Why should you use WordPress to create your business blog anyway?

Now, I'm sure you've read somewhere on the Internet or heard someone say that you can set up a WordPress blog and start blogging in 15-minutes or less and, that would be true.  But, that only gives you half a picture since this will only give you the default WordPress blog, which is fine but you must bear in mind that NOT all WordPress blogs are created equal!  More on this later.

But first of all… what is a blog and why should you have one?

A blog derives its name from web log, which can be updated instantly, easily and usually frequently.  A blog is like an online journal, although it's a lot more than this.  The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.”

Why should you have a blog if you're a small business ower, author, information marketer or indpendent professional?  You can…

• Sack your web designer for a start!
• Build your reputation quickly and easily
• Get more traffic to your existing websites via your blog if you have them
• Gain total control over updating your website 
• Build relationships with your prospects and customers

Furthermore, by taking advantage of the power of blogging, you can reach a passionate audience hungry to be informed and entertained through your creative writing.

What you will need to set up your first WordPress blog…

1. a domain name (godaddy.com)
2. a web hosting account (LunarPages.com)
3. FREE WordPress software (www.wordpress.org)

And how do you set up a WordPress Blog? 

You can either ask your webmaster to do it if you have no idea, or if your website host using cpanel, then you will find a blue smiley face icon on there.  Click on this and it will give you the option of doing a "one click install" of WordPress and you'll be ready to go in minutes.  Be sure NOT to create your blog in a directory that already contains files since you'll delete everything.

So, going back to my statement that "all blogs are not created equal," what did I mean?

When you create a blog, there are still search engine optimization considerations to be made and merely putting up a blog isn't going to entice the search engine spiders to crawl your site. 

The permalink structure that you use will also have a profound effect on the search engines finding you.  If your permalink structure has characters such as question marks and numbers in them, you're going to be at a disadvantage.  The default WordPress theme uses this style permalink and you should at least change it to the date and post name option, which is much better.

» http://www.trishjones.com/2007/06/12/sample-post/

I personally use a custom permalink - /%postname%/    

I could go on and on about the drawbacks of using the default WordPress theme, but needless to say, unless you're savvy at SEO, just stick to a WordPress theme that is already search engine optimized.  A few options are:

• Semiologic
• n design studio
• problogger.net

The one thing you shouldn't do if you're considering setting up a blog and it's this …

Don't Leave It Another Day!

Too many people I come across are waiting for the perfect opportunity, blog layout, theme or whatever.  The hardest part is just getting started and once you do, you'll find it's easeir than you think.  If you still can't get your head around it, pay someone else to do it for you, but don't let "can't do it" be an option.

I personally have a blog development service and your webmaster should at least be able to set up a basic wordpress blog for you.

Best,

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