WebMaster Solutions
Blogging
and
Marketing
Blogging as
an Alternative to a Website
by Kenneth Catto
These days, it is
much easier to create a website than it used to
be. In general, website-creation programs are
much simpler to use - and you also have the
option of signing up with an online web host
with easy-to-use page creation tools.
But the biggest
change has to be the advent of the blog.
"Blog" is short
for 'web log'. Blogs started off as a way for
people to create an online diary. Bloggers would
simply log on, tap out a paragraph or two giving
their thoughts on life and the universe (and
everything in between); click 'publish' and that
was that. Their words were live on the Internet
for anyone to see. The big appeal of a blog was
that it was interactive: readers were welcome to
add a comment on any post, with a link back to
their own blog or website.
Gradually,
bloggers started to want more. They wanted easy
ways to upload photos, and extra pages on the
site - just like a 'real' website. They wanted a
range of themes, to better express their
personality or business.
Programmers
everywhere came to the party, particularly with
WordPress, a well-known open source. Now, if you
want a website/blog, it's possible to:
* Sign up with a
web host with Cpanel for a low monthly fee
* Install
WordPress with just a few clicks of the mouse,
using Fantastico on your website's Cpanel
* Either use one
of the pre-installed themes, or browse the
various themes available at WordPress (and on
many other sites) to choose one that suits your
personality or business
* Upload the theme
you want to the wp_content folder, using a
simple FTP program (such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP)
* Start posting
your articles or comments
* Add extra pages
to your site (if you want to)
Now that you can
add separate pages to blogs - just as you can
with a standard website - many people are
turning to them as their preferred way of
building a website. By using various plugins,
it's possible to do pretty well anything you
want.
=== What Are
"Plugins"? ===
Plugins are extra
features available for your blog to make your
life easier. You can get plugins, for example,
that will:
- help you block
spam
- make it easy to
upload and sort your photos
- ping the search
engines so they know when you've added new
content
- insert Adsense
blocks so you can earn money from your blog
There are quite a
number of plugins available now - take some time
to find out what they will do.
=== Help With
Using WordPress ===
While WordPress is
not the only blog software available, it is an
excellent choice because (a) it's free; (b) it's
relatively easy to use; (c) it's open-source,
and therefore has a lot of people working on it
constantly to make it better, and (d) there are
quite a few 'how to' sites on the Internet
showing you how to make the most of your
WordPress blog.
One of them is
Guido Stiehle ("The Jungle Marketer") who offers
an excellent free tutorial (with video
tutorials) that will show you, step by step, how
to set up and use your blog. You can find other
providers by simply typing 'how to use
WordPress' into a search engine.
Spend an hour or
two browsing, and you'll see why a blog is a
very viable option for establishing your
presence on the Internet.
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