To Blog or not to Blog?

Unless you’ve been living in a dark cave for the last couple of years, I expect you’ve noticed how popular blogging has become, everyone’s at it, including yours truly, and there are some strong reasons for doing so.

But before I ramble on about why you should dip your toe in and give it a go, for those of you who have been living in a dark cave, you’re probably wondering what a blog is.

So, what is blogging?
A blog, (or ‘web log’ which is the official name) is essentially a means of being able to write thoughts on a particular subject, and most importantly, a way of interacting with your blog’s readers. Blogs allow individuals to comment on ‘posts’ (name given to the thoughts you write in your blog) and the idea behind blogs is participation, which is what the web is all about now. You can moderate comments so if anything unsuitable is written about your posts, you don’t have to publish it.

How do I set up a blog?
Many blogs are free, which is great and why so many people have started to do it. There’s a few blogging platforms you can choose from which include Blogger, Wordpress & Typepad to name a few. The free versions are hosted by the blogging company, so you could end up with a domain, something like ‘yourblog.blogspot.com’ (for Blogger), or yourblog.wordpress.com etc. This allows you dip your toe into the ‘blogosphere’ and see how you get on before paying to host your own blog, or even paying a designer to build one for you.

Once you’ve decided on the name for your blog, you get a free account, choose a template and start posting, it’s as simple as that. Remember though, once you start, you need to make sure you update your blog regularly and put some effort into writing interesting posts.

So, Why should I blog?
There are lots of reasons why you should start a blog. Firstly it’s a very cheap way of creating an online presence if you don’t have one, some businesses use blogs as their main website and it’s a great way of being able to keep in touch with clients and prospects.

Secondly, blogs allow you to be able to keep your website very up to date and show off your knowledge or talk about your latest news. A blog on your business website also allows you to engage in conversation with people through comments left on your posts and raises your profile in your industry.

Search engines love blogs, so you should find your posts ranking in the search results which will drive additional traffic to your website.

Finally, they’re a good way of keeping ahead of your competitors as it’s likely that they haven’t yet started to blog, so you’ll be seen as one step ahead, leading the way.

Category: General