Putting a blog on your web site: HOW?
Now that more and more people are hearing about blogs, I hear the question all the time: so how do I add a blog? Is it hard? Should I do it? Why?
In this lens I will try to answer your questions and give you pointers to other resources that you can use to maximize the effectiveness (and traffic) of your site.
Why do this?
A blog is a great way to enhance your web site
Why do you have a web site? Is it to sell something, tell a story, explain a mission or an organization?No matter what it is, you rely on people finding your web site and reading it. For most people, the more the better.
With a blog you get two important add-ons:
1) Instead of a one-shot visit to your site, you will appeal to people who want to subscribe to your blog, giving you an ongoing rather than a one-shot relationship with them.
2) It is now really easy to have a site that is constantly changing and updating. Posting to a blog is so much easier and less formal than fully updating your how page. Your site will be more interesting and dynamic.
Are you a blogger?
You need to create a blog first
If you are opinionated and love to write, you are a great candidate to be a blogger. Don't worry, you don't have to be a brilliant taste maker, just know a lot about something - your business, your product, your passions.That's all you need. Creating a blog is really easy.
Here's my recommended procedure:
1) Look for a few blogs on a topic you care about. There are lots. Check out this directory for example: BlogBridge Topic Experts. Read them for a few days so you get an idea of the flavor.
2) Get yourself a free blog. There are several good places. You can run it on your own server or on their server. For example, check out WordPress, my personal favorite.
3) Start writing. Don't tell anyone about your blog yet, just get the hang of it. Write about your passion, your product, your service. What you know more about than anyone else.
By the way, if you've not had a lot of experience with blogs, may I recommend that you take a look at BlogBridge, which is one of the best, advanced Blog Readers out there.
And another excellent resource are the BlogBridge Topic Guideswhere we've organized and cataloged the best and most interesting blogs on a huge variety of topics.
Go browsing around to get an idea of what's available.
Have a blog? Now, just add it to your web site
Guess what, just add a link!
Say you have a blog...Let's hope you can post to it pretty regularly and that the people you want to attract to your web site will be really interested in your thoughts.Well the first step is ridiculously easy. Just add a link from your web site to your blog. Just a standard navigation link. Just like say you have a link that says "Contact" or "About", add one that says "Blog". Really that's all you need to start out.
What have you achieved? Now in addition to your good old web site (which I admit was very nice indeed) you have a much more timely, personalized blog where you can communicate directly with your visitors on something you know a lot about.
Guess what, in one fell swoop it's much easier for you to keep your site interesting with fresh content. Just post to the blog.
But ... that's not enough, is it?
Final touches: make the blog have the look of the web site
As simple as using similar colors
What else can you do? Well here are some more steps that can make the blog really be part of your site. Some of these are more advanced but many of you will want to try them:
You should consider each one:
1) Look at the colors and styles of your original site. Depending on what blogging software you use, there are multiple ways of making it look similar.
2) Consider whether some of your standard navigation elements (left or right side bar, nav menu) can actually be carried over into your default blog page. Now your blog page really is feeling like part of the family.
3) Many sites (including BlogBridge's own) have decided that the blog is one of the most important parts of their site, and actually make it a major part of the home page. This is not always appropriate, but definitely worth considering.
4) Whatever you do with your home page, ensure that it points to your blogs RSS feed so that people using great aggregators can create a live subscription to your site.
You should consider each one:
1) Look at the colors and styles of your original site. Depending on what blogging software you use, there are multiple ways of making it look similar.
2) Consider whether some of your standard navigation elements (left or right side bar, nav menu) can actually be carried over into your default blog page. Now your blog page really is feeling like part of the family.
3) Many sites (including BlogBridge's own) have decided that the blog is one of the most important parts of their site, and actually make it a major part of the home page. This is not always appropriate, but definitely worth considering.
4) Whatever you do with your home page, ensure that it points to your blogs RSS feed so that people using great aggregators can create a live subscription to your site.
That's all there is to it!
Send me an email if you want to ask more questions
Please get in touch over email, I'd be glad to answer your questions!
Also don't forget to take a look at BlogBridge which is one of the cooler blog readers for power users.
Click here to see a really short movie about BlogBridge
Also don't forget to take a look at BlogBridge which is one of the cooler blog readers for power users.
Click here to see a really short movie about BlogBridge
by pitosalas
I've done a lot of work with blogs, web sites, micro publishing, personal and professional blogging, and software and related tools. I like to think t... (more)
