Blogging Information: Six Steps To Get Your Blog Up And Running
Posted Under: Blogging Information
Blogging is one of the best social media tools we have available to us online and these six steps to get your blog up and running are easy to implement even for first time bloggers.
Blogs have been and will remain a major part of many business marketing plans for a variety or reasons, however the main reason for their popularity is the economic factor.
Businesses with small marketing budgets can gain a web presence and position themselves in any niche market as an authority in their chosen area of expertise by effectively using blogs.
Although a business blog can be up and running in under ten minutes using a hosted blog like WordPress.com or Blogger.com, we do not recommend using these sites for business purposes.
If there are any missteps or infractions of the terms of the site, intended or otherwise, your blog could be taken down without any prior notification from the entity hosting your blog.
For business purposes, we recommend downloading WordPress software from the WordPress.org site and purchasing your own web host.
This insures that your site cannot be inadvertently taken down from the web without your intention.
Here are the six steps to get your blog up and running in a jiffy.
- First you need to purchase a domain name.
Your domain is the address on the world wide web where your actual website resides. It is literally your online store front address.
Before you purchase your domain, you need to put some thought into what your domain should be named.
What is the name you intend to use for your business? Use it as your domain name if it is available.
If not, consider using dashes in between some of the words for readability and availability.
If you happen to luck out and get a domain that is the same name of your business, buy it immediately. Good domain names don’t last long.
To check if your domain name is available, you can do a Google search, use the domain checker at the top of this site or check it when you purchase your hosting.
The main reason you want your domain name to match your blog and or business name is for Search Engine Optimization purposes.
Your site will be indexed faster and attain a higher ranking in the search engine results pages when your domain matches your business or blog’s name.
- Your next step is to purchase your hosting.
Your hosting is where the data for your blog is actually stored. All the information that resides on your blog is located with the host. It is actually stored in a computer server similar to your mini tower desktop computer except in a more secure location.
You must purchase hosting when you run a “self hosted” WordPress blog or website.
1and1 Internet, HostGator, and a plethora of other hosting providers can be found online by doing a Google search for “web hosting providers”.
Look for one that is reasonably priced and provides good service.
- Step number three is to Install WordPress on your domain.
WordPress in our opinion is the best blogging software available on the Internet and almost 40,000,000 users online agree with us.
You will find that most hosting providers offer some type of fast, “one click” installation procedure for WordPress software.
There are tutorials available that will walk you through the installation process at WordPress.org if you run into trouble.
Once your WordPress software is installed on the host’s server, you can log into your WordPress ADMIN panel at “http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/” and begin tweaking your blog settings.
- Step number four requires some initial settings that need to be tweaked on your site before you start blogging.
After your first log in you will need to change the following settings:
Permalinks:
Go to settings > Permalinks
Click on “Post Names” and change your permalinks to that setting. (It should look like http://yourdomain.com/sample-post/)
Privacy Settings:
Go to Settings > Discussion > Discussion Settings and make sure you check “Before a comment appears” and “Administrator must always approve the comment”.
You should always moderate comments to your blog before you allow them to appear publicly.
Reading Settings:
Go to Reading > Reading Settings and set up a “home page” if you want one.
If you do not set up a home page, your latest blog post will be shown on the front page of your blog when it is published.
You can also decide here if you want the full text or just a summary of your latest post shown.
Writing Settings:
Go to Writing > Writing Settings and scroll to the bottom to “Update Services”.
In this box include at least the following list of “ping” services and click “Save Changes”.
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
These “ping” services will get your blog posts indexed by the search engines almost as quickly as you publish them on your blog.
All these setting changes are the minimum required for good SEO and readability. You can play with these and other settings after your blog is up and running.
- Your next step is to pick yourself an appropriate theme for your blog.
Unless you do your own coding, you will need a theme other than the generic one offered by WordPress to use as a template for your business blog.
There are literally thousands of WordPress themes on the Internet and again a simple Google search will provide you with more than enough basic or premium themes for you to choose from.
Some of the more dazzling premium themes and frameworks will require an investment on your part but in the end they are well worth the cost.
A Google search can also hook you up with a professional site builder if you decide to go that route.
- After you decide on a theme for your blog, you need to install some basic WordPress plugins to make your blogging experience faster and easier.
Since there are almost 15,000 plugins now available to enhance the WordPress user experience, we will only mention the “must have” plugins that I highly recommend.
To virtually eliminate spam from your blog, we highly recommend installing the Askimet plugin. It is free, easily installed and will stop spam.
Backups of your business blog are always necessary in case your site gets hacked. I know because it happened to me. A Google search can hook you up with a number of backup plugins for WordPress that work in the background.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is essential to every blog and website. The all time number one SEO plugin for WordPress is the All In One SEO Pack.
Others are available and in some cases easier to implement but the All In One SEO Pack is the one I have found performs the best.
If you plan to gather customer contacts on your blog, your best bet is to use the “Gravity Forms” WordPress plugin. Others are available and work just as good.
If your business is an e-commerce site, the “JigoShop” plugin could suit your needs.
Again there are tons of other free or premium plugins for the WordPress platform readily available online by doing a Google search or by searching on http://wordpress.org/search/plugins.
Once you choose which plugins you want to include in your WordPress blog, start writing content!
As they say in the Internet marketing business, Content is king! The more frequently you write interesting posts to your blog, the more visitor traffic you will attract.
Making frequent SEO friendly posts on you blog will improve your blog’s ranking with the search engines and increase the amount of targeted web traffic you need for your business.
Since blogging is still one of the best social media tools available online for small businesses to improve their web presence, we hope these six steps to get your blog up and running will make setting up your business blog a walk in the park.
These tutorials can also help.
