How to
Create Your First Blog
By Donna Gunter (c) 2007

I’ve been blogging now for about 2 years, and I’m amazed at the amount of traffic that I get from my blog and the number of people who tell me that they first heard about me from my blog instead of my website. The word blog is derived from the term “web log”, or an online diary or journal. If the HBO series “Sex and the City” were being filmed today, Carrie Bradshaw would be a blogger as well as a columnist, I think. Why? As she experiences her revelations about life, love, and relationships, she could post them to her blog for the world to see and comment upon.

2 years? Wow. Impressive.

Blogging has opened website creation to almost everyone, as it takes very little know-how to get a blog up and running. In fact, many service business owners are using a blog platform as their primary website, with some of them creating static pages as you would find on a traditional website, while others are using the platform as a blog and are posting updates regularly.

Yes, you don’t have to know any HTML as you do in developing and designing a website, but you should get familiar with the blog software itself and know how to configure it just right to gain all the benefits. SEO doesn’t just happen. Even with blogs.

There are several advantages to using blogs instead of ezines or traditional websites:

1. Search engines love blogs. The strategy that seems to be attractive to search engines today is regularly updated content. I can log-in to my blog at the beginning of a day and submit a post. Within 24 hours I’ll get a notification from my Google alerts account that Google has indexed that post.

2. Content can be distributed quickly. If you instruct your visitors to subscribe to your blog via updating services like Bloglines or Feedblitz, they’ll be notified within hours of any new posts on your blog.

3. Little web programming knowledge is required. Once your blog is set up, it’s simply a matter of logging into your account, typing the info for your post, adding graphics or photos as needed, and publishing your post to your blog.

4. Reader feedback. Your readers can give you comments and feedback about your posts almost immediately after you log an entry. Blogs are a great way to engage your audience.

Are ezines and traditional websites dead? No, because people consume information differently. Some are auditory learners and prefer to hear the info (great audience for podcasting, an audio form of blogging), some prefer to receive updates as they are published (blog readers), while others like a stable, stationary medium to which they can refer when they’re ready (readers who archive ezines or bookmark web pages).

Blogs are better than ezines for several reasons:

1. They require less time commitment
2. Blogs offer increased link popularity; while ezines do too on a limited scale, blogs offer link popularity on steroids
3. Since every blog post is counted as a web page by the search engines, you get fresh daily content added to your website, which increases your search engine saturation
4. A blog is your store window; if you had an offline store, customers do not see every item you have to sell from the sidewalk and that’s why merchants put items in the window (they want to draw the customers in); a blog is a window for your website
5. Keyword-focused SEO on every blog post is like getting keyword-rich content on a new web page every time
6. Blogs can be submitted to blog directories in addition to search engines and with each blog ping you increase your chances of expanding your customer base and readership
   A blog also serves as an additional doorway into your website

Ezines may not be dead, but they should be.

How do you begin to blog? Here are 10 simple steps you can follow:

1. Blogging platform. The easiest way to get started is to use the free service found at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. The ability to customize your blog is limited with the free services, so I urge my clients to subscribe to Typepad.com, which will host your blog for you on their servers, or purchase a hosting account where WordPress can be installed. The downloadable version of WordPress is located at Wordpress.org and is free of charge if you need to install Wordpress yourself on your hosting account. I use Typepad for my blog, so many of my examples will relate exclusively to blogs hosted on that platform.

Nope. I wouldn’t recommend the free blogging services any more than I’d recommend a free web host for your website. With Blogger and Typepad you don’t have control. Anyone can report your blog as spam and you will be suspended while they investigate. Even if it turns out that you are not guilty of charges, you’ve lost time and probably customers because of someone else’s malicious gossip. If you put your blog on its own domain name (which costs $10 per year) and install WordPress, or another proprietary blogging software, you’ll have a better business plan and a better blog. I prefer WordPress.

2. Name. What do you want to call your blog? Blog names tend to be attention-getting and off-beat. However, for service businesses, I encourage my clients to use keywords important to their business when naming their blog. You will also want to acquire the .com version of your blog’s name or your blog’s name with the word “blog” attached as your blog URL. After you have set up your blog, your blog provider can give you more info about how to map your domain to your blog. (Note: You don’t want to simply forward your blog to your domain name, as that impacts the URLs of your individual blog pages).

Keywords are better than off-the-wall names, for blogs and websites. Don’t use your company name unless it’s a recognized brand in its industry. Stick with a popular keyword or keyword phrase and add blog at the end of it or just name your blog domain name after a popular keyword phrase and leave it at that.

3. Look and Layout. How many columns do you want to display? Do you want links to static pages? What colors do you want to use? How about a signup box for a free giveaway? Should you use one of the templates provided or have something custom designed? Do you want your blog archives displayed? Do you want to be the only author or do you want to permit others to make posts, as well? There are many questions you’ll be asked in the startup phase about the look of your blog. A Typepad blog permits you to change your mind about your layout at a later date. The best way to determine the look of your blog is to look at the layout of other blogs and determine what appeals to you.

Look means a lot. I prefer single column layouts as opposed to newspaper style columns. They’re easier to read. Also, if you have an ezine that you promote, put an opt-in form in the top right or top left corner of your blog. Don’t make it inconspicuous but don’t make it the primary focus either. You want your readers to come to your blog to get insight from your daily posts.

WordPress allows you to choose a template. There are thousands of templates to choose from but you want to make sure that the one you use is SE friendly. Not all of them are.

4. Widgets. There are a number of widgets, or add-on programs, that you can incorporate into your blog. Check your blog software’s site for more info about what features you’d like add to your blog. At a minimum you’ll want to give visitors a couple of ways in which they can receive blog updates through various updaters, or feeder services, as mentioned earlier.

Widgets are simply add ons. In WordPress, there are widgets for RSS feeds. Use them. You will get more visitors and it allows your readers to subscribe to your blog. They can read it without having to visit the blog every day as your posts will appear in the e-mail, their web browser or proprietary news feed reader. You can’t beat it.

5. Comments. The newest sp*am making its rounds online is comment sp*am. Don’t these guys have anything better to do? Set your comments to moderated, which means that you have to approve any comments to your blog before the post goes live. You’ll save yourself a great many headaches and time by choosing to moderate the comments.

Once you’ve gotten this far, you should have a basic blog established and are ready to begin to blog.

You don’t want your readers being slapped in the face with porn and pharmaceutical spam. This will not look favorably upon you. If your blog software doesn’t allow you to moderate the comments drop it immediately and run to your nearest WordPress dealer. Do not pass Go and do not collect $200.

6. Blog content. The time has arrived — your blog is ready to accept posts. What do you write about? You can post content rich articles of interest to your target market, comment on a current event, answer questions from your visitors, present a before and after case study outlining how your business helped someone, etc. Keep your eyes and ears open for information relevant to your audience. I use my blog to bring forth info that doesn’t fit well into my newsletter format or something that arises between newsletter issues. I post my ezine content to my blog, as well.

I would stick to original posts. Search engines do not like blogs that post only reprint articles or mostly content from other websites. You want a 60%/40% ratio of original content versus borrowed content.

Also, be careful about giving attribution to websites and blogs from which you borrow content. You can get into trouble real fast. If you snag an article from an article directory, be sure to include the author’s resource box and link. If you cut and paste from a website or blog, link back to it and add your own comments to make the post original. One website owner sent me a letter one day threatening legal action if i didn’t remove a paragraph I borrowed even though I linked back to her website and added a couple paragraphs of my own - perfectly legal. If that happens, just remove the borrowed content - and the link! - and carry on without them. I no longer borrow content from that author. She’s on my black list. Too bad for her. I win.

7. Posting frequency. Blogs are just like gardens — they need watering regularly and require some care and attention. For maximum effectiveness, you need to post several times a week to your blog. I try and post 4 times per week in my blog — 2 posts are items I run across or comment upon as noteworthy in the moment, and the latter 2 are the contents of my ezine posted over 2 days. And, respond to reader’s comments when they arrive — blogs provide a great forum for ongoing discussions.

Yes, and you don’t want to litter it with garden gnomes, useless links that point to anywhere and everywhere. If you have a blogroll make sure you only put related websites that don’t compete with you. Reciprocal links are better for blogrolls. That way, you get the benefit of traffic from the blogs that you promote.

Yes, post often. Every day if possible. Two or three times a day is good too. The more you can post the better for you.

8. Blog traffic. In the same way that you publicize your website URL on everything that you do, you can similarly publicize your blog. Submitting your blogs to blog directories is another way to get traffic. A very comprehensive list of blog directories, RSS Top 55 has been compiled by Robin Good. Searching out blogs that appeal to your target market and making comments to those posts will also drive traffic to your blog. Another trick is to post your blog on social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us.

Social bookmarking is one of the biggest benefits to blogging. Put the RSS icons on your website so your readers can subscribe. That benefits you and them. But also put tags on your blog so your readers can tag your blog in their favorite social bookmarking website. If you are tagged in 5 or 6 social bookmarking sites daily then you’ll increase your chances of getting more traffic. And, of course, back links.

9. Measure the results. Some blog programs, like Typepad, have built-in statistics so you can view details of your blog traffic. Some of the feed/updater programs have built-in statistics as well, or you can install a metrics program as an add-on to your blog. Review your statistics regularly to determine how much traffic your blog generates.

10. Rinse and repeat. Don’t let the novelty of blogging wear off. Blogging is effective only if you continue your blogging efforts regularly over a long period of time. I know of several individuals who have gotten book deals from their blog and radio and TV interviews as well. Just think — your blog might be your ticket to fame!

One more thing. Visit other blogs and trackback. A trackback allows you to post a comment on a blog from your own blog. You write a blog post about something you read on another blog and trackback to it. That makes your blog post appear on the other blog as a comment, but only the first couple of sentences. If readers want to read your entire post they’ll have to visit your blog to do so. Trackbacking is a huge benefit. You’ll also want to include a trackback URL on your blog so other bloggers can trackback on your posts.

Blogging is getting better and better all the time. The benefits are tremendous. We’ve only begun to realize the awesome power of blogs as a business tool.

About The Author
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 9:24 pm and is filed under MAIN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.