Hi everyone,

I have been looking at blogger website and other sites offering blogs, but I am either missing something or it is this easy.

I understand about adding text for visitors and to keep it fresh and change it - however.

Do I have to register the blog through blogger or another similar site ?

Do people find it by typing in keywords into search engines and my blog will appear - well somewhere, or is there another better way for people to see my blog ?

Thanks all,

Kev.

Hi, Kev,

There are several advantages to setting up your blog thru a blogging community.

One is ease of use, as the content management system is already set up for you. Often you just choose a "skin" to get a look & feel you like. This is entirely possible to do on your own domain, but usually requires you to do a little more work on the backend to install a CMS that works with your host's specs. I'm not real up on this stuff, but I do know there are some things that only work on certain setups (Windows servers vs. *nix, if PHP is installed, etc.). And there may be some free CMS software out there, but some of it may cost you.

There is also the matter of tech support. Most blogging sites make it dead easy for you to use them, and offer support if you have questions or problems. Most hosts expect you to be at least moderately tech savvy and won't hold your hand like that.

Another benefit is that you will have a certain amount of promotional opportunities within that blogging community. Your blog will be made accessible and searchable to others in the blogging sphere, similar to how myspace works. You could put the same info from your myspace page onto your own site, but you wouldn't have the built-in network that myspace offers.

Most of the big blogging sites are already established with search engines, so you will likely get indexed more quickly than with a brand new domain like kevsblog.com.

HTH.

Great thanks for the info JQ, cleared that up for me easy enough.

I will now go and set up a blog on blogger or eblogger - unless you think there are better ones out there.

Thanks again for your reply and info, much appreciated.

Take care,

Kev.

I will now go and set up a blog on blogger or eblogger - unless you think there are better ones out there.

I'm really not very familiar with them at all, have never used one. eblogger appears to be a pay site, whereas blogger is free and owned by google. A couple other big ones are livejournal and wordpress.

I'd say check them out and compare the features they offer. Nose around the main page and search for blogs, see how they categorize and promote them. Which site makes you more inclined to stick around and check out the blogs there?

Good luck with it.

Lovely JQ, thanks for the info on the other two. I was going to go with the ones I suggested merely because they come up on Google.

I will check the two you recommend out though and I never thought about doing searches and checking out their listings, etcetera.

Thanks again for the info and for your time, very much appreciated.

Take care,

Kev.

Kev - what's the goal?

A stand alone blog with a dedicated domain name? ...or just a space to blog?

Will the site be used to develop revenue down the road, or just as a space to store info and think out loud?

How easy do you find them to use?

How easy will your potential visitors find them to use?

Hi Sportsguy,

I wanted to do a couple of blogs really, the main one will be to hopefully talk about hand made wooden products, wood turning, etcetera - which is the site we are looking at having built.
I had heard blogs were good for getting people's attention on that subject.
So probably a space to blog and hopefully get people who are interested in that stuff to our site.

I am not sure what you mean by a blog with a dedicated domain name - wouldn't I just buy that domain name anyway or can you have a blog with your websites domain name on it?

Thanks for the help and info, and when you get a minute if you would be kind enough to let me know what is best to do please.

Thanks,

Kev.

Hi g1smd,

Was that message for me or sportsguy ?

If it was for me then I have not tried yet, hopefully they will be easy to use and that I can bring in people who are interested in hand wooden items to our main site.

Any further info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

Kev.

OK, sorry about that Kev. I'll start from the beginning.

What I mean when I say a dedicated domain for the blog is this:

When you have a domain name, say, www.turnwoodforfun.com, you can place the blog at what's called the "root" of the domain. In effect, this means the blog is the website.

To be clear on this point:

1 - a blog can be a website
2 - a website can be a blog

The differences in the definitions traditionally are in the type of systems used to run the sites.

Blogs basically use a content management system, while basic website typically are a collection of pages with content on each page individually.

When you want to update your blog, you log into your admin section and post away. The system takes care of makign it happen and pushing out to the internet and placing on a page for users to view.

When you want to update your website with basic html pages, you must edit each page individually, reload them on the server and such.

Bottom line:

A blog can be the complete website for you, including extra pages for keeping certain specific articles or info handy for users.

As an example, my own blog is my website. I also have another site with a blog included in a folder, so the site itself exists and it's what you see when you type in the domain name. By clicking the link on my main page, you can then head to that blog.

My profile blog, though, is a blog that is a website.

So, the real question is this:

How much time can you devote to maintaining this blog? (or blogs) Blogs can work great for engaging users creating a community and can even help with search rankings over time - but it requires upkeep. Posting 3 - 4 times each week, I find, works best to keep everyone coming back and happy.

Next on the horizon, you'll need to decide if you want to host the blog yourself, or use a service like blogger.com to run it from. Blogger.com makes it stone simple to set up a blog and go live in literally minutes. It's a great way for those new to blogging to learn the ropes.

BUT, I caution trying to use something like blogger.com for a business. From even just a credibility standpoint, it's far, far better to use a blog on it's own domain (www.turnwoodforfun.com) rather than a subdomained one from blogger.com (turnwoodforfun.blogger.com).

Having a dedicated blog on it's own domain also ensures, down the road, as traffic and usage grows, that you can manage everything to your best advantage. free systems have limits, and since something hosted at blogger.com is not ever goign to be on your on domain (it's base domain will always remain blogger.com), it makes it harder to move things later, after building a following there.

One final point:

As mentioned, having successful blogs takes work. It's not as simple as simply having a blog. The blog existing won't do anything for you on it's own. You'll still need to market the blog, create content for it and cultivate readers, too.

Hopefully that helps a bit.

Duane

Hey Duane,

That does indeed make more sense to me now, I will steer clear of using someone like blogger.com instead I will host it under it's own domain name.
My friend has his own server so I will put it on there.

Currently my domain is a normal .com address - I am not entirely sure what you mean by creating the blog and putting it in the root of the domain.

I understand now about a blog can be a website and logging into the admin area - but from that I guess I will need to know more about building websites, which I don't unfortunately - only basic html sites.

Thanks very much for taking the time to explain things for me, very much appreciated.

Thanks again,

Kev.

but from that I guess I will need to know more about building websites

...not if you use one of the popular blogging platforms like Wordpress.

The templates included - and more freely available to download and install - come ready made to "Add a new page". You click the link, title the page, drop the content into the text box, and hit the Save button. When you view the site again, there's a new link in place and a new page with the new content - all skinned to look exactly liek the rest of the site already.

Sure, you can easily go into the html and play with the layout a bit, change colors in the .css sheets, etc., but that's where the templates come in - find one you like, download the files to your PC, upload them to the correct folder on the sevrer, go back to the blog, select the desired template from the list, hit apply and BAMMO! New look, layout and feel!

Now, as o the "root of the domain" stuff - let's try this:

When you log onto the server - in the admin panel - there will be a folder called something like "public_html" - this is where anything to be seen online will live.

Normally, for a regular website, you'd drop the index.html file in there, and when you type in the domain in a browser, it finds the index.html file and loads it for the domain requested.

In the case of the blog, you'd simple delete the default index.html file in the folder from the setup process (one is created and put in place sometimes automatically) and drop all the blog files and folders right there.

After that, it's literally a 5 minute install process to get the blog live...

....well, if you're using Wordpress it's that fast. It's the platform I use, so it's what i know.

If you want to use Wordpress, here are some useful links:

1 - download the latest version
2 - install instructions
3 - support community
4 - more themes and templates

if your access to the server is limited to just FTP-ing into your own space, even better - it'll keep it simple for you and allow you to easily upload the files.

be sure, if you choose to go the Wordpress route, that you read the docs first to get familiar with the process. It's simple when you're used to it, but can be daunting for those who are new.

Brilliant Duane, thanks very much.

I was not hinting at anything in my message by the way, but I am so glad you have given me these instructions, much appreciated.

As far as I know on his server there is htdocs folder where all of the folders and html pages sit for the internet, so I will have a look around and start building my blog !!!!

Thanks again for all of your time and help it really is very much appreciated.

Take care,

Kev.

That's the folder.

...and no problemo on the help - that's why SEF exists. :D