I am so excited today is not only the start of my How To Wednesday linky, but it is also the start of a Blogging For Business series entitled “How to Blog for Business” that I am eager to share.
As many of you know I am a small business coach/consultant and one of my passions is helping moms become successful business owners.
The biggest thing holding most people back from launching their business and/or blog is that they don’t know how. In this series I am going to share the start up basics you should have in place to get your business/blog off it’s feet.
Some “how to’s” will be include steps and some will include videos.
For some of you, some of the information may seem pretty basic in the beginning but, I hope you will have some take aways from it.
Okay, enough of the introduction stuff, let’s get to the business at hand.
I could get into the “do you need a blog?” question but I won’t. All I am going to say so that we can cut to the chase is, that no matter what business you are trying to build via the internet you MUST have a blog!
In another post some other time I will get into why I feel so strongly about that. But now that we have that established let’s get to the basics.
Since we are on the topic of “starting a blog” let me address something that in my opinion is key. There are many people who begin blogs (mommy blogs inparticular) using the Blogger platform, because it is easy to understand and get’s them up an running quickly.
I urge you to create your blog on a self hosted WordPress platform from the very beginning. It will save you from the trouble of having to switch later and so many other headaches that I will talk about at another time.
This post will walk the beginner through the first steps of setting up a blog. If you already have a blog established this may simply be boring. If you have a blogger blog and need help switching to WordPress and you do not want to do it yourself or need a helping hand I suggest visiting AIB.
The first steps to blogging for business are as such:
Step 1
Create a domain name – Do a search to be sure noone else owns the .com, .net., .org, etc. version of your name. This will be a hassle later. I use Go Daddy, they are dependable and I like them.
Also be sure you do not choose a name that is too long, hard to spell or has hyphens in it.
Step 2
Choose a hosting service – I love Host Gator! There are many other hosting services out there, some reliable – some not. But I love Host Gator, did I mention that I love Host Gator?
Step 3
Point your name servers – This my ladies is a simple task, however if enough of you get stuck here and let me know I will do a video to show you how. Just ask.
Step 4
Set up hosting service account – this is simple as well, if you go with Host Gator they will walk you through what to do. You will add your domain, set up your email addresses & install WordPress to your domain here.
A note about email accounts and security: I urge you to establish your email account through your hosting service. Gmail is wonderful however, you do not want your business to depend on this free email account. Google accounts such as blogger and Gmail can be disabled and/or compromised. If this happens to you your business will suffer.
Okay, you have a lot to do this week. Go ahead and get started. Next week we will talk about the WordPress basics and necessary plug ins for a successful business.
I hope this was helpful.
Be sure to join in on the How to Wednesday Linky!
Okay, that is enough for today, you have some homework to do!
Share your How To with us.
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