So You Want to Start a Blog

So You Want to Start a Blog

Basic Blogging Tips for the Newbie

 

Blogging sounds so simple. You write, you post, you're a blogger - right?

 

The actual process is a bit more involved and can be the main reason many fledgling bloggers decide to quit altogther. Before you throw in the towel, let me give you the quick-and-dirty guide to getting started in blogging so that you won't be overwhelmed or lost before you've even started. The very first thing you need to decide is what you want to DO with your blog. There are all kinds of blogs:

 

  • blogs for artists and musicians
  • blogs for political information
  • blogs for selling
  • blogs for sharing photos
  • and the list goes on...

 

Deciding what you want to do with your blog will narrow your field of choices for where you want to have your blog hosted. A host is simply the company who will provide you with a place to call home for your blog - your URL. If you would like to have advertising that pays you money (Google Adwords) on your blog, you will need to have your own hosting company rather than a free blog site like Blogger or Wordpress because most free hosting companies will not allow you to have ads that pay you money when clicked.

 

The next decision is what to use as a URL for your blog. If you want your blog to be fairly private and are not really concerned about catching any search engine traffic, then it doesn't matter what you call it. If you would like to try to have your blog listed in search results for your topic or offerings, then your URL will matter quite a lot. Try to choose a URL that contains at least one of the keywords for your business or blog. You can title your blog anything you like, but your URL needs to be carefully considered as it will help increase the traffic to your site.

 

Finally, you will need to choose a design or theme for your blog. Most of the free sites offer templates that you can use and will have a good to great support forum where you can ask questions about anything you don't understand. Remember to keep not only the kind of business or blog you want, but also your reader in mind when choosing a theme. Some themes are tailored for photo blogs, while others offer more of a magazine feeling. Whatever theme you choose, be sure to spend time developing and posting content to your blog to help boost your search engine rank and to make it interesting for your readers.



Copyright © 2012 Patricia Ross. All rights reserved.

Basic Blogging Tips for the Newbie

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