6 Steps to Better Blog – Part One

A Tutorial For Beginning Bloggers

This is the first in a series of articles about the basics of starting a blog with a domain you own. Nothing of prior experience is assumed for this series. There are numerous blogs on the Internet about blogging, most of which do make assumptions. For example some are targeted to an audience that already knows how to register a domain name. Or nothing may be explained about the nature of a domain name – what is it? Like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Let’s “Start at the beginning…and when you come to the end STOP!”

Here are the steps to creating your own blog. Each step needs explanation for beginners. And at one time we were all beginners. Those of us who have done this for a length of time tend to forget, everything needs explanation. If you already know how to do any or all of these steps, use what you need and discard what you don’t need.

About domain names – Why this is important

Anyone can start blogging with little knowledge about using the Internet. If you have an account with Google, for instance, just start clicking, follow the links until you get to create a Blogspot Blog. Wordpress and several others, including MySpace offer free services to start a blog. There is no need to go into detail about any of the free services – if that is what you want, Google it and see for yourself how to get a free blog. For some people this is good enough. If you are serious about blogging, if you are selling something for example, just good enough is well, not good enough. And like all things of value, some knowledge is required to set up a real TLD website or blog of your very own.

A TLD (Top Level Domain) that you own is always better than any free service with a sub domain. The obvious question is why? There are several reasons, but first some definitions.

TLD
Without going into detail about domain structure, a TLD is the highest level in the Internet domain naming system. You see it as: http://yoursitename.com Note: Websites can be preceded by www but for the most part this is redundant. Compare a TLD to a sub domain to see the difference.

Sub domain
The next level below a TLD. Any domain name that is structured as yourname.anothersite.com is a sub domain. Look at a free Blogspot blog. It will be structured as: http://blogspot.yourname.com

SEO
Search Engine Optimization. Google and other search engines use algorithms to track and rank your site. SEO is complicated to say the least. It is important that when someone searches for your content, it comes as close to the top as possible.

Why you should own a domain

• The biggest factor about owning your own domain is, no one can take it down at a whim. Google can remove your blog at their discretion. I have not read all the service agreements for other free blogs, but this is not unusual. A company givith and a company can taketh away.

• Branding. Whatever you are selling, and we are all selling something, even if we simply want people to read what we present, is the essence of blogging. This is your identity.  Standing out, being unique is valuable. The flexibility of owning a domain allows you to brand to your heart’s content.

• Your name, your brand is protected. No one else can register your domain. This is another reason why a TLD is better than a sub domain.

• As long as you pay for it – the fee is very inexpensive, about $20 a year or less – you own It forever.

• You have complete control over design, structure and all content with a TLD. All major hosting companies will provide some sort of control panel for you to initiate various aspects of your site. Most use a server side application known as cpanel.

• Even the smallest hosting package comes with other services such as email. This is important. It is much more professional to have an email address yourname@yourwebsite.com than a generic address. This is especially true if you intend to have a storefront on the website/blog. You will also find tons of software ready to install. In this series for example, we will be using Wordpress. In most cases it can be installed with a few clicks from your control panel.

• You want people to find your blog,  SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important. A TLD, as mentioned, is much better with SEO than a sub domain. Of course you need to know something about SEO – Don’t be concerned about that until you understand how to set up a domain of your own. In the case of Blogspot this may or may not be a issue since Google owns it.

Many other factors are involved when you own a TLD. The first time you log on to the control panel you will be amazed at all the options available. This is not to scare you, rather to inform you there is a better way.

There is another way to have your site appear as a TLD. Services like TypePad offer a quick, though limited way to quickly start blogging and map your domain to look like a TLD. I have not used TypePad, and this is why.

Compared to registering and hosting your own, TypePad is expensive. Mapping a domain is too involved to discuss here. And why do all this when you can have the flexibility of using your own domain?

Next, we look at the procedure of registering a domain name. From there we look at hosting and actual implementation of Wordpress. This is an easy, inexpensive process, so don’t quit yet.