Business Blog Advice

by Brandon Cornett 

“I want to start blogging but I’m not sure where to begin. What advice can you offer on how to start a blog?”

This is a common question that people ask, and one that I receive about once a week via email. I think that most people have underlying questions as well. So the complete inquiry might go like this: How do I start blogging without wasting a lot of time on setup?

So in this brief tutorial, I’m going to teach business owners how to start a blog without wasting a lot of time on the research and setup process. In fact, this guide to starting a blog will show you how to get up and running in just a couple of days.

Technical notes: This lesson will focus on the self-hosting model of blogging. In other words, it will show you how to set up a web hosting account for your blog (as opposed to hosting the blog with WordPress or Blogger).

• Step 1: Get a Domain Name - This will be your web address. If you already have a website, you can just add your blog onto that if you want. This is certainly the easiest way to start blogging because your hosting account would already exist. In this case, you would install your blog as a sub-folder or sub-directory of your website (such as www.yourwebsite.com/yourblog). If you don’t have a website domain already, you can register one for about $10 per year through a company like GoDaddy (www.GoDaddy.com ).
• Step 2: Get Web Hosting - Here again, if you already have a website and will be adding your blog as an extension of that site, you can skip this step. Web hosting simply refers to the servers (big computers) that will host all of your blog files. Web hosting is very affordable. You can expect to pay between $7 and $10 per month for web hosting. For example: GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans
• Step 3: Choose Blog Program - Some blogging geeks will argue all day about which blog program is superior, and why. In my opinion, blog programs all do the same thing … they publish your content onto the web, quickly and easily, and in an organized manner. I recommend using either Blogger or WordPress. If your blog is going to be fairly simple, you might choose Blogger. If you think you might be “tweaking” the blog code to achieve certain effects (not necessary, by the way), you might prefer WordPress.
• Step 4: Install Blog Program - Now you have a domain name, a web hosting plan, and a blog program all picked out. The next step in your path to start blogging is the installation process. Here you will install the blog onto your hosting account. If you chose Blogger, this process will be simply. You just log into your Blogger account and tell it where to publish the blog (onto your domain). If you chose WordPress, you will actually install the program directly onto your web domain / hosting account. It’s a simple process, but you might want to get help from somebody who has done it.
• Step 5: Do Some Testing - Now you are ready to start blogging away. But before you do, it’s a good idea to make a few test posts. A “post” is new information published to the blog, like an article. You can make some test posts to learn how the blogging program works. Experiment with hyperlinks, formatting the text, adding images, etc. You can always delete your practice posts when you’re one.
• Start Blogging - Congratulations. You’ve tackled the technical side of things and you are now ready to start blogging by writing and publishing information online. Once you have a blog up and running, and you’re comfortable with how to use it, you can move on to “loftier” topics such as increasing your traffic and growing your web presence.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide on how to start blogging and I hope it helps you get started with your own blog. If you have questions or need help, check out our blog support services.

by Anna Berk

Blogs have become quite popular within recent 2-3 years. As of September 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs. More and more people nowadays start the blog on a stand alone domain name. Blogs help people to express themselves, it is a perfect tool to start personal on-line diary or professional blog related to any subject.

Apparently blogs are one of the easiest ways to create a website. With WordPress preinstalled, it literally takes a few moments to have a professional looking site up and running and available for millions of visitors from all round the world.

Creating a blog on WordPress does not demand any technical experience or knowledge from you. A great number of design templates will help you to customize your blog and make it to look attractive and professional.

WordPress allows you to post blog content online, thus there is no need use FTP connection from your web hosting provider.

As well it allows you to update your blog content from any place of the world by just loginging to blog admin area which will look like http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/. All you need is to remember your admin login and password. WordPresss automatically updates the order of the posts, archiving older posts by post date and moves the most recent posts to the top of your blog index page.

When you set up stand alone blog on paid web hosting it has more chances to be well indexed and crawled by search engines, since stand alone blog has individual URL and can obtain Google page rank. It is necessary to choose the right keywords in the post title and body.

When stand alone blog is indexed and crawled the chances of blog monetization are preety good. Having a high page rank you may sell text links, banners that will allow you to make profit and pay for the web hosting services.

WordPress also allows your blog visitors to leave comments and in this way interact with the author of the blog, that is one of the most important parts of the blogging process.

Despite of the fact that there are some excellent services that offer free blog hosting services, more and more bloggers prefer to use paid blog hosting. And certainly there are several reasons for this.

When you sign up for a paid web hosting services to create your stand alone blog on a separate domain name you get reliability and some guarantees, such as uptime guarantee. You get in most cases perfect professional and responsive technical support that will help you to answer questions and resolve technical issues when you need this help. This is of great importance if you are newbie and this is your first time setting up blog on WordPress.

Generally for Blog hosting Linux web hosting services are more preferrable. Since Linux web hosting is cheaper and more reliable. However this is you who decide!

About the Author

Do you really need perfect reliable web hosting services for your blog on a stand alone domain name? Then Eskhosting.com is right for you. Eskhosting offers ideal custom web hosting plans, blog hosting on WordPress, 24/7 technical support via live chat, e-mail and toll free number, 100% uptime, instant activation of your web hosting account.

Related articles:

• Using Free Blog Templates
• How Does Blog Hosting Work?
• Why I Love WordPress for Blogging

Your guide to the world of free blog templates as a design strategy for your blog. An overview of blog themes and templates, how they work, where to find them and more.

Free blog templates can save you a lot of time and energy when designing your blog. In this tutorial we will take a closer look at blog template designs and how you might use them. But first, let’s start with a basic definition:

Web Templates Defined

The template concept actually started long before blogs came onto the scene. I’ve been involved with website development for nearly a decade now, and as long as I can remember there have been website templates available to simplify the design process.

Basically, a website template is a pre-built website that you can make your own. You can do this by customizing the template, adding your own logo, your own content, your own images, etc.

The primary advantage of using a website template is that they save the designer a tremendous amount of time. Instead of coding a website from the “ground up,” the designer starts with a pre-built “shell” and customizes it to his or her liking (or to the client’s liking).

Blog Templates Explained

In much the same way, a blog template is basically a design “shell” that you can apply to your blog (and the customize the design template as you see fit). But there’s one key difference between templates for websites and those for blogs — the blog templates are unique to a certain type of blogging program.

Each type of blogging program (such as Blogger and WordPress) functions in a unique way, as far as the structure and function of the blog. So a WordPress template will not work with Blogger, nor will a Blogger template work with WordPress.

If you’re running a WordPress blog, you will need to use WordPress templates exclusively (with WordPress, these templates are known as WordPress “themes”). If you’re using Blogger, you will need to stick with templates designed specifically for Blogger. If you’re using TypePad … well, you get the idea.

Where to Find Free Blog Templates

I’ll only cover the two most popular blogging programs here (WordPress and Blogger), because otherwise this article could go on endlessly. Let’s start with WordPress templates (which are also referred to as “WordPress themes”).

You can download free WordPress templates from many places. The most popular place is the official WordPress themes page, located at the following address:

http://themes.wordpress.net

There are hundreds of free templates for WordPress within the site listed above. You can use the “Test Run” link to see how each blog template / theme would actually look and function. You can also download each template for free.

Here’s the thing about the WordPress themes found on this site. Most of them have a line in the footer area that credits the theme / template designer. It’s usually a link to the creator’s website as well. That’s understandable, and you should leave this credit in place. But some of the people who create blog templates will insert several additional links as well, usually to the websites of their clients or other sites they own.

For example, the bottom of your WordPress theme might say something like this:

“This theme created by Blog Design Guy, and is sponsored by cheap Viagra and premium wood blinds.”

In the example above, the Design Guy link would likely be the actual template designer. The other two links would be to his client website, or other websites he owns. So essentially, this person is offering “free” WordPress themes that are really designed to increase the link popularity (and search engine ranking) of multiple websites.

Personally, I find this lame. I fully understand (and respect) the need to cite the designer and link to his or her site. After all, they created the WordPress template for people to use free of charge. But I think spamming up the templates with multiple links is silly. I recommend you avoid using WordPress templates / themes that employ this tactic. Stick with the ones that only link to the designer’s site.

Other places to find WordPress blog templates / themes:

• www.wpthemespot.com
• www.topwpthemes.com
• www.justskins.com
• www.templatemonster.com

Moving on to Blogger Templates

Blogger (www.Blogger.com) is another popular blogging program, and here too you have many options for choosing free blog templates for your own use.

When you set up your Blogger account, you will have to choose a blog template to use initially. Keep in mind that this template can be easily changed later on, so don’t think you’re “married” to it by any means.

Here’s the weird thing about Blogger (at least the last time I used it): When you first sign up for a blog account with them, you will only see a handful of blog templates … but after creating your free blog account you will have access to additional templates for Blogger.

As with WordPress templates, there are also plenty of other places to find free blog templates to use with Blogger. In many cases, the templates you find at third-party websites (outside of Blogger’s domain) are of better quality than the free blog templates offered by Blogger.

With that said, here’s where you can find plenty of template options you can freely download for your Blogger blog:

• www.blogger-templates.blogspot.com
• www.blogspottemplates.blogspot.com
• www.mashable.com/2007/09/13/blogger-templates/

Conclusion + Questions

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial on free blog templates as a design approach for your blog. If you any questions about using a blog design template or anything else related to this article, leave me a comment below and I’ll respond here for the benefit of all readers.

Good luck with your blog design and template customization! 

Different blog programs have different features, but they all do essentially the same thing. They convert your text into an HTML web page (known as a blog post) at the click of a button. You simply type your blog post, add links or images as desired, and click a “Publish” button. The blog application will then publish your post onto the web, making it a part of your blog.

Most business blogs are published in reverse-chronological format, with the most recent post at the top of the first page. 

Different Ways to Publish a Business Blog 
When I say “ways to publish a business blog,” I’m talking about where your blog will be hosted and located on the web. Basically, you have three publishing / hosting options:

1. Have the blog hosted by a blog company.
2. Make the blog an extension of your website.
3. Give the blog a domain of its own.

Option 1 - Host your blog with a blog company.
In this option, your blog will reside under the blog company’s web domain. For instance, Blogger’s web domain is blogspot.com, so if Jane Doe setup a blog under this domain it would look something like this: http://www.janedoe.blogspot.com/. Jane will never truly own this domain, because it is part of Blogspot.com. This is one of the down sides of this hosting option.

Option 2 - Make the blog an extension of your website.
In this option, your blog will reside on your own web domain, but as a sub-domain. In other words, the blog will be an extension of your website. One of my marketing blogs, for instance, is an extension of the website ArmingYourFarming.com. I publish my blog to a sub-domain of my website: www.armingyourfarming.com/realestatemarketing.

Option 3 - Give the blog a domain of its own.
In this option, your blog will reside in the top-level (or “root”) directory of your website domain. So the blog becomes the website itself. When somebody types in the root web address ending with “.com” … they land on the blog itself. This blog that you are reading, http://www.ceoblogwatch.com/, is an example of giving a blog its own domain. This is a blog, but it resides on its own domain. It is not an extension of a website like my real estate marketing blog under option #2.

Which Option is Best?
All of my blogs are published through options #2 and #3 above. I avoid option #1 entirely. There are several reasons for this. First, I like having the website and blog under the same domain. It’s just easier to manage that way.

But there’s a more important reason why I avoid option #1. I once had a blog disappear from blogspot.com (remotely hosted by Blogger). I mean it just up and disappeared. I emailed Blogger’s “support” team, but they basically ignored me. Did I violate some term of use? Not that I’m aware of. It was just a harmless informational blog. I wasn’t selling anything … I wasn’t even running ads. Just a basic blog. And then poof, it was gone.

Because the blog was hosted by Blogger, I had no way to retrieve anything. And because Blogger is a free service with “as-is” disclosures, nobody seemed to care that my blog had vanished.

After that incident, I vowed never again to host a blog under somebody else’s domain. I still use Blogger as a blog publishing tool, but I publish the blog itself onto my own domain, where my website is hosted. Bottom line — I recommend you put your business blog onto a web domain that you own, regardless of which application you use.

In my last post, I shared a blog post from the CEO Blogger’s Club. In it, Linda Zimmer explained the technical how-to of tagging, as well as the benefits.

So what is tagging, anyway? I’ve offered a simple definition below, as well as links to related resources (including another great blog article by Linda Zimmer):

Tags: According to Wikipedia, a tag is “a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (like picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information it is applied to.”

Tagging: So tagging is simply the act of assigning these keywords to certain pieces of information, such as your blog posts.

More information than you ever wanted to know about tagging:

• Tagging: What is it Good For?
• Tagging Gives Web a Human Meaning
• The Future of Blogs: Tagging
• Tagging Questions Answered
• Secrets of Tagging and Social Bookmarking in 2007
• Categories and Tagging in WordPress
• Why Do People Tag?
• Cognitive Analysis of Tagging (highly technical)

My take on tagging - Aside from creating blog posts like this one, I don’t give tagging much thought. As is always the case with technology in general (and blogging in particular), there’s a smarter way to do things.

I run this blog on WordPress, and I categorize my blog posts using WordPress’s built-in category features. This serves the same purpose as tagging, but it also benefits readers once they reach my blog, allowing them to quickly and easily search information by topic.

Hope you found this helpful.

~Brandon

If you operate a blog as part of your Internet marketing program, but you don’t currently use WordPress, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I use both WordPress and Blogger for the various blogs I publish, but I like WordPress more each time I use it.

What do I like about WordPress?

1. Quick Setup - Once you know your way around the admin area of WordPress, you can setup and customize a new blog in just a few hours. In fact, just last week I launched an information blog about real estate, and it took me all of 4 hours to get it set up how I wanted (from a functional standpoint, at least).

2. Collaboration Tools - Most blog applications have some way to assign multiple authors with varying levels of permission. But I don’t think any of them do it as well as WordPress. You can create a sign-up page to allow authors to create their own user name. The system generates their password, and stands by for your approval. What could be easier?

3. Search Engine Visible - I won’t go into the technical details of WordPress configuration (although I’d be happy to chat with you about over the phone). But suffice it to say that WordPress blogs are built in a way that makes them much easier to drive up the search engine rankings. Of course, you have to supply the quality content. But the blog sure pulls its weight!

~Brandon