What You Need To Know To Create A Blog

You know that your blog can act as a powerful, easy to use marketing tool.  However, getting started with blogging can seem overwhelming and confusing.  Here’s the basics of what you need to know to create a blog.

Just like any new skill, there’s a lot to learn.  Just as you don’t expect to learn to play the piano without practice, it’s not realistic to expect yourself to create a blog without some direction.

While it may take time for you to create a blog, there are essential blogging elements that you need to begin.  While some can be “switched” later, a few are essential to get right at the start.

Below are the blogging ESSENTIALS you need to create a blog.  Blogging essentials 1-4 are the ones that are extremely difficult to “fix” later on down the road.   Careful attention to these blogging essentials now, as you’re creating your blog, will save you heartache down the road.  Blogging essentials 5-8 are nice for a good start, but unlike the first four blogging essentials, are not impossible to fix later on.

1. Blog Domain name
   Choosing a great blog domain name is another hard to change element of your blog.
   
   A good blog domain name will describe your business and what it does, is easy to remember and is easy to spell.

   A blog domain name is one element that is literally “set in stone” when it comes to your blog.   Choose wisely, for your choice of domain name as you create your blog will chart it’s future course.

2. Blog Hosting

   Hosting is where your blog lives. If your blog were a 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 awful. 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.

   Self hosted blogs are DEFINITELY the way to go if you’re serious about creating a blog. I have extensive experience with two hosts which have performed MAGNIFICENTLY for my blogging exploits: Host Gator and Hostican.
   

3. Blog software
   
   The Blog Software Platform you choose is as important as your choice of hosts. When choosing a software package for your self-hosted blog, there are basically two choices: Typepad and Wordpress.

   There are literally dozens of other blog software options, but these two are the most popular.

   Typepad is nice because it appears you get all the benefits of a self hosted blog without worrying about hosting.  It’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s a natural choice for the “tech” challenged.
   On the other hand, there is Wordpress.  Wordpress is the most popular blogging software on the web. MANY high profile, A-List professional bloggers are blogging using the Wordpress platform on their own hosting account.  TOP blogs such as Problogger and Techcrunch are Wordpress self hosted blogs.

   Choosing your blogging platform, well.. it’s not a time for originality. This is not the time to go “against” the crowd. Wordpress blogs play very nicely together, which is important when you’re building links and building an audience.  Suffice it to say, there’s a reason the #1 and #2 blogs on Technorati are both Wordpress blogs.

   Wordpress 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 Wordpress.  Wordpress plug ins are mini programs that expand the abilities of Wordpress blogs.  The active community of Wordpress plug in writers is probably the best reason to choose Wordpress as your blogging software of choice.

4. Permalink structure

   Another great element of Wordpress is the ability to structure the way posts and pages are named.

   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/

   When name-of-post is a keyword you want to target… well, that’s another reason why Wordpress blogs are so popular with those in the know!

   If you choose Wordpress, be sure to set your permalinks to take advantage of this feature.

5. 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.   The same technology that allows Google to index the web also allows spammers to collect email addresses.  The programs are called “scrapers” and they will “harvest” your email address if you leave it visible on the page.

   So set up a contact form to protect your precious email address from the evil spambots.

6. Pleasing Design

   One of the GREAT things about Wordpress is that changing the look of your blog is as easy as changing clothes. I often refer to the Wordpress Themes (also available at 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.

7. 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 Wordpress which, when installed and activated, will create a new site map for your blog with each and every post.

   The difference between a site with an automatic site map generator and one without is like the difference between racing a car with tires and one without.

   It’s that important!

8. An Email Newsletter Delivery Vehicle

   The final element of a successful blog launch, surprise surprise, an email 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 hope they’re part of the 2% of web users who use RSS to subscribe to a blog’s feed OR you can launch your own email newsletter.

   With an email newsletter, you can issue invitations to return to your blog that can be delivered straight to your visitor’s email box.

There you have it.  What you need to know to create a blog!  Now, if all of this has your head spinning…. relax. EZ Marketing Tools provides an all inclusive service where we take care of all of this for you.