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Why create a blog and join the blogging community?
Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news. There are literally millions of blogs online .
You become a better person and a better writer.It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others.
Low start up costs :It costs practically nothing to start a blog, all you need is a computer with high-speed internet connection and the world is yours !
No experience needed , you can find your own way, all you need is perseverance after starting, those who fail in blogging are the ones who give up, keep going.
Even if you make nothing from blogging you can get a lot of continuous education in a variety of areas, since you will be reading a lot and researching a lot.You will be going into unknown territories and finding that you like it , ie my experience.
You are your own boss, if you are full time into this, you are not answerable to anyone, (unless you work for a reputed company as a blogger) you can work from your home, in your spare time.
You get to improve your communication skills, you come to learn a lot about how to improve your writing skills, the proper use of punctuation, the proper style of writing, the subtle style of leading bloggers and big blogging houses etc.
Networking and building friendships, you get meet and communicate with other experienced bloggers who have started on this journey long back, you may get to meet great and experienced bloggers in blogger summits, workshops, and other how to occasions.
You learn how to be better at marketing your goods or other products that you intend to market, using the power of the social media to leverage your sale of products.
Create a name for yourself and build an audience, after you are recognized as a blogger with eminence you get to host your own talk shows , conduct how to meetings, be called upon to share your experiences and be the leader to guide and support.
Rank for your own name, in the social circles and media, which help in future prospects , if you are looking for a job, and it will act as an extra qualification.
Boost your career opportunities, being well known, or having a well-written post read by thousands will not harm your career opportunities.
Improve your finances, which is the icing on the cake, good bloggers earn a lot of money, even throwing away their regular jobs.
What blogging topic are you most passionate about? Check out other similar websites to see what people are choosing for domain names. Also consider the topics your generally talk to people about you can zero on to those for writing your blog.
If you’re making a blog for your business, your domain name should be your business name (www.YourBusinessName.com).If you’re creating a blog for yourself, then your domain name should be your own name.
Choose your preferred blog platform.
Choose web hosting for your blog.
Setting up a blog on your own domain.
Design your blog.
Read about useful resources for blogging.
There are many blogging platforms where you can start your blog, each has its own advantages and disadvantages.Some of them are:
Blog.Com
Blogger.Com
Medium.Com
Squarespace.Com
Wix.Com
Weebly.Com
Ghost.Org
Penzu.Com
Svbtle.Com
Webs.Com
Tumblr.Com
WordPress.Com
Blogger is owned by Google and represents a free blog-hosting website. You can login with a Gmail account and have your site up within an hour. There is also an Ad sense monetization option, layout customization, and the option to edit the coding.
Google essentially owns your blog, so it has the vast resources of Google to help you out. With all things considered, Blogger is an excellent way to try out your hand at blogging.Plenty of popular blogs are built using Blogger. A very popular blog called PostSecret blog? was built using Blogger!
Recommend for beginner level bloggers
Founded in August 1999
Purchased by Google in February 2003
Founded by Evan Williams of Pyra Labs.
Word Press is another great platform used by the majority of the worlds bloggers. The platform has free and paid versions and it needs to be hosted by a separate hosting companies. It’s Super Beginner-Friendly – Word Press has features called plug-in that are designed for non-technical people, and they are free to use on your blog. With plug-in, you can add contact forms, comment boxes, image galleries, videos and almost anything you can imagine.
Large Community of Help & Support –Its quick and easy to find the help you need. Word Press also offers a large library of free resources on their site and video tutorials on YouTube. Mobile Responsive – Word Press will automatically make your website ‘responsive’, which means it’ll work on all cell phones and tablets people use to visit your website. Big Brands using Word Press – Sony, MTV, CNN, EBay, Best Buy and even ESPN all prefer Word Press.
Tumblr.com was purchased by yahoo. The entire website was built on the concept of micro blogging and allows for easy uploading of short stories, videos, and photos. You won’t need to worry about publishing permissions or managing complex coding here. But there is no plug-in compatibility here and limited visual customization options. It’s all very basic, but the user-friendly interface means that you can get content up and out there much faster than other sites, especially if you’re not versed in the more complex aspects of blogging.
Founded in February 2007 by David Karp.
Has a user base of 152 million.
Easy to use and share other people’s work through re-blogging.
Missing out on customization options.
Free to use with the option of removing the “.tumbler” from the URL.
Great for art and photography, simple and easy to navigate design.
"The future of publishing is about having connections to readers and the knowledge of what those readers want." Seth Godin.
- Use lists.
- Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
- Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
- Break news.
- Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
- Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
- Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
- Announce news.
- Write short, pithy posts.
- Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list .
- Don't write about your cat your boyfriend or your kids.
- Write long, definitive posts.
- Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
- Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
- Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
- Tag your posts.
- Coin a term or two.
- Do email interviews with the well-known.
- Answer your email .
- Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
- Be anonyous.
- Encourage your readers to your posts. Do it with every post.
- Post your photos on flickr.
- Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
- Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
- Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
- Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
- Highlight your best posts on your lens.
- Point to useful but little-known resources.
- Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
- Write about Google.
- Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
- Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
- Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
- Run no ads.
- Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
- Write about blogging.
- Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
- Invent a whole new kind of interaction.
- Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
- Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
- Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
- Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
- Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
- Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
- Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
- Be patient.
- Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
- Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
- Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
- Write in English.
- Better, write in Chinese.
- Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
- Don't be boring.
- Write stuff that people want to read and share.
More in my next Post. Also read my post
Best of Luck !
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