Blogging for Fun and Profit3 comments

You’ve no doubt heard all about it. Blogging is all the rage online nowadays. You’ve probably seen websites or gotten emails claiming you can make thousands per month just by blogging. It follows, then, that you may want to know more about what blogging is, what its advantages are, and how it can help your own interests or help you to get online easily and affordably.

In its original form, a “blog” was a term derived from “Weblog”, or a type of online journal or diary. In the beginning, it was more or less just a pastime for programmers and the very tech-savvy. Individuals would maintain a personal site, and maintain a diary of their work, hobbies, or just about anything else they felt like writing about.  At the same time as the “blog” was becoming popular, over the last five years or so, CMS, or Content Management Systems also were becoming more popular. A Content Management System is defined most frequently as, a control panel type portion of a website, that allows owners to update the website using a series of web forms. As technology improved, the Content Management System came to be a viable and cost-effective way for businesses to host and maintain websites. As the demand for more affordable online alternatives has grown, many blog style websites have changed to become better adaptable to business usage.

Blogging From Your Home Computer

SO WHERE’S THE BLOGGING RICHES?

One of the key points that came to be discovered about blogs, was that by design, they would come to include many, many pages of textual content that could be read and evaluated by search engine programs. Many blogs that were fairly focused in their content, began to climb to the top of search listings. Picking up on this, online marketers began to use blogs as a way to get focused websites online, filled with content, and housing advertising for which they get paid, either by direct sales or from user clicks. Most of the online “programs” to get rich blogging, will tell you to set up a blog, focused on some sort of popular topic or special interest, start writing articles in it, and show you where to sign up for some online advertising programs, that could make you a lot of money if your amount of traffic and clicks  reaches to the thousands per month (”actual results may vary” disclaimer here!). If this is what you aspire to do, be aware that it may turn out to be a long hard road, and may only amount to a small supplemental income after considerable time investment. And, as of this writing, a lot of people have already tried this.

There are, however, some positive points to be learned from the lessons of the blog explosion. As far as the Search Optimization, it is true that websites with lots of content, and particularly textual content, will do better attracting better search listings and the resulting traffic. Take, for instance, a plumber’s website. Hopefully, they would do pretty well coming up for people searching for a plumber in their locale. If that website also has a page of tips on how to check your faucet, or decide if it really is time to call a plumber about that troublesome faucet in your spare bathroom, that website might also come up on top for a search like “faucet repair in Dolton”. Hopefully, every page of the website features the company name and phone number prominently so it is easy for people to contact them no matter which page of the site people are sent to.

Another advantage of a blog website, is that it can be easily updated, or that content can be removed when it is no longer applicable. Say your business hosts events. They can be announced in a timely manner, and immediately removed when they are past. If your business relies on sponsorships or partnerships with other businesses, you can always offer mention on your blog style website.

One of the most prominent, popular, and thoroughly developed blog website solutions is called WordPress. WordPress is basically, a turnkey blog website that you can download free of charge, follow some simple instructions, and have it up and running on most commercial web hosts very quickly. There are a number of options that allow you to make it appear as much or as little like a blog as you desire. You can create a custom home page, or “landing page”. You could, for example, create categories for different types of stock you carry, then create “postings” in those categories, that are a picture and description of each product in that category. When you sell out of that product, it is a simple matter of logging into your website control panel and deleting that post.

EVALUATE YOUR SKILLS

Many people say that using a WordPress blog is “as easy as using MySpace”. On the one hand, this is quite correct. On the other hand, there are still people who find MySpace a little confusing or difficult to use. It is important to be honest with yourself about your computer skills, and at what point you would need to seek outside help. You will also need to give some thought to how much you will want to customize your website. The available turnkey blog websites offer a pretty basic look and feel just coming out of the box. You may need to get into some involved graphic editing or actual code modification to get an exact look and feel you are seeking.

There are two pluses about blogs and WordPress. As far as posting content, uploading pictures, basic maintenance, and the like, a blog style website can be maintained by someone who is adept with computer usage and the internet. These days, many young people have grown up using computers, and the requirements of even basic administrative and clerical jobs include a fair amount of computing knowledge. There is likely someone in your office who could handle day to day maintenance of your blog style website. For those interested in finding out more, there is a wealth of online resources dedicated to the use and knowledge of WordPress websites, such as that found at http://www.WordPressHacking.com/.

If you do feel that your website will require extensive design and functionality customization, you will find that programmers and design companies are able to work with packages like WordPress to help you design a website that will be easily maintainable and best suit your needs, and it is usually quite a bit more affordable than starting from scratch and building a website from the ground up. The company Chicago Creative Design, for example, creates custom websites from WordPress starting at only $600.00.

The DIY website revolution is upon us. Many people will try to tell you how easy it is. Hopefully, the information in this article has given you a clear and true idea of what is really involved in using a blog style website for your business. A couple examples of Chicago area businesses using custom WordPress websites can be found online at http://www.WorldMusicCompany.org/ or at http://www.TheBlossomBoys.com/.

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