Getting Started With Blogging

Discussion in 'General Business' started by banks1, Feb 13, 2009.

  1. #1
    Hi everyone,

    I've been working online for a while. I tried running a blog before but did not have much success. This time, I want to start a blog from start, and have some questions:

    1) Do you suggest I use blogger? If not, what should I use? Will it still be easy to edit my blog? I do not have much web experience, so I want something that is easy to work with.

    2) What is a good hosting company/plan if I am NOT going to use a free blogger?

    3) What is a good topic to blog about (with decent paying keyword)?

    4) Do you think I would be best off having someone design my blog for me? If so, how much will this cost me roughly?


    Any other advice is appreciated!
     
    banks1, Feb 13, 2009 IP
  2. Nigel Lew

    Nigel Lew Notable Member

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    #2
    1. No, use wordpress. It rules the blog app world and is really easy to use.
    2. It does not matter, you just need php/mysql etc. I use hosting metro for less important stuff, great support and reasonable.
    3. That is not really how you want to approach it.(That is sort of a cart before the horse scenario) You should blog about things you enjoy.
    4. There are loads of free templates for wordpress that can be easily retooled for your needs. I typically would do that for someone pretty cheap say 50-100 tops to retool something. It depends on what your trying to do really.


    hope that helps,
    Nigel
     
    Nigel Lew, Feb 13, 2009 IP
  3. gr8liverpoolfan

    gr8liverpoolfan Notable Member

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    #3
    1.) Since you have already used Blogger ( I see you have two Blogger domains in your signature), I suggest you give Wordpress a try. It is easy to work with, and if you have any issues, head down to the blogging forum here. Loads of people here use Wordpress, not just for their blogs, but also for their sites.

    2.) Most reputed hosting companies will suit Wordpress's requirements. There are a ton of them- Hostgator, Bluehost, Dreamhost, Lunarpages, Asmallorange etc. With coupons, you could get your cost of hosting down to as little as $20/year. You could also go the webhosting forum here. Many hosts run DP specials- you could get some great deals here.

    3.) Finance and health are two examples of high paying keywords. But I recommend that you blog about something that you genuinely like, not because it is a high paying keyword.

    4.) If you chose Wordpress, there are so many smashing designs available- there is no need to really hire a custom designer.
     
    gr8liverpoolfan, Feb 13, 2009 IP
  4. mentos

    mentos Prominent Member

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    #4
    1) Do you suggest I use blogger? If not, what should I use? Will it still be easy to edit my blog? I do not have much web experience, so I want something that is easy to work with.
    Use wordpress coz it have more function than blogger and user friendly even for newbies


    2) What is a good hosting company/plan if I am NOT going to use a free blogger?
    HostGator will be sufficient for new blog.

    3) What is a good topic to blog about (with decent paying keyword)?
    Insurance and load related

    4) Do you think I would be best off having someone design my blog for me? If so, how much will this cost me roughly?
    The cost is depend on what kind of template you want.The more function the template have the more expensive it become.
     
    mentos, Feb 14, 2009 IP
  5. dominic21

    dominic21 Peon

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    #5
    You have a great articles about blogging on Yaro Starak's site. Just google it..
     
    dominic21, Feb 14, 2009 IP
  6. Tumpo

    Tumpo Well-Known Member

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    #6
    use wordpress, use one of the tens of thousands of free themes, blog about something you like and you can post regularly.
     
    Tumpo, Feb 15, 2009 IP
  7. rome9t9

    rome9t9 Peon

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    #7
    1. use wordpress. download from wordpress.org
    2. if you are starting and have less money then use lacehost.i find then cheaper.
    3.high paying KW are all jammed up with too much competition. find a niche that is unsaturated.
    4.get a free template. few sites: www.wpthemedesigner.com www.web2feel.com www.freewordpresstheme.info
     
    rome9t9, Feb 15, 2009 IP
  8. CrAzY-MaST

    CrAzY-MaST Well-Known Member

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    #8
    1. Wordpress is better if you want to make good and big blog.
    2. You can use GoDaddy + Hostgator - these are the best companies in the industry.
    3. You should start with keywords which are not so hard for optimization. Soon you will get a lot of traffic thanks to this strategy.
    4. I can help you with designing your blog, but its better if you just find a good free template and change it a little ;)

    Today i will write a few articles which are exactly for you :) (check my sig)
     
    CrAzY-MaST, Feb 15, 2009 IP
  9. syuxx

    syuxx Peon

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    #9
    1) Do you suggest I use blogger? If not, what should I use? Will it still be easy to edit my blog? I do not have much web experience, so I want something that is easy to work with.
    If you just get started and cant afford hosting & paid domain, you can use blogger as a start path. But I really recommend you to use selfhosting Wordpress.org site. You have freedom with it compare to blogger or wordpress.com and other blogging platforms.

    2) What is a good hosting company/plan if I am NOT going to use a free blogger?
    You can buy a domain name at namecheap (I really trust them compare to godaddy) and get your own hosting at hostagor.com. It is really good to use both of them to make a blog

    3) What is a good topic to blog about (with decent paying keyword)?
    You can always do a keyword search using the adwords tools. Or else, refer to the google trends website. make a lot of research about the topic you want. Also visit Amazon for keyword search.

    4) Do you think I would be best off having someone design my blog for me? If so, how much will this cost me roughly?
    Ofcourse if you have lack of skill to design a website (dont know about html, css & php). It will be expensive for a professional or custom made design. But as I said, use wordpress because the have a lot of FREE professional themes & templates. You doesnt have to pay for them :)
     
    syuxx, Feb 15, 2009 IP