subject: How to Start a Blog for Online Business Success [print this page] How to Start a Blog for Online Business Success
A blog is the hub of your online business that will build your brand and give your visitors a sense of who you are. Starting a blog is easier than you may think. There are ways you can start a blog without knowing technical HTML coding. The following are different ways you may consider on how to start ablog:
Free Blogging Services to Start a Blog
When you are starting out, you may want to consider starting a blog for free. You can get your blog up and running within minutes. WordPress.com and Blogger.com are the most popular and easy to use. After you sign up, you are just clicks away from starting to write your first post! So I recommend the following sites for starting a free blog:
Blogger.com
WordPress.com
TypePad.com
There are advantages and disadvantages to setting up a free blog for your online business. The advantage is you can start a blog in minutes, choose from pre-made templates and technical HTML knowledge is not required.
Some disadvantages are that you do not own your domain site for your blog. For example, Blogger.com is Google's free blog. Your domain name would look like this: yourfreeblog.blogspot.com And Blogger.com or any of the other free blog companies have the right to make changes that could affect your blog or worse, they have the right to remove your blog.
If plan on being a serious online business professional or entrepreneur, I highly recommend that you have a self-hosted' blog.
How to Start a Blog with Blog Hosting Services
Take your business to the next level with a self-hosted blog. I believe WordPress.org is the premiere site for starting your self-hosted blog. WordPress.org offers many benefits to create a professional, optimized blog with hundreds of free theme templates and plug-ins to choose from,
Start a blog by determining your domain name. Considering your keywords, branding and other online research is important when selecting your domain name for your blog.
Next, you need to select your hosting company. Although you will pay either a monthly or yearly fee to host your blog, the following hosting companies have reasonable fees and are the most popular when you are ready to start your self-hosted blog:
GoDaddy.com
HostGator.com
DreamHost.com
After determining your hosting company, you are ready to download your software from WordPress.org or any other blog software you prefer. Maintaining and customizing your blog for your branding will be key. This has to be said out loud because many people won't stick to it'. A self-hosted blog is yours and yours alone, it is your identity and needs to be taken seriously.
Start a Blog to Make Money Online
The internet provides a great resource to make money line. Start a blog to make money online for extra income, part time income or full time career.
One way to do this is through Affiliate marketing which is selling other peoples products. From clothing, jewelry to electronics and other consumer products you will earn commission for each product sold on your site that goes through a link on your blog to the affiliate site.
Although a free blog from WordPress.com can be chosen, I recommend you promote affiliate products through a self-hosted blog. Choose the domain name that best reflects the affiliate product or products you will be representing. Here are some affiliate sites to consider:
Amazon Affiliate Program
Commission Junction
Linkshare
Shareasale
Viglink
When you start a blog to promote and sell affiliate products, keep your information interesting, informative and respectful. You might want to create a review page' for each product and write a review, as long as you really did purchase and try the product. This gives the visitors a better feeling about you and your credibility.
Should you have your own products, starting a blog to promote you and your products is yet another way to make money online.
Understanding your market niche, utilizing your keywords and other search engine optimization will be key in any successful affiliate product campaigns. And because a blog is so much easier to make changes, if a product is not selling or converting very well, testing new keywords or new posts may change your conversion rate. If for some reason the changes do not give you better results, then it is easy to remove that product and add another. The possibilities are endless.
How are you going to be using your blog for your online business success? Please share your comments.
