In part 1 of this article series we have discussed how to select the topic or niche for your blog.
Once you have selected the core topic of your blog now its time for you to create your blog or site.
1) Selecting the Title of Your Blog: The Blog title should be brief & descriptive as well.
Ideal size for your blog title is 40 to 80 characters.
The title should summarize exactly what your blog is all about.
Many people confuse title & description & choose a title that is too long & generic in nature.
Remember, your title should be as specific as possible to give a correct idea about what your blog is.
2) Selecting the Web address or URL of your blog: It is very tempting for you to put your name or your firm's name in the web address or the URL of your blog.
This is the common mistake committed by majority of people.
Your URL should be related with your blog topic.
If the topic of your blog is about say for example 'Financial Planning tips' the URL should reflect the same.
Instead of having URL like john-mathew.
com it would be better to have URL name like easyfinancial-planning.
com etc.
The reason why I am saying this is it is very important from search engines' perspective to include the core keywords of your site in URL itself.
Search engines display results for any search query after searching in their database created by crawlers (automated programs that crawls net & collect information about various websites).
The moment some one hits search for any thing on search engines they would be shown 'relevant results' from search engines.
The URL of the website is the first thing that would be considered relevant by the search engines although they would also consider many more factors while showing the search results.
(You may refer to my articles on Search Engine Optimization for more detail) 3) Choosing a Host: You may choose a free host like blogspot.
com or any other free host or you may choose to have your own.
com site.
If you already have a.
com site & you are creating a blog to support it then the blog can be hosted on a free host.
There are pros & cons for deciding whether to have free hosting service or to have own domain name.
In my opinion you should choose your own domain name for your blog.
The major reason for this is it reflects your commitment as a serious businessman & your site is not a fly by night operator.
Remember, people should believe in you first before they buy anything from your site.
In virtual world your site reflects characteristics of the owner.
Although, simply putting up a.
com site would not help you to sell & you have to do a lot more other things, it would definitely a positive point to have your own domain.
If initially you wish to start with a free domain & you have plans to convert it to own domain later, I would recommend that you should not start with a free domain but wait till you can afford to buy your own domain.
This may sound harsh but my friends there is logic behind why I am saying this.
If you make a start with free domain & after say 6 months you wish to convert it to own domain you would face many practical difficulties to do so.
If you have great & original content most of the search engines would have already indexed your blog in their databases.
If you change your hosting you will have to wait until your new URL is again indexed by search engines.
The search engines might consider the content of your new site as duplicate content & may even blacklist it.
Although now a days some of the free hosts provide redirect facility if you buy domain from them but the search engine effect is not clear.
Another aspect to be considered here is the number of links to your blog from other sites.
If you have incoming links from other sites & you decide to change the host then your new site would lose these links.
Remember that the number of incoming links is the most important factor search engines consider while deciding your page rank.
To avoid losing incoming links you will have to contact each webmaster who has linked to your site requesting a fresh link or editing existing links.
This is not practical unless you have very few incoming links or you have a very good personal relation with the busy webmasters linking to your site.
4) Blog Design & Theme: Your blog template should reflect a sense of professionalism & you should avoid too much glossy templates.
You would find thousands of sites providing free templates.
You may choose a good looking & decent template from such sites.
Before using these templates you should ensure that these templates are user friendly.
The most important thing to remember is that you should not over crowd your site with too much graphics, banners or annoying pop ups.
Most of the blogs promoting affiliate products fill the side bars with as many banners as they could.
Over crowding your site with banners would distract the attention of your visitors & they would simply get them selves out from your site.
5) Use Meta Tags: Meta tags are the HTML codes that are visible to search engines but not to the visitors.
I highly recommend you should have meta tags generated for your blog.
These tags let the search engines know about your site.
Meta tags include Title Tags, Description Tags & Keywords Tag.
These meta tags allow search engines to easily index your site.
Meta tags make your blog search engine friendly.
I hope you have enjoyed my article till now.
My article would be of 75000 words if I wish to go on writing as the depth of the topic is very vast.
Nevertheless, you may take the inputs from the above discussion to improve your blogging experience.
My next article would discuss about how to drive traffic to your site.
Till then Enjoy Blogging!
Once you have selected the core topic of your blog now its time for you to create your blog or site.
1) Selecting the Title of Your Blog: The Blog title should be brief & descriptive as well.
Ideal size for your blog title is 40 to 80 characters.
The title should summarize exactly what your blog is all about.
Many people confuse title & description & choose a title that is too long & generic in nature.
Remember, your title should be as specific as possible to give a correct idea about what your blog is.
2) Selecting the Web address or URL of your blog: It is very tempting for you to put your name or your firm's name in the web address or the URL of your blog.
This is the common mistake committed by majority of people.
Your URL should be related with your blog topic.
If the topic of your blog is about say for example 'Financial Planning tips' the URL should reflect the same.
Instead of having URL like john-mathew.
com it would be better to have URL name like easyfinancial-planning.
com etc.
The reason why I am saying this is it is very important from search engines' perspective to include the core keywords of your site in URL itself.
Search engines display results for any search query after searching in their database created by crawlers (automated programs that crawls net & collect information about various websites).
The moment some one hits search for any thing on search engines they would be shown 'relevant results' from search engines.
The URL of the website is the first thing that would be considered relevant by the search engines although they would also consider many more factors while showing the search results.
(You may refer to my articles on Search Engine Optimization for more detail) 3) Choosing a Host: You may choose a free host like blogspot.
com or any other free host or you may choose to have your own.
com site.
If you already have a.
com site & you are creating a blog to support it then the blog can be hosted on a free host.
There are pros & cons for deciding whether to have free hosting service or to have own domain name.
In my opinion you should choose your own domain name for your blog.
The major reason for this is it reflects your commitment as a serious businessman & your site is not a fly by night operator.
Remember, people should believe in you first before they buy anything from your site.
In virtual world your site reflects characteristics of the owner.
Although, simply putting up a.
com site would not help you to sell & you have to do a lot more other things, it would definitely a positive point to have your own domain.
If initially you wish to start with a free domain & you have plans to convert it to own domain later, I would recommend that you should not start with a free domain but wait till you can afford to buy your own domain.
This may sound harsh but my friends there is logic behind why I am saying this.
If you make a start with free domain & after say 6 months you wish to convert it to own domain you would face many practical difficulties to do so.
If you have great & original content most of the search engines would have already indexed your blog in their databases.
If you change your hosting you will have to wait until your new URL is again indexed by search engines.
The search engines might consider the content of your new site as duplicate content & may even blacklist it.
Although now a days some of the free hosts provide redirect facility if you buy domain from them but the search engine effect is not clear.
Another aspect to be considered here is the number of links to your blog from other sites.
If you have incoming links from other sites & you decide to change the host then your new site would lose these links.
Remember that the number of incoming links is the most important factor search engines consider while deciding your page rank.
To avoid losing incoming links you will have to contact each webmaster who has linked to your site requesting a fresh link or editing existing links.
This is not practical unless you have very few incoming links or you have a very good personal relation with the busy webmasters linking to your site.
4) Blog Design & Theme: Your blog template should reflect a sense of professionalism & you should avoid too much glossy templates.
You would find thousands of sites providing free templates.
You may choose a good looking & decent template from such sites.
Before using these templates you should ensure that these templates are user friendly.
The most important thing to remember is that you should not over crowd your site with too much graphics, banners or annoying pop ups.
Most of the blogs promoting affiliate products fill the side bars with as many banners as they could.
Over crowding your site with banners would distract the attention of your visitors & they would simply get them selves out from your site.
5) Use Meta Tags: Meta tags are the HTML codes that are visible to search engines but not to the visitors.
I highly recommend you should have meta tags generated for your blog.
These tags let the search engines know about your site.
Meta tags include Title Tags, Description Tags & Keywords Tag.
These meta tags allow search engines to easily index your site.
Meta tags make your blog search engine friendly.
I hope you have enjoyed my article till now.
My article would be of 75000 words if I wish to go on writing as the depth of the topic is very vast.
Nevertheless, you may take the inputs from the above discussion to improve your blogging experience.
My next article would discuss about how to drive traffic to your site.
Till then Enjoy Blogging!