subject: How Do I Start A Blog? From The Very Beginning [print this page] If you have just started an online business, or if you've been on the Internet for some time and already have an established business, you will know that you need a blog so that you can stay in touch with your customers. How do I start a blog is a question that you probably need to have answered.
In order to start a blog you need to have some content to blog about. If you run an online business, you're probably best to concentrate on writing posts in you relevant niche.
Here's Some Ideas for Posts.
To get ideas on what you want to write about, just look to your customers as they are sure to have a lot of relevant questions.
Some ideas that are always popular are lists of tips, for example "69 tips on [your niche]". How to posts are also good to include. If you can create a video explaining how to do something, then these are also very popular and will liven up your posts.
Start out with a post on your subject for beginners. Then by going deeper and deeper into detail, you can create more posts from the original post, for the more intermediate people in your niche. This is a great method to get several articles from only one post.
Write about the pro's and cons of the next hot topic, or do a product review on a product.
Because you want to build a good relationship with your readers, the main idea in doing this is to give helpful and relevant information to them.
Software Required
To work out what software you need, you can go to several different websites. WordPress and blogger, are the two main blogging sites. Blogger is a free version of software for blogging owned by Google and doesn't need a hosting account as it's hosted by google. Any software devloper can contribute to the wordpress development as it's open source code, and also for the average user, creating a blog is free.
How Do I Start a Blog with Blogger?
If you go to blogger.com and create a free account there and then you can start a blog using blogger. When you receive your login details just follow the on-screen instructions to get started.
Because blogger is owned by Google it's very versatile and that means that any posts you make will be ranked very quickly by Google. Even though it is a free account you still have a lot of flexibility in the design and look and feel of your blog.
Googles hosts blogs on blogspot that are created using blogger. Say your blog was "thisismyblog", blogspot would show the url as thisismyblog.blogspot.com.
How Do I Start a Blog with WordPress?
When you start a blog using WordPress there are two options available. Firstly, you can use WordPress.com to host your blog, or you can host the blog on your own domain.
Hosting Your Blog on WordPress.com
When you host your blog on WordPress.com it's almost the same as using blogger. Just go ahead and create your account and then you're ready to start creating your blog. You really need to have your blog on your own domain name if you are starting an online business, which is a good spot to explain the second use of WordPress.
WordPress Using Your Own Domain
If you host a WordPress blog on your own domain, first of all you need to create the blog, or ask your Webmaster to create it for you. To create the look and feel of your site you need to create themes. If you want to stand out from the crowd then you can get your own theme created by a designer, of which there are hundreds on the Internet.
WordPress also uses what are known as plug-ins. Plug-ins are little scripts that WordPress uses to do anything you can think of in a blog. Plug-ins are available for a wide variety of tasks, from adding advertisements to your site, to search engine optimisation, and even adding a quote of the day.
Content Is King
Content however is always the most important part of a blog. How do I start a blog? You know the answer now so get it up and running by going to Wordpress or Google. It's very easy even for a complete beginner, and is an excellent way to interact with your customers and prospects.
