Gone are the days when people used to write 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 your online business.
While social media has had the user's interaction to a whole new world, blogging or creating an informational website has given the concept of pen/paper/diary a look that's obsolete.
What is this fuss about blogging? Any kind of real advantages to it? Is it another marketing gimmick?
To define blogging, we could say blogging is a contraction of words, it could be discussion or it may be an information, that is published on internet and shared and read by other users.
What you want to blog about is entirely your decision. You could make a personal blog or a commercial one, that may help you earn a few bucks too.
Some of the extremely popular websites that allow you to create your own free blog are BlogSpot.com, WordPress.com, Weebly.com etc.
These all are free sites and don't 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 create a free blog, you can log on to the websites that provide free blogs. For example WordPress.com is a free blogging platform.
Click on "Getting Started", to create new blog. It would take you to a fresh page, where you would need to type in information like your email address, name, & most importantly name of your blog.
However, if View website wish to develop a self hosted blog, then you need a domain name and a web host to start with.
Make sure you choose a very appropriate name. It should be short and an easy task to remember.
You are free to use various themes, and plugins on your own blog. Find out more might add videos and images in your write-ups.
If you are a new blogger, you should make yourself acquainted with common terminologies to help you use them to your benefit. For e.g. "Blogger" is really a term used to call somebody who writes blogs. Permalink may be the unique URL or address of your articles. You can copy & paste this link if you would like someone to have a look at your blog articles.
You could find a whole lists of words, slangs and terminology utilized by bloggers on the web.
What are Benefits of Blogging?
Blogging is very common these days. However, only few people really understand that their passion for writing can earn them some serious good money. A few benefits of blogging are listed below:
Blog as a Personal Diary
People work with a blog as a personal diary, religiously noting just about every thought/emotion. It is beneficial for many and a habit for others. They will have the option of making this personal diary public or keep it for private view. Online diaries certainly are a lot safer than physical ones. They're password protected and can be destroyed in just a matter of seconds.
Blog to Promote/Review something
You could use your blog to market a product or review about it. For example, you recently visited a restaurant and you are not particularly happy about its services. You can blog about 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 publicity.
Blog to Connect
You could also blog for connecting to people sharing same interests. If you're 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.
Blog to market Yourself
Blogging is a wonderful tool to determine yourself being an expert. If you are good at baking and look forward to show your hobby into a full blown profession, blogging about your cakes, adding their pictures would help you being noticed in the crowd of millions.
Blog to Help Others
You may use your knowledge on particular topic to greatly help others. In case you have had some kind of situation and you desire to help people trapped into something similar, your insights could 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 straightforward step-by-step tutorial with screenshots and you will be able to create a blog in less than 5 mins.
BloggingStudio.com [http://www.bloggingstudio.com/] is a superb source to learn the essential concepts of blogging and learn how to create a blog. Additionally, you will learn suggestions to take your blog to next level.
If you are serious about blogging, don't go for a free blog. They don't really look professional and impose many restrictions. Some websites don't even permit you to put your own advertisements.
It is recommended to obtain a self hosted blog. A self hosted blog gives you complete freedom and ownership to your blogging space. It is possible to install any theme and plugin that you would like. Also you can put advertisements on your own blog. Moreover, a self hosted blog looks professional and your reader will understand that you are serious about your blog.
Finally, an effective blogging career requires hard work and persistence. Don't expect an overnight success.