When I started fooling around with websites I really wasn’t sure the direction it would take. But it seems quickly I have become interested in blogging. And more specifically, I have really become a fan of WordPress. Now if you are finding your way online, you need to pursue all ideas and whims to figure out what is the best path for you, but I have to say that I really like WordPress. (I would imagine at this point you know what a blog is, so I will save space and not write about that. But if you are unclear about what a blog is, there is a video on my homepage that tells the story. Scroll to the bottom of the page). But blogging is fun! I am doing it right now, writing an article about something I am interested in. Blogging is a great exercise for learning new things (if you write about something you learn about it). It is also an opportunity to teach others about something you know about.
Another really cool benefit to blogging is that it creates content for your website. The more pages you have, the more relevant you are to Google.
So how do you do it? Well, there are 2 options:
Hosting your own is really is the best plan for reasons too many to mention. At the top of the list is you get your own url which is really cool. It makes it feel much more like a real website. It’s like having your own place. If you don’t have your own place it’s tough to get the right kinda traffic to your address (if you know what I mean).
Before I fall to deep into innuendo and odd references, I will give you some ideas on where to look for your own hosting. Really all of the companies make it very easy to launch a WordPress site. The hosting companies ask what you would like when you set up your site, and then they give you the flexibility to make changes down the road (you can change urls or change over to a website instead of a blog, all from online. Very convenient). So you can go to a godaddy.com and it is very “turn-key.” This list of the top 10 best web hosting companies should provide a good starting place in finding a hosting company.
Once you have the blog set up you now need to learn how to navigate thru the software (which is an open code platform). It is very easy, you can search out youtube videos that will teach you every step of the way. Lynda.com is also another great training portal you can use to learn how to use WordPress.
When you get WordPress figured out you can spend hours trying out the different templates. You can customize your template to look and feel just as you would like it to. You can even purchase premium versions of the template. Again, it’s lots of fun and a little addictive.
With my blog, Atlanta SEO, my focus is employing SEO techniques to continue to grow my knowledge in this field. So when I choose names for articles (and even the content in the article) I keep an eye on SEO tactics. For example, there are 85,000,000 monthly searches for the word “blog” on Google and 35,000,000 monthly searches for the term “Wordpress.” So I am always trying to optimize my site to get it where I want it to go. The name of this article’s url is www.atlantaseo.biz/wordpress-blog. Overtime I will build organic (free traffic) to my blog on this url alone.
All in all WordPress is pretty amazing, and I would encourage you to try it. If you are wanting to develop your skills online launch a WordPress site and start blogging. You never know where it will take you. What are you interested in?
