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How To Blog, And Why You Should!
Written by Stuart Reid
First, a quick definition for those who do not know what a Blog is. Quite simply, its a Web Log. In other words, a regularly updated page of your thoughts, ideas, links - whatever.
Its very easy to publish a Blog these days and today Im going to show you how in a few easy steps. Dont worry - all the sites, services and tools involved are free.
Before we go ahead I should first explain why a Blog is so usefull. A Blog provides a number of benefits to you and your site and all for very little effort.
1. A Blog will add valuable content to your site. This in turn increases repeat visitors and increases the frequency the Google Page Bot (and therefore how often your site listings are updated) will visit.
2. A Blog can be updated very quickly (especially using the technique I show you below). Its much faster to update than editing your Web Page or sending out an e-mail.
3. Blogs can be delivered as RSS Feeds and this means a user can download software to have your Blog delivered direct to their desktop as and when its updated. You DO NOT have to pay for sites such as Quikonnex or the new Cory Rudl software. RSS Feeds are NOT new and you shouldnt have to pay for what is essentially a free technology!
Do you now believe you should publish a Blog? If you do, just read on, and see how easy it is!
First join Blogger.Com - this is a popular Blog service (there are others) that makes the whole process as simple as possible. You just register your details and a title for your Blog.
Why choose Blogger? First, the Google Toolbar has a Blog This button that makes updating your Blog childs play. Click the button, and you can publish direct into your Blog immediately - including a link to the web-site youre currently on!
Second, Blogger will add you its directory and to a notification service AND they will let you publish to their site, though you can set FTP settings to publish to a page at your own domain. For now well publish to Bloggers host service BlogSpot since they are fast and the only thing they add is one banner at the top. You may also get featured as one of Bloggers daily blogs and gain massive traffic.
Blogger also has a range of templates and you can even edit these directly to personalise your Blog, right down to adding ads or links to your own site (Tip: include a navigation bar). Blogger will also archive your Blog and insert links to your archived months.
Blogger will create a Blog for you in a few steps. At the Blogger.Com main page click on Start Now at the top. Enter your Username, Password and Name and away you go.
Once you have your account validated log in and create a new Blog. This is just as simple as creating a user account. Enter a Title and Description, and leave it as a Public Blog. Then select host at BlogSpot. Create a subdomain for your BlogSpot then select a template. You can create your own templates but that requires extensive HTML knowledge.
Thats it! You have an account and a Blog setup. There are other settings to explore. You can set Ping Weblogs to YES in the Settings/Publishing option to notify Weblogs whenever you publish. You can also set Show Title Field and Email options to provide Titles to your Blog Entries and email a copy of your entries to you. Everything else is OK at as it is.
With your Blog at BlogSpot and your Google Toolbar installed
Go to --> http://toolbar.google.com snipsnip http://www.atomenabled.org/everyone/atomenabled/index.php?c=5
Thats a big list, so just use the program selected below if you want to get started with a quick and easy client right away.
Tristana Reader -> http://www.charlwood.com/tristana http://netpreneurnow.blogspot.com/atom.xml snipsnip
Additional Articles by Stuart Reid
When Is An Ad Not An Ad
7 Ways To Profit From Other Peoples Products
Conversation With A Newbie
How To Receive Thousands Of Dollars Worth Of Tools and Resources At No Cost
Niche Marketing Destroyed
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