Create Your Own Blog Internet Fun for Everyone
Richard Laermer, RLM Public Relations, Inc.
Many people aren’t quite sure what a blog is…or think that blogs may be too complicated to set up and use. In fact, that’s just not so.
A blog—short for “Web log”—is a personal Web site that anyone with Internet access can visit. And if you want people to, they can also add their own comments.
Today’s technology makes blogging just about as easy as writing E-mail. And by using simple techniques, you can now make yours stand out from the millions of others out there. Apart from the time you spend, there’s little or no cost to blogging.
Blogging is one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling ways to use the Internet. Your blog can be a diary, or it can be a place to express opinions, post pictures, promote your own business or exchange views with people involved in the same pastimes, hobbies or special interests. Thanks to new technology, it can also contain steady streams of news, and you can link it to other blogs and any Web site you choose.
Political blogs usually get the most publicity, but other popular blogs are devoted to sports, social causes, medical conditions, music, books, aging, hobbies, automobiles, religion and spirituality, movies, gardening, recipes, personal finance, home improvements, humor, men’s issues, women’s issues, pets, shopping and travel. As long as it’s legal, whatever interests you, you can blog!
GETTING STARTED
Only a couple of years ago, it helped to consult a book on blogging before launching your own blog site. Today that’s not necessary, thanks to “hosts” that enable clients to create a blog by simply filling out a form with content they want to appear on the site.
Most hosts provide instructions that are so clear that even neophytes can set up a blog in less than 10 minutes.
Cost: A few hosts provide free blogs, including www.blogger. com, www.wordpress.org and www.xanga.com. Others typically charge from $3.95 to $25 a month, depending on the size and sophistication of the blog. To find more blog hosts, enter “blog hosting” into Google or another search engine, such as Answers.com.
Hosting companies give passwords to bloggers so that only the person who owns the blog can control the content. But nearly all blogs invite the public to post comments. The blogger is still in control because he/she can use his password to enter the site and delete whatever comments he chooses.
Many hosts also enable clients to put news articles on their blogs. Often for a small monthly charge, bloggers can select news articles in specific categories—politics, environmental issues, entertainment, etc. Most hosts have streams of preselected news articles, but bloggers can delete any news items they choose.
Helpful: Familiarize yourself with existing blogs in the same subject area as the one you want to start. To find these sites, go to the hosting companies mentioned above, or use a blog search engine such as Google Blog Search at http://blogsearch.google.com or Technorati at www.technorati.com.
Look at these blogs to see what types of subjects you can do better. Some blogs with excellent information are so cluttered with graphics or irrelevant information that the worthwhile stuff is difficult to find. On others, credibility is compromised by frequent misspellings, a problem easily solved by the spell-check feature on most word processing programs.
My favorite blogs include www.fordboldmoves.com, an inside look at Ford…http://suburbanaproncompany.blogspot.com, “culinary musings” posted by a Chicago resident…http://ccablog.blogspot.com, The Canadian Cartographic Association’s Web log…www.gardening4dummies.com, posted by an Australian gardening enthusiast…and http://community.tvguide.com, posted by TV Guide.
Even though some of these are operated by large organizations, their fresh, interesting content and uncluttered appearance can serve as models for any individual blogger.
STANDING OUT
The success of a blog depends on the objective of the blogger. Some bloggers measure success by the number of people their blogs attract, others by the quality of information that’s shared on the blogs. Proven ways to make your blog more popular…
•Get the word out. Tell friends that you have a blog, and ask them to pass the word on. Even better, try to tell groups of friends, such as those in a club, a hobby group or religious organization, depending on the subject matter of your blog. When you speak with them, talk about the interesting or useful information that they’ll learn on your site.
Example: If your blog is devoted to gardening topics, you might have information about new hybrid herbs that grow year-round.
•Give visitors an incentive to spread the word about your site.
Smart move: Hold contests that encourage visitors to tell others about your blog.
Example: Reward the visitor who posts the best new information with special recognition on your site. A golf blog, for instance, could give a monthly “Par Excellence” award, or an herb gardening blog could recognize the visitor with the best information as “Sage of the Month.”
Also consider asking visitors to let you know by E-mail if they want to receive information before it’s posted on your blog. Then periodically E-mail this information to visitors, and ask the recipients to pass on the news to others who they believe would be interested. When they do, many of these people will also become loyal visitors to your blog—and participants as well.
•Monitor similar blogs to make sure that your content is fresh, different and better.
•Post brief messages on other blogs that mention your own blog site. To improve the chances that your messages are read, make sure that the information is of the type that’s typically posted on the other blogs. If your blog is devoted to Mexican food, for example, referring to your content isn’t likely to get much attention on a food blog that specializes in, say, smorgasbords.
•Swap links with other blogs. When you see blogs whose visitors might also be interested in yours, contact the blogger and suggest swapping links so that both blogs have links to each other. Contacting the blogger is usually easy because nearly all blogs have “contact” links where visitors can send an E-mail directly to the blogger.
When you suggest swapping links, explain that the swap is in the best interest of the other blogger. The best way is to give an example of the specifics on your blog that visitors to the other blog will be interested in.
Example: If your blog is devoted to music of the 1950s, you’re almost sure to get a swap deal if you can say that your blog often gets messages from Elvis’s former Army buddies as opposed to saying that your blog has a list of early Elvis records. That’s not new.
•Contact newspapers or TV stations with Web pages that cover the same topic as your blog.
Good idea: E-mail information about your blog to the editors of these sites. This will help direct more traffic to your blog.
Bottom Line/Retirement interviewed Richard Laermer, CEO, RLM Public Relations, Inc., New York City. His upcoming book, Punk Marketing, is scheduled to be published by HarperCollins in January 2007. He is also author of Full Frontal PR: Building Buzz About Your Business, Your Product or You (Bloomberg). Laermer has his own blog, www.badpitch.blogspot.com.
Reprinted with the permission of:
Boardroom Inc. and Bottom Line Publications, Inc.
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