Decide Your Blogs Domain Now Rather Than Later

Build A Better Blog Day 24

Today I want to talk about the type of blogging platform you use. There are basically two main types; one is self-hosted, where you pay someone to provide the infrastructure to run a blog, and the other is hosted, where you use a pre-configured application like Blogger or Vox. The other part that goes along with what type of platform you choose is whether you have your own domain or use a hosted domain. Here are some examples:

Self Hosted:
yourcompany.com
blog.yourcompany.com
yourcompany.com/blog

Hosted:
yourblog.blogspot.com
blog.vox.com
myblog.wordpress.com

There are conflicting opinions whether a blog hosted at Blogger gets more search engine love than one which is self-hosted. For me, there is one major issue with using a blog hosted by someone else; if you ever want to host your own blog and have full control, migrating will be much harder. Sure there are built in programs that will suck in all your posts, but there is something that you lose not matter what you do; links to your blog. Here is an example:

myblog.blogsport.com/archives/this-is-my-first-post/

The above URL is what all the search engines have. But now you want this:

mydomain.com/2007/11/1/this-is-my-first-post

Now, if you decide that you want to host your own blog you have a problem, there could be an extremely large amount of work to redirect all your old links to new ones. How to do this is beyond the scope of this blog, but believe me, it's not something you want to tackle. The best way to avoid this problem is to plan long term. Decide up front you want to host your own blog, or at least find a solution that will let you use you own domain name.

Most people base their decision on what platform to use on cost. Services like Blogger, Wordpress.com, Typepad or Vox are all free. With free you lose some things such as configuration. You may get some leeway but mainly you get to choose the name and the theme and that’s it. If you want to make major changes you have to pay the company for access to those features. The drawback besides cost is most of these blogs can be set up in a matter of seconds and you're off and running. Before you decide to start here, make sure you have taken some time to plan you blog and what you want to accomplish.

I really want to give my personal opinion here. Pony up the few dollars it costs to have your own domain and hosting. You can get a domain for under $10 a year at GoDaddy.com and they even supply hosting services for just a few dollars more. There are dozens of great hosts. Ask your readers who they like. In the end you will be happy you did.

ProBlogger's day twenty-four post: Do a Search Engine Optimization Audit

read more...

Numb To What Has Become Commonplace

Posted by mobile phone:
Jim Long is a guy I would love to follow around and experience life as he sees it. His job as an NBC cameraman gives him a unique opportunity to experience life as it happens. Jim chooses to share some of his experiences with his friends on Twitter. I'm lucky to be one of those friends.

The other day Jim flew with President Bush to San Diego and he gave us a behind the scenes look at how it was going. But one tweet caught my eye and I'm not sure anyone really caught it. Her is what he said right after landing back in Washington:

newmediajim: as our plane taxis we pass an honor guard placing a coffin in a hearse here on base

Jim has seen this many times but the general public doesn't. Brave soldiers are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether you agree with our current military actions or not, our fellow Americans are giving their lives. Lets not forget them please.

Thanks Jim for remembering the things that are still important.

read more...

Get Your Blog Readers Involved, Hold A Contest

Build A Better Blog Day 23

An easy and inexpensive way to get your readers involved in your blog is to hold a contest. This doesn't have to be elaborate or time consuming, in fact, the readers need to do all the work. Here is an example of what you could write in your contest blog post:

This months contest is a reader self portrait, with a twist. Write a blog post about a picture you take or was taken of you, standing next to your favorite car. Come back to this post and write a comment with a link back to your post. I'll pick the post with the coolest post/image and and I'll write one more blog post announcing the winner. So you will get two links back to your blog. The winner will then choose next months winner and so on. Good luck.

Of course this is only an example. You will want to think it through and write out what you want to happen in your contest. Make sure you give ample time for as many readers to participate as possible, thats the whole point of the contest.

Over time you may give prizes, heck Darren Rowse gave away over $60,000 in prizes for his blogs birthday celebration. I wouldn't expect you to do this but it's just an example of what you can do. You might start an internet scavenger hunt, picture taking contest or writing contest. The possibilities are endless. Initially the idea is to build connections with your readers and their blogs. Everyone likes free publicity, become the PR or Marketing tool for your readers.

The last thing I want to mention are Blog Carnivals. The idea behind a blog carnival is several blogs that have similar focus each write about a specific topic and then supply the links to each of the blog posts written. The next week its a different blog hosting the theme and the links. It rotates through a group of people. This gives everyone a chance to get some link love. Check out the Blog Carnival website and get involved.

B log contests can be fun for everyone, just make sure you plan well enough ahead of time that everyone understands what they are getting out of it. Build up the contest. Blog about it several days or weeks before the event. Comment on other blogs about it. Use Social Networks like Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook or MySpace to promote the contest. There are plenty of avenues, you just need to make some effort.

ProBlogger's day twenty three post: Go on a Dead Link Hunt

read more...

Utah Geek/Blogger Dinner Tonight

Hey everyone, tonight there is a Geek/Blogger dinner in Sandy, Utah. Get all the details here. Have fun without me.

Time and Place
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2007
Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Hometown Buffet
Street: 10390 S State St
City/Town: Sandy City, UT

Gcal link
Facebook link

read more...

Create Catchy Blog Titles That Beg To Be Read

Build A Better Blog Day 22

You've heard the old adage don't judge a book by it's cover? Well, your blog has a cover, and its your blog posts. By now you should have a well functioning RSS feed that is syndicated with several blog directory services. When someone has a number of feeds in a reader, they scan for interesting headlines, just like a news paper. Think of the last time you were looking for something interesting to read, did you stop on a catchy headline? If course you did. Its human nature. We are all curious.

A blogs title is a very important part of the overall post. The content must be powerful and engaging, but you have to get someone interested in what you have to say before they will ever read it. I suggest you read some RSS feeds or post directories to get an idea how other bloggers are titling their posts. Visit other blogs, see what bloggers are using for titles. You might find some titles have little or nothing to do with the content you read. This is on purpose. I don't suggest you do this because it may turn some of your readers off like a bait and switch.



Take some time to come up with the blogs title. Some times I change mine 3 or4 times before settling on a title. Most of the time I write the post, edit, re-read and then come up with a title. I start out with an idea but that's not the title. Depending on your blogs focus you may try powerful title with calls to action. Or you may have a creative blog that stirs emotion. You also want to use good key words which will help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). These are key words search engines like Google will pick up on and rank your blog higher on its result pages.

Let's try a few out:

• Today I went to the library vs. Picked up the Steven King book Bag of Bones at the Library today

The second title contained several key words that the search engines will pick up on plus if I'm a Steven King fan, I might want to read what you have to say.

• Back from vacation vs. View the pictures of my vacation to Machu Picchu

The second title tells me there are pictures, which everyone wants to see, and maybe someone is getting ready to go to South America and wants to get your take on the area.

The point is to give us a taste of what you want us to read. Tell a small quick story. Use words that carry larger meanings or paint a picture. You may try using words that describe a smell or a feeling. You will get better with time. Writing great blog post titles is an art. Practice makes perfect.

ProBlogger's day twenty two post: Catch New Readers Up on the Basics of your Blog

read more...