Sometimes, getting started with blogging can seem overwhelming and confusing. Just like any new skill, you need to allow yourself time to get acclimated to the world of blogging.
Here are the ESSENTIAL elements you need to start blogging. This list is a list of the essential elements you need to get started. Elements 1-4 are the ones that are extremely difficult to "fix" later on down the road. Elements 5-8 are nice for a good start, but not impossible to fix later on.
- Hosting
Hosting is where your blog lives. If your blog were a mobile home or trailer, then your hosting is the lot where that trailer will live.Before we moved to Florida, my family made quite a few trips to our future home in our motorhome. As my husband was scouting for RV parks, he found a GREAT difference in the amenities offered by various parks. Some were quite elegant, while others were positively grotesque in their accomodations. Unfortunately, you weren’t able to tell the bad ones from the good ones without a physical visit to the park. (Just because a park was expensive, didn’t mean it was nice!)
Unfortunately, when it comes to finding hosting for your blog, you’ll find a similar phenomenon. You need to realize that not all web hosts are equal. The old reliable host you’ve used for years to host your HTML web site may not handle the trials and tribulations of a busy (or even not so busy) blog.
I have used two hosts which have performed MAGNIFICENTLY for my blogging exploits: Host Gator and Hostican.
When you go with a self-hosted blog, you’re going to have install your software in addition to taking responsibility for updating and maintaining your server. If your response to this is "well, DUH" then go check out the two hosting references above.
If your response is along the lines of "ACK! I don’t want to do that!!" Then sign up for Acumen Web Services Easy Web Site service.
- Blog software
The Blog Software Platform you choose is probably even more important than your choice of hosts. There are many different blogging software programs out there, but in reality there are really only two choices: Typepad and Word Press. There are literally dozens of other blog software options, but these two are the most popular.Far and away, most professional bloggers use the Word Press platform. Word Press is also the most popular blogging software on the web. When choosing your platform, well.. it’s not a time for originality. This is not the time to go "against" the crowd. Word Press blogs play very nicely together, which is important when you’re building links and building an audience.
Word Press also has a VERY active development community. Every day, hundreds of people smarter than me are writing new plug ins to increase the functionality of Word Press. Plug ins are mini programs that expand Word Press’ abilities and the active community of plug in writers is probably the best reason to choose Word Press as your blogging software of choice.
- Domain name
Choosing a great domain name is another hard to change element of your blog.
A good domain name will describe your business and what it does, is easy to remember and is easy to spell. Try to avoid hyphens if possible and if you can get a dot com, then bravo for you!
- Permalink structure
Another great element of Word Press is the ability to structure the URL of the blog. For example, you’ll see that I’m using the "Date and name based" method of naming my pages. That means posts to this blog take this format: http://ezmarketingtool.com/2009/01/01/name-of-post/That is decidedly more "search engine friendly" than say http://ezmarketingtool.com/2009/01/01/p10
- Contact form
You need to have a way to people to comunicate with you…. and posting your email address for all to see and harvest is a REALLY bad idea. So you need to set up a contact form to protect your precious email address from the evil spambots.
- Pleasing Design
One of the GREAT things about Word Press is that changing the look of your blog is as easy as changing clothes. I often refer to the Word Press Themes from Template Monster as "dresses" because they are priced in the "off the rack" range. Of course, if your blog really takes off, there’s always the opportunity to go couture in the future.
- A Good Site Map Generator
Google relies upon an XML site map to see what is "inside" of your web site. There are several site map generators for Word Press which, when installed and activated, will create a new site map for your blog with each and every post.Google reads this site map as a way to navigate your blog. Web sites without site maps don’t get indexed unless they’re very, very popular.
- A Newsletter Delivery Vehicle
The final element of a successful blog launch, surprise surprise, a newsletter delivery system. See, blogs are an "active" medium. When people come and visit your blog, they are being PROACTIVE. However, once they’ve been to your blog, how do you make sure they come back? Well, you can rely upon them being part of the 2% of web users who use RSS to subscribe to a blog’s feed OR you can launch your own newsletter. That way, invitations to return to your blog can be delivered straight to their email box.
At this point, it’s just a matter of sharing your thoughts with the world.
Now, if all of the "set up issues" have your head spinning….relax. Acumen Web Services can take care of all of this for you so that all you have to do is provide the content.
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