Where to blog
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Where to blog or not to blog, that is the question.
The word blog is just starting to loose some importance. These days everyone is talking about content generation or content marketing. The tradition of the BLOG will just be rolled into this. In the same way that people refer to an iPhone as a phone and not a smart phone. Where to blog is more like, where do I put my content which is best for me?
The most important thing you have to realize is that you have to own your content. You have to have control over the content as well as retain copyright to the material you produce. If you are just aggregating other people’s work then you don’t own it. But if you putting pen to paper you have to own it.
What do I mean you have to own it? You have to own the URL that the work can be found at. You have to own the website it appears on. This may seem like it is more trouble than it is worth, but it isn’t.
I cringe when I see people that have a web site and then blog at a free blogging service, they don’t own their blog. The service could shut down or change the terms of service and they have lost everything. This blog (Making Business and Sales Work) has a custom URL for marketing (www.makingbusinessandsaleswork.com) but if you look at the address bar of your browser now you will see that is it part of the Ask Find Buy website. The reason is so any SEO that is generated will also be considered content for Ask Find Buy. As Google (or any search engine) indexes the Internet the number of pages in the index increases. For each blog post you put out you get a little bit bigger share of the index. This is a real simple way of looking at the index and why owning as many pages as possible is important.
The other thing is keywords. I have done another blog post on how to select keywords. But if you blog about things that are related to your site you will rank better in the index.
By owning the site you blog on you set the rules. Recently Instagram announced that they were going to start selling the pictures that people have been uploading to their site. Because when you put it there they own it. Imagine that you have been blogging for a few years and you decide to put all your blog posts out as an ebook. In theory the blog site you use could have some copyright over the content and stop you from publishing.
Where to blog for free?
Using a free bog platform like Blogger or wordpress.com means your site will look like every other site that uses that same platform. If you own the site you can have any look and feel you want. A premium theme costs only a few dollars. Take making business and sales work for example; it is powered by WordPress but looks like a newspaper, because we are using a newspaper theme.
If you go to these free blog sites you will see advertising. It is there advertising. You get nothing but it is your work that is bringing the readers. If you check the home page of this blog you will see advertising. All the revenue raised by that advertising goes to fund this blog.
So what does it cost to blog?
I have in passed got hosting for as cheap as $90 a year. I have gone beyond that as I have a few blogs and other needs. But at $90 you are looking at less than $10 a month. WordPress should come with that and you can set that up in under and hour. A great theme is going to cost under $50 (go to themeforest ).
So to get all the benefits of SEO, retain copyright and look professional is less than the cost of a cup of coffee a week. If you have any questions just ask. I’ll help you get started, just please don’t go down the free blog path.
I hope this has answered the question, Where to blog?
Remember you can always contact us at podcast@askfindbuy.com or through any of the social media channels.
Regards Craig
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Until next time keep working on your marketing and I hope everything you do brings you success.
Craig can also be contacted at Griffiths Creative supplying Marketing strategy to Small Business in Sydney
Related posts:
- linkFEST 2012 – links and tips (inc Twitter)
- Reach and Frequency
- Content Marketing 102 – Guest Blogging
