What is blogging truly all all about? Firstly off, let me tell you that it's a moneymaking enterprise to blog and that blogs are easy to set up and manage. Picture getting paid to communicate about topics that interest you, anytime you wish, wherever you are!
The flexibility involved enables you to maintain your blog at your own pace, and with WIFI hotspots available all over the globe, even your vacation won't get in the way of your blogging... Or should I say: even your blogging won't get in the way of your vacation?
In this article, let's take a look at the profitableness of a blog and set up one of our own, free of charge! Interested? Read on!
First, you need to get yourself a blog. There are many options - host a blog on your own domain or get a free one. For starters, let’s talk about the free blogs. You can obtain one at blogger.com or the newer (and better!) wordpress.com. WordPress is a free blog engine that is robust and endlessly expandable.
Blogger is actually owned by Google, so it will be detected by Google’s radar faster and you will be indexed more quickly. WordPress.com, however, is a relatively new alternative so I have no comparison on the speed of getting indexed by search engines. However, WordPress is better in the sense that it has more advanced features such as Trackbacks and Categories. You can also manage your sidebar links more effectively (more about this later).
Get a free blog at either Blogger or WordPress. Then, familiarize yourself by publishing your first post on your blog and tinkering around with the settings and templates.
Here are some words to start expanding your blogging vocabulary:
Permalink - Permalink stands for permanent link, which is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that leads to an individual post that you make in your blog.
Trackback - When you post about someone else’s blog post elsewhere, your post will show up in their ”section. This function, however, is not available with a Blogger account.
Pinging - Blogging seems to be paired with pinging almost every time either one is mentioned nowadays. Pinging is actually the action where a particular aggregator is notified anytime your blog is modified, so that the aggregator may show the most recent post of your blog on their website. This is a useful way to get traffic, which I'll discuss in a later article.
Content
Next, let's start looking at the kind of content that is suitable for your blog in order to make it successful. You need to understand that there is no set scope that your blog should have, which means you can write about whatever you’re interested in. Mind you, the difference between a lucrative blog and a non-lucrative one is the way you write. What would you prefer: reading your university professor’s lecture notes or the latest novel by your favorite author? People prefer to read "light" items most of the time. When they check out your blog, they are not only hunting for information, but they are also looking for material that they can gain access to very easily.
So, to draw in a lot more website visitors as well as to keep your existing readers coming back for more, it's very critical to add a personal touch to your blog posts. This can be carried out by simply imagining that you’re talking with your personal friend. An extra bonus for your readers would be a great sense of humor, so try to add funny comments in your content where applicable.
One more essential point is to stay away from addressing your reader as a plural unit. Do not write as if you’re preparing a speech. Rather, write as if you’re having a conversation with a single person, an equal friend, as this will make your reader relate to you a lot more quickly.
Besides that, it's also incredibly useful to establish your own personality via your words. We're very curious creatures, so of course your readers would want to know as much about you as the material you’re providing them.
Possessing a distinctive personality in your blog will make a world of difference between your blog about gadgets and all the other blogs about gadgets out there. This is a lot like building your own brand name, where people instantly consider your blog’s name when they need information about gadgets, just like how people immediately think of McDonald’s for fastfood or Nike for sportswear.
As soon as word gets around about your command of blogging, others who have to know about blogging will begin to actively seek you out!
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