If you want to build an online business, you must have a blog. Blogging has become the way that people find out who you are and what you do, so it is non-negotiable. After you blog for a month or to, it will become a daily activity that you can actually look forward to for the help www.bloggers-guide-to-profit.com. My blog is my home on the internet, and I am always ready to share the information I have with my readers.
There are really only two choices for your blogging platform. I use both of them, mainly because I maintain so many blogs. Type pad is an easy way to set up your blog within an hour or so, and it is hosted by Type pad. There are about two hundred different themes to choose from, or you can easily upload your own. I always recommend Type pad as a blogging platform to people you need to set up a blog quickly, without any need for specialized features.
For those who want more flexibility with their blogs, Wordpress is the way to go. There are plug-ins that make it possible to turn your blog into a search engine optimization machine, allow you to easily upload audio and video, and do more things than you ever imagined, even with a traditional website. Wordpress blogs require more technology knowledge to be set up and maintained, but you may find that you would rather learn some new things in order to have a site that is capable of so much more.
More and more people are now using blogs instead of websites, because the search engines love the fresh new content. You will be able to build your online business with your blog, and people will be able to find you easily when searching for your keywords on Google or any of the other search engines.
How blogs can hurt:
1. One small step. Negative posts can be fatal.
Blogging can open you up for many legal, liability and employment questions, problems or crises. Last year, Jim C. came to me after he had posted a rather nasty post on his Top Ten Worst Retailers in the World blog for the help www.feed-reader-links.com. His company did business with two of those retailers and as nosy or highly sensitive corporate personnel found out about his lambaste it caused a rift at the company. According to Jim, "This year for other reasons I was let go. It was not the economy. I crossed the line."
2. Pictures tell a thousand stories.
Larry seemed to pipe up at work a lot about things that bothered him. So he decided to publish a seemingly anonymous blog. As a techy he posted hundreds of comments on political ideas, people he thought should be impeached and railed against what he considered bad taste and fashion. He did this anonymously under a lot of different names. But when he decided to take pictures at the year end Christmas party and publish captions that offended nearly everyone, he was, well, suspended without pay forever (fired).