In part 1, we covered the first question and a key design concept. In part 2, we gave emphatic reasons why you should be blogging. Part 3 enters in the nitty gritty of setup. Naming, hosting, and other considerations.
Personal Anecdote
Two days ago I received an email. Someone had found a tutorial video and blog on Excel and VLookup. It was an entry I posted 2 years ago. They were having a problem with the formula. I found the problem almost immediately, sent their file back, and have engaged in a little conversation.
I don’t know if it will lead to business.. but I do know that blogs provide an opportunity to engage visitors with great information and leave a search engine legacy that can produce visitors to your website for years.
So let’s talk about naming and hosting your blog.
What’s in a name?
Not a lot really?
The topic gets blown out because people want to be relevant. Here is the thing… if your blog covers a specific topic – and that is what it will always cover – then give it a specific name. In the name of an author or personality, you could do a lot worse than, “Joe’s blog about stuff.”
If the blog is tied to your business, “ABC Company’s Blog: discussions on the xyz industry and related topics.” Again.. fine.
The truth is, you may change your blog’s name over time. A more important consideration is where and how you host it. Although, as we will see, even that is not the MOST critical.
Where and how to host your blog:
There are two basic concepts here:
Blog hosting service:
You may have visited a blog and it’s URL (web address) is: abccompany.blogspot.com or mikesmith.wordpress.com
These are examples of blog hosting services. Blogger, WordPress.com, posterous.com, and others. They host all the software and files (although there may be limitations here). Many are free. They do a great job and have some nice managed tools: email sign up forms, pre-built basic themes (layouts), statistics, and others.
Self-hosted blog
The other option is when you run the blog on your own domain. ie: www.mywebsite.com. In this case, you install (or have installed) the blog software at your webhost. You are in charge of maintaining the blog software and you can control and customize to a much greater degree.
There is a third option.. you can use a blog hosting service like blogger, and point your domain (www.mywebsite.com) to their service.
Which is correct?
Well.. I like to have all the control – being a control-freak and all. But the fact is, there are some popular blogs that are hosted at blogger and wordpress. We’ll get to that.
The fact is, because we are talking about blogging as a tool for business engagement and growth, I am going to strongly recommend you register a domain and host your blog at your hosting company.
I use WordPress as my blogging platform. Not wordpress.com – the blog hosting company but wordpress.org where you can download the wordpress software and install it on your server.
Don’t worry
If you are thinking that sounds complicated, DON’T. The fact is, I don’t really download and install wordpress. Most companies that offer WordPress hosting, have some type of auto-installer. I use Bluehost.com but you can check with your hosting company.
FYI: If you look at Bluehost and consider using it, use my affiliate link. It is about $88/year (as of this writing) and costs the same whether you use my affiliate link or not.. For that $88 dollars, Bluehost gives you TONS of space and great 24/7 support. Also, you can host hundreds of sites for the same $88. In fact, you can register a domain when you start your account and the domain registration fees for the first year are waived.
Here is my link:
http://www.bluehost.com/track/
Note about affiliate link: If it bothers you to let me have the affiliate fee, you might have issues but that’s okay. Don’t use the link to sign up or find another hosting company.. I offer free advice, I use bluehost personally, so the affiliate link is fair. Believe me, I’m not getting rich off the $60 dollar, one-time fee.
In the end, your blog’s effectiveness in helping your engage readers is about good content – not the name, not where it is hosted. You’ll find that I am adamant and stubborn on this point.
In the next article (next week), I’ll cover writing a blog entry, search engine stuff, and ancillary tools I use on my blogs.
In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, please leave them here or email me at:
info@KreativeKnowledge.com
