Starting A Blog
When starting a blog for the first time you will want to do a bit of research to make sure to avoid some common mistakes - mistakes I made when I was new that I cannot correct now. I came up with these 10 steps to give you a basic outline of what I think you need to start a blog.
You could just go to Blogger or WordPress and within 5 minutes have a basic blog in place but preparing just a bit by using these steps will help you avoid mistakes in the future. Some mistakes like picking your topic, blog title or blog URL aren't that easy to fix later.
If you are just setting up a blog for fun then just go ahead and throw it up because it doesn't matter. You are doing it for fun. But if you want to start a blog to drive traffic to your business website or you want to start a blog so you can make the blog your business you will want to plan your blog carefully.
{img src="boat.gif" alt="Big Boat"}
If you want to read more about HTML and images visit the W3Schools site.
Step 10: Backlinks
The last, but very, very important step, is getting backlinks. Once you have your blog setup the way you want and are writing posts on a regular basis you should search out people to exchange links with.
You want other bloggers and websites owners to link to your site USING YOUR KEYWORD OR KEYWORD PHRASE!
This site is called the Business Blogging Guide but when I try to get people to link to me from their site I DON'T USE THOSE WORDS. How many people do you think actually type business blogging guide in the search engines to find my site? Not too many.
So, I use keyword phrases like business blogging, learn how to blog, blog marketing, etc. Those are phrases people are more likely to use to find me.
Figure out what keyword or keyword phrases people may type to find your blog and get people to link to your site using those words. Have them place the links directly within the content of their site, like within a blog post.
If you want to trade backlinks feel free to email me and put the word BACKLINKS in the subject of your email. I have a lot of blogs and can always use more backlinks.
These are some of the top things I think you need to do to have a successful blog and to help you not make the mistakes I did when I was first starting out. A little planning in the beginning when you are starting a blog will help you become more successful faster!
Read more...