How to Create a Blog Site for Your Business

What is a blog site and how do I build one? This is a common question I get from readers, so I thought I would create a short tutorial on the subject. Here’s how to create a blog site and (more importantly) use to grow your business.

The Blog Site Defined

A blog is a content-management tools that helps you publish content online. Most of the time, blogs are displayed in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent post at the top — just like on this blog.

Some people have websites with the blog as an extension of that website. Some websites even have multiple blogs running on them. But when the entire website is built around a blogging platform, it’s usually referred to as a blog site.

The website you’re on right now (www.ceoblogwatch.com) fits this definition. It’s a blog site, because when you visit the root page, you are seeing a blog. The entire website is powered by a blogging program (WordPress in this case).

How to Create One

Here’s the good news. If you enlist the support of a veteran blogger or blog developer, you can have a business blog site up and running in a day or two.

Let’s say I want to create a blog site for my business, and I want to publish it under the domain BrandonBizBlog.com. How would I create such a website? What components do I need to gather? Here are the basic steps that are involved in the setup process.

Step 1 - Register a Domain Name

The first thing I need to do is register my domain name. So I visit the website of a domain registrar (such as GoDaddy, Network Solutions, or Register.com), and I check to see if my desired domain name is available. Yes, a quick search on the registrar’s website tells me that the domain name I want is currently available. So I snatch it up. I register the domain I want, and it only costs me about $10 per year. Pretty easy and inexpensive so far!

Step 2 - Set Up a Hosting Account

Having a domain name by itself is not enough to publish a site online. I’ll also need to sign up with a hosting service. These are the companies that actually host all of the files needed for a website. Most domain registrars (defined above) also provide hosting services, and you can expect to pay about $9 - $15 per month. If you pay more than that for basic hosting, you’re being robbed. Now I have the first two items needed to create my blog site — I have a web domain, and I have hosting.

Step 3 - Choose a Blogging Program

The next thing I need to do is decide which blogging program I want to use to create my business blog site. There are several programs to choose from, and I’m not going to describe them all here. My advice is to choose one of the three most popular programs — Blogger, WordPress, or TypePad. This blog site is powered by WordPress, if you were curious. So for the purposes of this scenario, let’s say that I play around with the different programs and ultimately choose WordPress for my blog site.

Step 4 - Install the Program on the Domain

Since I’ve chosen to use WordPress, I will need to download the entire WordPress program and then upload it to my hosting account. And what do you … I have a complete tutorial on this subject! Here’s how to add WordPress to your site.

Step 5 - Customize the Blog Site

Once I’ve got the blogging program installed, I would probably want to customize the design of my blog site a little. After all, I don’t want it to look exactly like somebody else’s blog site. So even if I use a free design template to make the process easier, I’ll want to customize it enough to make it unique. For this blog site, I customized the menu area, added my own graphics, and adjusted the fonts and colors to my liking. It took about two or three days to get everything how I wanted it. So when you add up all of the steps thus far, I’ve spent less than four days total … and only about $50 for a year’s worth of hosting and domain registry. Not bad!

Step 6 - Start Adding Content

A blog site is only as good as the content that goes into it. This is what separates popular blogs from the ones that languish in obscurity. That’s why I spend so much time developing these blogging tutorials — I realize that I have to go the extra mile to create truly useful content. Otherwise, what’s the point? Here are some more tips for creating blog content. I recommend you start by creating a content plan for yourself. This will help you stay on track with your publishing efforts. And if you need ideas for writing your content, check out these blogging content ideas.

Conclusion and Going Forward

So there you have it, a step-by-step blueprint on how to create a blog site for your business. Once you start blogging on a regular basis, you’ll learn something new every day. And that’s exactly what you want to happen. The best way to learn business blogging is through actual experience. That’s how I learned! Good luck with your blog site and with your publishing efforts.