-newsletter issues. I post my ezine content to my blog, as well.

7. Posting frequency. Blogs are similar to gardens — they need watering frequently and require a little care and attention. You want to post several weekly instances for your blog for maximum effectiveness. I try to post four models in step within a week in my blog — 2 posts are items I run across or comment upon as noteworthy inside the moment, and the latter two are the contents of my ezine published over two days. And reply to readers’ feedback when they arrive — blogs provide a remarkable forum for ongoing discussions.