Start A Blog

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Start A Blog.

Blogging has become a central pillar in the online world.
Internet technologies come and go with increasing frequency but
blogging has staked a claim and is here to stay. A variety of
platforms allow people to start a blog in minutes and without a
penny changing hands. In addition, countless other service
providers have developed widgets that can enhance a blog with
additional functionality and style. This article will look at a
few of the basics so you can get off to a running start.

There are two decisions you need to make right at the
beginning. The first is which platform you'll be using to build
your blog and the second is whether you'll host it on the
provider's servers or your own. Let's look at both decisions in
a bit more detail.

The two primary platforms out there are Blogger and WordPress.
Blogger is owned by Google and is probably the easiest platform
to get started on. It's really designed for the novice.
Functionality features are easy to use and the interface is
simple and intuitive. WordPress is an open source platform. That
means it's developed by individual programmers all over the
world and is available for anyone to use, free of charge.

Open source software is a fascinating phenomenon. People with
all kinds of different business objectives end up developing
extensions to facilitate their needs and those extensions then
become available to the entire community. As a result, you can
search for just about any extension you can imagine and build
your own custom blog with precisely the features you want.
WordPress is designed for a more sophisticated user but the
advantages for the final product are substantial.

The next decision revolves around where you host your new blog.
You can host it on the Blogger platform or the WordPress
platform. In both cases, you would end up with a URL something
like YourBlog.Blogger.com rather than your own custom URL. The
upside is that it's easier and your blog will then be part of a
HUGE website. That may improve your search engine ranking. The
downside is that the ultimate control is out of your hands and
your branding isn't complete. In other words, you will never
have your own free-standing web address.

Once you have created your new blog, you're well advised to
register it with all the free blog directories. Not
surprisingly, there are dozens of them and they can help you
drive traffic. You can also cross reference other people's
comments, leaving them with a free banklink. That will help you
get established in the community and encourage others to
reference your comments on their blog. Depending on the blog,
you could easily get the majority of your traffic from such a
link.

A number of companies have developed platforms that add
functionality or aggregate information and their widgets can
easily be added to a blog, simply by adding a small piece of
java script to your platform. This has become so common that
Blogger, WordPress and others have designed specific modules to
easily accept such scripts. Done properly, these widgets can
make a simple blog look impressive and professional.

Tactical Execution is devoted to helping people and companies
position themselves for tomorrow's opportunities. Learning the
mechanics of blogging can contribute directly to your ability to
capitalize on those opportunities. Visit the website to learn
countless other strategies as well.

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