Gone will be the days when people used to create their innermost feelings to a diary and keep it to themselves.
In today's time, Internet marketing is a very important tool for the success of one's online business.
While social media has taken the user's interaction to a whole new world, blogging or creating an informational website has given the idea of pen/paper/diary a look that's obsolete.
What is this fuss about blogging? Are there any real advantages to it? Is it just one more marketing gimmick?
To define blogging, we could say blogging is a contraction of words, it may be discussion or it could be an information, that is published on internet and shared and read by other users.
What you need to blog about is entirely up to you. You could create a personal blog or a commercial one, which can help you earn a few bucks too.
Some of the very popular websites that enable you to create your own free blog are BlogSpot.com, WordPress.com, Weebly.com etc.
These all are free sites and do not charge you for a personal blog. However, there are a few restrictions on these free blogs.
How to Develop a Blog?
If you wish to develop a free blog, it is possible to log on to any of the websites offering free blogs. For instance WordPress.com is a free blogging platform.
Click on "Getting Started", to make new blog. It would take you to a fresh page, where you'll need to enter information like your email, name, & most importantly name of one's blog.
However, if you want to develop a self hosted blog, then you need a domain name and a web host to start with.
Make sure you select a very appropriate name. It ought to be short and easy to remember.
You are free to use various themes, and plugins on your own blog. You could also add videos and images in your write-ups.
If you are a fresh blogger, you should make yourself familiar with common terminologies so that you can use them to your benefit. For e.g. "Blogger" is a term used to call somebody who writes blogs. Permalink is the unique URL or address of one's articles. You could copy & paste this link if you need someone to have a look at your blog articles.
visit blog ninja could find a whole lists of words, slangs and terminology used by bloggers on the web.
What are Benefits of Blogging?
Blogging is very common these days. However, only few people really know that their passion for writing can earn them some serious good money. Several great things about blogging are listed below:
Blog as a Personal Diary
People work with a blog as an individual diary, religiously noting just about every thought/emotion. It is good for many and a habit for others. They have the option of earning this personal diary public or keep it for private view. Online diaries certainly are a lot safer than physical ones. They are password protected and may be destroyed in just a matter of seconds.
Blog to Promote/Review a Product
You could use your site to market a product or review about it. For instance, you recently visited a restaurant and you aren't particularly happy about its services. You can blog about any of it and let others know. Similarly, in order to market a product you can recommend it to your followers and present that product a free of charge publicity.
Blog to Connect
You might blog to connect to people sharing same interests. If you are a photographer and want to enhance your skills you can connect to people who are interested in same area and share a tip or two.
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Blog to market Yourself
Blogging is a great tool to establish yourself being an expert. In case you are good at baking and appearance forward to turn your hobby into a full blown profession, blogging about your cakes, adding their pictures would assist you to being noticed in the crowd of millions.
Blog to Help Others
You may use your knowledge on particular topic to greatly help others. If you have had some kind of situation and you want to help people trapped into something similar, your insights may help them. Such blogs can be categorized as tutorials or 'how-to' sort of blogs.
It's easy to create a blog [http://www.bloggingstudio.com/how-to-create-a-blog/]. You do not need any technical knowledge for that. Just follow a simple step-by-step tutorial with screenshots and you'll be able to create a blog in less than 5 mins.
BloggingStudio.com [http://www.bloggingstudio.com/] is an excellent source to learn the essential concepts of blogging and learn to create a blog. You will also learn ideas to take your blog to next level.
If you are seriously interested in blogging, don't go for a free blog. They don't look professional and impose many restrictions. Some websites don't even let you put your own advertisements.
It is recommended to get a self hosted blog. A self hosted blog offers you complete freedom and ownership to your blogging space. You can install any theme and plugin that you would like. You can even put advertisements on your own blog. Moreover, a self hosted blog looks professional and your reader will recognize that you are serious about your blog.
Finally, an effective blogging career requires hard work and persistence. Don't expect an overnight success.