Blog Hosting: More Blog Hosting checklists.

March 10th, 2009

In a previous post, I outlined Top 5 Blog Hosting checklists. Today I want to take it a bit further as I share with you a few more checklist that will further make your decision process easier and help you stay away from all the troubles that do arise from using the wrong host while you concentrate on making your blog a success.

1) Disk space and Bandwidth allocated:
I want to advice that you should be very careful with the “unlimited” or “infinite” plan that most hosting provider do offer unless you are sure of their reliability or perhaps someone you trust recommends it.

What am I say in essence? If you are not sure, just look out for a hosting plan with a specific amount of space (say 100GB), with that you can be rest assured that such amount of space is most likely what you get (almost guaranteed).

But if you must settle for unlimited hosting, whereby you are looking at hosting multiple domains, I may as well recommend Kiosk, that what I personally use and having used their services for over a year and been that I got the recommended from a friend and mentor who himself have been using it for more than four years, I can boldly tell you that their service is good.

The same advice goes for bandwidth allocation, you will want to be sure of what you are getting. Whether it is a monthly bandwidth allocation or any other plan …be sure to look for a specific amount of space as well unless you get a recommendation.

You do not want your visitors landing on your blog and reading something like “Oooops: Bandwidth exceeded for this month” and more importantly you do not want any form of suspension on your blog activities …that will only cause your blog to suffer.

Why the above reasons may be a good enough reasons to avoid the unlimited plans. It is also a wonderful experience to know that you won’t be charged anything extra (if you chose any of the unlimited plans, just don’t host with a provider you don’t trust) in a situation where your blog suddenly experience a huge increase in traffic.

Another important thing I think I should mention is that you should not worry too much about the bandwidth and the disk space that they offer you.

You will likely not be needing anything that much unless you feel your blog will grow too soon and even at that you can always upgrades your hosting plan …just make sure they have different plans that you can easily upgrade to as the need arises.

2) Flexible Policy.
One thing you will likely discover with many hosting companies is the fact that they tend to offer you a free domain name just for subscribing to any of their hosting plan …helping you save some few dollars, mostly for that very first year, after which you begin to pay the subsequent yearly fees.

As tempting as this maybe I normally do advice against it. Make sure they have a very flexible Policy. For instance some hosting service provider just find it difficult to let you have the free domain name you registered with them …trying to keep you subscribed to their hosting.

So, you want to take extra care when choosing a hosting company or service provider. In fact you should find out from them what happens if for any reason you decides to change to another hosting provider.

3) Payment method:
You can only find quite a few hosting service provider that do accept payment from Nigeria and other countries that fall under the same category (country that are somehow regarded as fraudulent) . Therefore if you are residing in any of this blacklisted countries, make sure your hosting choice do accept payment from people of your country.

It just a pity that this is happening but I want to assure you that things are getting better, as more people from these countries are being honest with their online dealings.

…Just for the noting, don’t let the fact that a particular hosting service provider won’t accept payment from you stop you from hosting your blogs. If you have your card or any other payment means just go ahead and find those that will and move on, If you don’t find someone who do to help you.

4) Every other thing in between:
By this I simple mean you can always find out as much as you can. You may want to know how many email account you will be entitled to …depending on your need.

You may also need to find out what their paying customer are saying. Almost all hosting companies do provide customer’s testimonials on their websites. Read through to find out what their paying customers are saying.

Don’t just take what I have said so far and not even their customer’s testimonials. Do your own research. Google it …visit forums …check out honest reviews …read as much as you can from the hosting companies themselves.

Just like I have already mention …I use Kiosk and I fully endorse and recommend it. However, if i am able to find people using other hosting provide or if I can spare sometime to research on other web hosting providers be assured that I will be sharing my discovery with you.

Bonus: What happens if I have already made a mistake?

If you find yourself using a hosting service that is kind of frustrating your effort, that is to say you have made a mistake in your choice of blog hosting, then I will advice that you choose another one. Changing hosts shouldn’t be much of a problem and I think the company you are changing to maybe willing to help you out, just send them an email in respect to what you want them to do for you.

Here is a word of advice; I need you to know that there maybe times when something might just go wrong or there is a kind of upgrade your host is trying to do …it sure to happen once in a while, during such times keep in mind that things happens and before you go groaning, try to keep a backup of your blog.

Wherever you decide to host your blog …the decision is completely yours to make. However, always bear in mind that where your blog is hosted is one of the major components …behind-the-scenes component that determines the success of your blog.

What hosting service do you use? …Where is your blog hosted? …Are you really satisfied with there service? Feel free to share your experience and ask your questions.

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Buy domain name: Why buy a unique domain name for your blog?

March 7th, 2009

“It’s their rules not yours …that simply means they are in charge.”

It is already a wide practice as a lot of bloggers today choose to buy their own unique domain name however there are still a lot of other bloggers who choose to start their blog on a free platform.

Whatever decision you are looking at making, today’s article will help you in making a better decision as I throw some light on why most bloggers choose to buy unique domain names for their blogs. Before I proceed you may want to take out some time and get to understand the importance of a domain name.

…Below are some of the most obvious and important reasons why most bloggers buy their own unique domain names.

1) Branding, Professionalism and Credibility:
Now why it may be possible for you to brand yourself with a free blog and still become successful, having your own unique domain name has more advantage.

When you take out time to carefully select a domain name whereby you are looking at branding yourself, just like this very blog (www.francisalaeto.com – self branding) or you are simply looking at branding your business, product, service etc …Such domain names helps build the brand and credibility of such a blog faster …unlike when you do not have a unique domain, where what you get is a domain name like “yourchoicedomain.blogspot.com”.

With a unique domain name, you will enjoy the privilege of having your own unique email addresses that is personalized with your domain name (such as name@yourchoicedomain.com), which enables your blog to be perceived as a professional blog. In fact, many people see having your own domain as a sign of seriousness and this can actually be a plus for building your blog credibility and brand.

With this you can easily and effective enhance the image of your business, product, service, company or organization for a very minimal cost …less than $10 for a year.

2) Blog Rankings and Backlinks:
As you keep blogging, your blog begins to gain links from other blogs as well as recognitions …over time all these can really shoot up you rankings, such as Page Rank (PR), Alexa Rank etc …enhancing your Search Engine Rankings as well. At this point the blog is already doing great but what do you think will happen if you latter choose to get your own unique domain name?

What happens to your backlinks? …What happens to all your hard earned rankings? …How would you love to start promoting your blog afresh? …I know you do not want this kind of experience; you will rather be in control.

3) Availability:
If you see yourself registering a particular domain name anytime in the future, especially when you have “your ideal name” in mind …you may as well register it now because this is the only way to be sure you will still find it available …even if you won’t be blogging on the immediate. The more you wait, the less the chance of buying your ideal domain name.

Also, If you are looking at having the domain name you end up buying to be same with that of a free blog platform that you are already using, you might as well buy it right away.

…You can always park it or better still point it towards your free blog

Quite a lot of people has discovered that when they were ready to start out with a “paid blog” …they just couldn’t find the name they were already using with their free platform especially when they had it at the back of their mind to latter register and use the same name but this time not as a subdomain – taken away the “.blogspot.com”

I can’t actually tell, but with millions of websites/blogs already exiting and more been created on a daily basic. You can never be sure you will find the name you have in mind, so it’s always advisable to secure a domain name, once a choice is made.

...You don’t want to be ready only to discover that your ideal domain name has been taken.

4) Domain ownership:
Personally, I see domain registration as the beginning of website/blog ownership. You own that name and no one can take that from you. This is the real reasons I prefer owning my domains names instead of having it as a mere subdomain (yourchoicedomain.blogspot.com).

Many bloggers also tend to agree with this as they see domain ownership as “VRE” – Virtual Real Estate. Though with free blog platforms like Wordpress and Blogger you may still be able to get and do (to some extend) what someone with its own domain can do since their platforms are quite established.

But with other new and smaller platforms, you may wake up one day and discover that your blog is no more just because the platform has been shut down or perhaps they just made an adjustment to their policy.

Another reason worth mentioning is the easy and convenience that comes with moving your domain. By this I mean …if for any reason, you decides to change host, due to a need for some kind of advanced hosting, you can actually do so without having any problem with your formal blog host.

Apart from having your blog completely on a free platform, there have been cases where you get a free domain name from a hosting service provider that you have an account with and when you are looking at moving it latter …they find it difficult to let you have the name.

…If this happens you will have to get a new domain name and start promoting your new blog all over again, even if this is no problem for you what do you think will happen to all the backlinks and rankings, you would definitely loss that and you do not want this kind of experience …you want to be in control.

When you are in “Control”, you will be free from all the limitations that comes with the free blogs and free domain names …Yes, “Control” that the watch word for having your own unique domain name, you can change hosts at any time …keep all you backlinks and rankings and still have your subscribes and visitor coming back to your site by simply typing in your domain name.

Bonus
One more thing to add to the above reasons is the fact that you can always use custom error pages/messages to direct and prevent your blog visitors from leaving your blog in case of broken links and any other error that may arise.

Finally, I need you to know that I am not disputing the use a free blog or getting a free domain name from your host.
However, if you put into consideration the above few points, especially the fact that your domain name and/or blog is totally not in your control …you may as well invest a few dollars to buy a domain name. It’s basically less than $10.

No matter how nice it can be to get something completely for free, I personally think getting more of that same thing for little a price is not a bad ideal at all.

…These are just my opinions and recommendations.

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Buy domain name: Just how importance is a “domain name” to your blog?

March 3rd, 2009

Once you are ready to start blogging, you will need to buy a domain name especially if you are considering using a “paid blog” but just how importance is a “domain name”.

Imagine discussing with a new friend on the phone and in the process he asked that you quickly come over to his office of which he gave you the address. On getting there you discovered that the address he gave you is an office complex with about 100 offices in it and it was just unfortunate that he forgot to give you the name of the business/company.

You quickly reach out for your phone …dialed his number but to your surprise the number could not be reached …remember how that sounds …”the number you are trying to call is unavailable, please try again latter.” After many repeated trials and same reply, you finally turned back and went home.

Why that wasn’t the only thing you could have done at that moment, the other option (just walking into the different office and making enquires) was just too stressful and would actually take so much of your time and that is if it doesn’t turn you into an object of ridicule. Though chances are you could be lucky to discover his office with only a few trails or at less find someone who knows him and can tell you the name of the office.

…That was an interesting piece, wasn’t it? …Good, let’s take it a step further.

Now, you and I know, it could be quite difficult locating such an office especially when you have limited time, its even worst when you happen not to know the nature of the business in question and even at that there maybe other business doing almost the same thing.

It actually no difference with the internet and your blog …your blog is just but one out of many others which may posses like content with your blog and target the same niche just like the business of “our friend” which is located in an office complex and whose nature of business is likely same with some other businesses in that same complex.

At this point it takes the name of your blog to identify and differentiate it from the rest. It is the first thing that uniquely puts your blog apart from the others. This is known as the domain name or the URL (Uniform Resource Locator, previously Universal Resource Locator) of the blog. For instance, the site URL (domain name) you are viewing right now is http://francisalaeto.com It is uniquely for this site.

What then is a domain name?

Simply put a domain name is the beginning of your online identity. Like I have already said it is uniquely yours …just as unique as a registered business name …It represents your online presence as does a registered business name. Some webmasters refers to it as your address on the internet.

Whichever way you look at it, no other person can have access to register the same domain name unless it expires and you are careless with it or just don’t need it anymore. If you have ever tried to register a business name, then you should be aware that once the name you are trying to register has been taken by someone else …you simply try another name. This is very much applicable to your domain name.

To add to all that is been said I need you to know that your domain name is an important business asset and I hope you see your blog as a business. People can only access whatever it is you have on your website/blog by visiting your domain name. All these point down to just how importance a “domain name” is.

Finally having a blog implies having a domain name. Whether it a “free blog” or a “paid blog”. You definitely need a domain name. The only difference is that you don’t pay/buy the domain name when using a free blog.

All you will be required to do is to fill in the blank space provided for that purpose with an available name of your choice however you get a domain name like “www.yourchoicename.blogspot.com” depending on the blog platform you end up using.

While that of a “paid blog” is paid for (i.e you buy a domain name with a domain registrar). With this you get the domain name of your choice (www.yourchoicename.com), however you need to first check for it availability as well.

Note: Your domain name may or may not be your business name.

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Blog Hosting: Top 5 Blog Hosting checklists.

February 28th, 2009

Just before I dive into the topic proper, let me try and explain Hosting, so even a complete newbie can follow through the rest of this article.

Hosting Explained.
Hosting can be said to be the place/location of your website/blog on the Internet. This location is normally called server (a type of computer that host your blog).

What does it mean to host your blog?
Imagine you are trying to start a new business. Where would you prefer to locate your business, if money and space were not a problem? I know you won’t want to have it located where it will be difficult for anyone to find it or perhaps where someone wanting to do business with you will require a map just to get to the location of your business.

This would mean the death of your business even before it got started. It doesn’t matter how cheap you got the place, your decision would be killing your new business.

…This is simply what you should bear in mind when making your decision

Therefore, if you do not want to have your subscribers, customers and or visitors finding it real difficult locating your blog then one very important issue every blogger must consider with all seriousness is where he will be hosting his blog(s).

Though you can always change host if you notice anything “funny” but you definitely don’t want your blog going down or having any avoidable challenges just because you made the wrong decision at the very start. It can easily have some negative impact on the productivity and success of your blog.

So, it’s very important that out of hundreds of hosting options available you are able to choose the right hosting service provider for your blog. In this article I have outlined 5 important checklists to look out for, when you are making any blog hosting decision.

Now, I need to say this, if you are looking at using a free blog then you don’t have to worry about hosting as any free blog platform you end up using will be taking care of the hosting for you.

However, if you are considering “a paid blog” (setting up a blog only after registering and hosting your domain) then this article is for you.

…Let now take a look at the topic of the day.

Top 5 Blog Hosting checklists.

1) What are your hosting needs:
This is the very first thing I try to find out from people who seek my assistance in hosting their blog. It is very important you try and picture what your needs are before looking at any other criteria.

At this point every blogger must consider its own needs. Just as our blogging goals and activity do differ from one another in some ways, don’t you think our hosting needs may as well be? This reminds me of the saying “different stroke for different fox.”

It is very vital you know what you are looking at achieving. For instance, before I opted for the hosting plan I currently use, I had to pay someone to take care of my hosting for me since he had a hosting plan that could accommodate as many domains as possible.

That singular act saved me a lot as I didn’t have to pay on a monthly basis, infact what I paid for a year was not up to what I could have paid for two month if I had opted to take care of the hosting myself.

So, one question I do love to ask, especially to a first time blogger is “why would you want to get a hosting plan that can host unlimited domains just to end up having a single blog on it?” …Do you actually need it? …you are the only one who can best answer the above questions.

Today I personally host all my websites including those of my clients with Kiosk. You may choose to opt for this hosting plan if you are looking at hosting quite a large number of websites/blogs. But if you are just starting out and won’t be hosting a large number of site you may get someone to do the hosting for you.

Also, you should be able to determine what features you will need to help ease your hosting process …this I will explain below.

2) 24/7 customer support:
If I must say, this is very …very important. Personally I hate to wait for days, even hours just to get answer/support on a pressing issue and I won’t mind paying some more for good customer service. So you want to be sure that the hosting company you are looking at choosing has a 24/7 support system in place.

To find out just go ahead and open a support ticket. To do that just use their support section, though you may need to have an account with them before you can gain access to their support section. This shouldn’t be a problem as most of them do all you to test drive their service for a month for as little as $1, if not completely for free.

All you may need to do once you gain access is to ask the web hosting service questions about their service …you might want to ask them about their complete service or an aspect of their service …telling them you need to know more and be sure this a good choice of hosting for you.

With this you should be able to see how there response goes …how knowledgeable and friendly are their support staff? …is the response positive and most importantly, is it quick? If they get back to you within 48 hours that may just be fair enough but anything above that is completely not good for your blog.

…Remember you are still test driving their service. So, if they don’t meet up to expectation you definitely know what is best for you to do. You also want to make sure that there are different ways by which you can contact their support service …phone, e-mail, live chat, or online ticket submission etc.

3) CPanel and Fantastico:
When it comes to hosting you blog you actually want to make sure that your hosting provider has the basic features that will help simplify your work. Among these features you want to be sure it comes with a CPanel (the easiest of all control panels).

The CPanel should also come with Fantastico apart from the many other important web application that you get to find in it, such as the web mail application (use in creating your personalized e-mail addresses).

With the aid of fantastico, you can easily and automatically install many web scripts (e.g. WordPress automatic installation program). With it the installation of your blog is effortless and almost instant. Can be setup within minutes, if you know how.

One thing I can assure you is that you definitely don’t want to go through the stress of having to do without these features and you don’t have any reason for not having it as part of the features that comes with your hosting plan as many hosting service providers do offer these web applications.

…These are very important features that you should be on the look out for.

4) Reliability:
The reliability of the hosting service provider is very vital. In making a decision, you need to be sure that you can actually rely on their service. You do not want a situation where something goes wrong, whether it’s due to power outage or due to a problem with where the server is located, only for it to keep the activity of your blog in suspense.

You want to be sure they have backup servers as well as backup power sources (e.g. generator). It should be a seamless backup.

Recently, the company I host my blogs with where kind of moving, I received several email from them on what was happening however, I did not bother to follow up with the emails as it really didn’t affect any of my blogs.

In summary, you want you blogs to still be online …you do not want them down no matter what.

5) Consider the cost of the service:
I actually decided to write on this as the last part of the five checklists, if not I will actually have it as part of the other checklists (I should be writing them latter). This is because I think a lot of people, when choosing a host tends to place there decisions on the price.

While looking out for the price is not necessarily bad, I think pricing shouldn’t be more important than the other four factors already listed. After all, it doesn’t really cost that much to host your blog. If you take out time to search, you will definitely find alot of hosting service at what I may call a giveaway price, but is that what you are actually looking for? …Is that your true need?

Taking a look at some of the hosting price today, you should notice that they range from $1 to over $150 monthly, depending on what you want. This simply makes hosting quite affordable though some seems to be a bit on the high side.

However, using a cheap service might cost you more on the long run. I will never recommend you choose your host based on the price. If you are truly serious about blogging then pricing should not be a problem.

Now, I need you to know that, these are the basic factors you have to consider. So go ahead and make your hosting decision. Like I said, I use the hosting service of kiosk and I highly recommend it, you can be rest assured that it meets all of the above criteria.

Also, you need to know that their monthly charges are just $44.5. It is a bulk account that can host several website/blog. However, you can open an account with them today for just $1 and test drive their service for 30 days. That is indeed a fair advantage.

Hosting your blog isn’t that difficult. Infact many domain registrar service and hosting providers have a well detailed guide that anyone can follow to get things done.

However, if you are new to blogging (paid blogging) and don’t just seem to understand how hosting works …I mean you are still trying to figure out how to install blogs …use cpanel, fantastico and all other complexities of self hosting your blog then you might as well find someone to do it for you.

Finally, if after reading this article, you think or still find it quite a hassle to self host your blog or you just can’t afford the monthly hosting plan, I will likewise advice you get someone to do it for you.

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WordPress.tv launched! What will WordPress.tv do for you.

January 17th, 2009

WordPress.tv though newly launch promise to be your Visual resource for all things WordPress. This is a good development for WordPress users who don’t enjoy reading. However you will need a good internet connection to actually enjoy the videos and this may be a challenge for many Nigerians.

WordPress.tv is a simple and wonderful addition to the WordPress family. The goal of WordPress.tv is to make it easy for people (both new and old users) to learn how to use WordPress as well as quickly find up-to-date, WordPress-themed video content. Saving you the stress of having to search through the web for such contents.

WordPress.tv covers and provides tutorials for both WordPress self-installed (WordPress.org) and WordPress.com. At the moment you will find quite a number of tutorials that looks at the basics and this is only the beginning. There are video tutorials from writing and publishing a post (the how to videos) to publishing your post at a later date and many more.

So, If you are looking to stay abreast with the latest stuffs on WordPress as well as learn blogging using the WordPress platform …how to do both simply and advance stuff with it, you may want to bookmark this site and check it out as often as possible. The videos are expected to make it easier for you to get things done with WordPress.

If you are just starting out with blogging this will surely help shorting the learning curve especially if you intend to use WordPress which is one of today’s best blogging platform.

For the advance blogger, you will  find it very useful as it promises to provides videos on certain things you may not already be good at …and if there is anything you did love to see added, all you need do is let it out and hopefully it will be added in no time.

Also you will find some audios, interviews, behind-the-scenes, presentation videos, highlights and Slides, covering the WordCamps (WordCampTV). In the coming weeks and months you should also expect to see more content for these section of the site.

To get to watch the WordpPress.tv Introduction video and find out what it’s all about and more importantly how it will help improving the way you blog. You can visit Wordpress.tv and also get to read their blog You may also want to read Michael Pick’s blog.

Finally, If you’d like to keep up to date on the latest content added to WordPress.tv, consider subscribing to the blog, you may as well follow things up on their new WordPress.tv twitter account.

To the WordPress crew, I say a big kudos and wish you all the best as you make it a priority to fulfill your promises.

Happy Viewing! Happy Blogging!

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Running a Successful Blog …What are the Secrets?

January 9th, 2009

Whether you are new to blogging or you are quite familiar with the whole idea? …Whether you would like to monitize your blog or not? It doesn’t even matter whether it a business or personal blog. You definitely would love to run a successful blog.

How would you love to have and know the same secret the so called “gurus” …expert …professionals and other successful bloggers know?

…That may be the real reason for the difference between the success you will ever know (that’s if you ever find any meaningful success) and  the ones achieved by professional bloggers.

In my future articles you will discover many untold truth of successful bloggers.

But before we take a look at that, let face some facts.

You have either just put up your website or blog or you have one that has been exiting for some time now. However the question on your mind could be - “how do I get visitors to my site?”

Better still you may already have the answer to that question and having implemented them you are gradually seeing a good flow of visitors. Now, you are thinking how do I immediately convert my visitors to readers?

At this stage you are gradually moving on but what happens when you past this stage. You simply move to the next, trying to figure out how to monetize your site and better still you don’t want your visitors and/or readers to see you or your blog as solely exiting for profit.

Now, if you truely want to run a successful blog, no matter what your definition of a blog is, the truth remains that the questions above are nothing compared to the many questions you will have to know their answers before you can actually make it great just blogging.

…Let consider some more facts.

When blogging was just becoming popular, there weren’t  so much website unlike today. Also there were only but a few blogs that had already hit the net. So anyone with the right mindset and set of skills (which he would easily outsource or just learn how to creat) could easily start a blog and in no time he could be running a great blog.

Whether you already have readers (offline community) or not, if you are blogging on something that people (the anonymous masses who don’t even know you existed) really need information on, you would soon be making head way after all you might just be the only one blogging on such a subjet as at that time and if you had any form of competitors, it wouldn’t be anything compared to what is available today.

(In the above paraghraph I replaced “he” with “you” just to help you place yourself in that position)

But all that is becoming a thing of the past, there is hardly any subject that you won’t find a website or blog on. The best you can do is make your own twist to it, put it in your own words, improve on what has already been done, limit your target to a smaller group of people.

Even at that you will still need to uncover the secrets thats is only available  to a seleted few before you can really make any progress.

Come to think of it, with over a 100 million blogs out there. Have you ever had to ask yourself questions such as;

 Why would people want to read My Blog?

What is it your are doing or think you can do to get their attention?

Believe it or not, there are quite a few truth that the so called “Gurus” don’t really tell you. Yes, it is what professionals and successful bloggers know and practise that brings them all the success you wish you could have.

You see, it takes quite more than mere wishing of wanting to blog or write about your passion, make money blogging, etc to actually have and run a successful blog.

Finally, One hard truth you are not told most of the times is that people who succeed with their blogs are in it with both feet. Rather you are sold into beliving the push button idea just as blogger put it.

While the push button thing is actually true and one of the basic reason I love and use blogs to publish most of my works on the web, there is actually more to being a successful blogger.

I will be diving into more details in my future articles. Until then keep blogging.

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What is a blog? My working defination of what a blog is?

January 5th, 2009

If you don’t know what a blog is or you don’t seem to understand all that you can actually do with a blog, I must say, you’re in luck and It might interest you to know that you’re not alone because a lot of people still get to ask me questions like;

What is a blog?

Should I have a blog or a website?

which do you recommend?

Can you please defined a blog?

Are blogs just websites?

What is the difference between a blog and a website? and so on.

Actually it is from some of these questions that the misconception about blogs and blogging seems to come from. However I will be doing my best to provide detailed answers to these questions in some of my future articles but for today, let us find out what actually is a blog?

There are quite a number of ways to look at this especially bearing in mind that it means a whole lot of things to different people and the purpose for creating a website could actually influence the decision of what kind of website one puts up.

For instances, if all an individual wants is to be able to do a personal/family updates on any issue that is of interest to him and/or the family in question then he might be considering using the blog platform.

What of the individual internet marketer, affiliate marketer and/or niche marketer who knows the importance of blogging and who would love to maximax it use to drive in thousands of traffic and inturn make more in profit?

Another group of persons to consider are those that falls into the business category …let say all a business person want is to be able to have a website that is quite professionally and that he would easily update without the help of anyone, saving himself and his business the cost of having to pay for site management.

Now, there are many other instance but for the ones above, could it be possible or do I say best for them to have a blog as there website? …That’s actually a choice they will have to make but for a better understanding of the subject at hand, let look at some of the basic types of websites.

1) A static HTML website which might have to be built from scratch using a web language like HTML or a web authoring program (eg. HTML editor such as FrontPage) and so on.

2) An online forum.

3) A Blog.

While you can have a website using any of the above types or others that are not listed, you should bear in mind that the purpose you want achieved will help determine what choice of website will be most suitable.

For instance, why a church, business or organization with the need to update it site regular may have a website created using HTML language, it will definitely find it more convenience to have a Wordpress CMS Blog in place, which after a proper customization can be made to look just like any normal website.

And if there is need to adjust or to do away with any or all of the features that comes with a blog such as; blogroll, comments, RSS feeds etc. It can as well be done.

Also, it won’t just be fine for them to settle for an online forum as their site unless in a situation where they want to use it for support especially for the business type website and even at that it could just be an addition to the main site.

My working definition of what a blog is.
Though I find it quite challenge to defined a blog, I have my working definition as – a blog is whatever the person or group of persons that created or wants to create a blog wants out of it.

Simply put, a blog is whatever we want them to be …they are whatever we make of them. That’s to say the heart and soul of any blog is the owner and/or the group of persons behind it.

You see, today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes that why am only able to defined a blog after I have been able to understand the purpose for such a blog.

How then do you different a blog from other types of websites?
Generally speaking a blog is basically a type of website with its own technicality and unique features that differentiate it form other websites like; the one created by coding – HTML, or online forum.

It is these unique features that characterize a blog. Some of which are:

1) Easy and regularly updates of content

2) Content is published in a chronological order

3) Readers can leave instant replies, comments or feedback

4) Content can be syndicated via RSS feeds

5) Blogs can interact with one another through trackbacks and pingbacks

6) Blogrolls and/or links

Blog and its defining elements which includes; reverse chronology order, post, links, comments, RSS feeds etc are no rocket science. I shall find time to discuss them in my feature articles.

However, if we are to limit the definition of blog to its above features then you should bear in mind that it takes more than one of the above features to classify a website as a blog, infact you did need the whole features present before you can call a website a blog …after all an online forum also comes with the possibility of instance feedback and also do have RSS in place but none of this will actually make it a blog.

Finally, before I end this article, I love to say, If you are new to blogging, there is no need to get scared with the above details and don’t even allow its technicality to stop you. There is absolutely nothing to worry about.

Now if you are already a highly technical person when it comes to blogs, I hope you will agree with me If I say blogs and blogging should take a whole different meaning from what most of us have come to see it to mean.

The definition above is my personal approach to blogs and blogging, I am sure that some of you will have your own thought to it. Whether you are in agreement or not, feel free to share you view but not without a brief explanation. Thanks in advance.

N.B: To readers that have already bookmarked this site and those who did informed me of how they enjoy the content on this site, I want to say am back now. I have been away from this site for sometime now, it was not 100% intentional however I had to take the vacation to enable me put a lot in place.

Please accept my apology. You will now be able to read from me more frequently. Let me also use this opportunity to wish all my readers especially my fellow Nigerians A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

MAY THIS BE A YEAR THAT YOU WILL BLOG YOUR ACCOUNT TO OVERFLOW.

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What is a blog? Why am having a hard time definding what a blog is.

December 12th, 2008

What is a blog?

If you have read my previous article titled a little history about blog and blogging, you would remember I promised to write on the definition of  blog myself, instead of merely providing a link to any site that has good definition on it and the reason being that a lot has changed about how people blog and how blogs are perceived.

However, I latter decided that it will help our understanding of what blog is if we take a look at how blog has been defined by other top site.

Today, We shall be looking at the reason why some of the definitions on blog does not necessary hold.

Now, let take a look at just two of such definitions:

1) A mere tool that makes web publishing easy.

Like most people out there I didn’t know what a blog actually was, I used to think of a blog as the host or tool used in creating or putting up a post (website). For instance, if you used Blogger or LiveJournal as your host, or you use a Movable Type Software like Wordpress then I called that a blog.

But how wrong I was.

Like you already know blogs represent a social phenomenon, therefore it keeps evolving, just as things are general changing on the internet.

Gone are the days when you just have to settle for the words “blogspot” or “wordpress” or any other application as part of your URL. Rather you could choose to register any domain name of your choice and have your blog hosted under it or as another page on your main website.

Today, some of these web publishing applications are getting more sophisticated and is changing the way people blog and this is likely to continue as long as there are continuous improvement on these applications.

Many are already using some of these applications to publish complex and sophisticated websites.

For instance, in many parts of the world we have individuals, companies and business that have incorporated blogs to their site. Just take a look at entrepreneur.com.

With this, we now have companies that uses blogs to communicate and relate with their customers, stake holders, prospects and at times with their staffs.

There are other companies, business and organizations even individual site whose main site is a blog. They simply had the blog customized as their main site.

For examples – internetmarketingnigeria, fyiscreening, landreport, itsupportjournal.

Just take a look at those sites, if you are not told that they are all blogs that have been customized, you might never get to know.

The number one reason I love this approach is how easy and convenience publishing content could be.

2) A personal online journal or diary that is updated frequently.

With definitions such as this people tend to think of a blog as online journal where they could share anything that is of interest to them and their readers. Such as their opinions, passion, hobbies, …personal events.

But this is just one way to use a blog

It would as well go for business purpose as I earlier mention. “business blog”.

As time went by and I got to understand more about blogs, I soon came to another kind of conclusion, guess what it was this time …that blogs were actually not different from normal websites.

But, I was still wrong …Why???

Because, unlike a normal website (which takes you through stress -coding), blog is a living entity and is ever changing with the rhythm of its community.

There is so much advantage that comes with a blog that I can not possible cover in this article.

You see, am very sorry if am making the whole thing look complex. However the truth is, if you get it wrong at this point, you will end up limiting what you could be doing with your blog.

This is why I have taking the time to write this.

Finally, you don’t have to wait to be a web designer or an expert at PHP or CSS. That is not the reason why am sharing this with you. You just have to get started but bear in mind that your blog is only going to become what you want it to be.

This is just the beginning!

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What is a blog? You might as well be asking the same question.

December 9th, 2008

What is a blog? Before I give my working definition of what a blog is, let’s take a look at how blog has been defined by other top site. This will surely help your understanding of blogs.

…Here are a few definitions by other top site.

Blogger definition;
A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

As defined by wordpress;
“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

According to wikipedia;
A blog (a contraction of the term “Web log”) is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Matisse.net definition;
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.

Here are another set of definitions from marketingprofs.

“Blogging Is…

  1. A form of unedited, authentic self-expression
  2. An instant publishing tool
  3. An online journal with freshly updated content
  4. Amateur journalism
  5. Something that will revolutionize the Web (think RSS feeds)
  6. A way to create community with your voters, er… readers (think 2,200 comments posted to the Dean for America blog in one day) …”

To read more visit, Top 20 Definitions of Blogging.

Finally, a blog has traditionally been a journal or diary with dated entries, made available on the Internet by any individual or group of individuals.

Although, the above definations are true characteristics of a blog. We can not completely leave it at that. Why? Like I said in my previous article, things change fast in our world, blogs are no exceptions. Find out more about this changing phenomenon in my next article.

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A little history about blog and blogging.

December 1st, 2008

Hello and a hearty welcome to you my dear friend and reader. In the coming weeks and months, you will be reading a lot about blog and blogging from me. But before I get started with that I thought it might be better I started with a little history before diving into further explanation on the entire concept behind blogging.

Though it might sound surprising to you but it is a fact that a lot of Internet users and blog owners do not have a good understanding of what a “blog” is. Before I go on to explain all that in my next article, I want you to know that you are looking at a blog and you can start a blog right after reading this article.

Wait a minutes, did I say you are looking at a blog and that you can start one right after reading this article. Sorry I meant to say you can start one right away and am dead Serious. All you need do now is go to any of the blog publishing platform such as Blogger, Open Diary, Wordpress, LiveJournal. Follow the instructions on their site and you will have your blog up in just a few minutes.

That simple …But before you do that I will advice you read through this article.

Most blogs are maintained by people who know little to nothing about website design or development. I am one of such people, if not that I started paying some attention to it recently and from the look of things, I don’t think am going to be giving it all the attention it demands at least not for now. You don’t really have to, unless you are considering becoming a professional web designer.

A lot of definitions on blog and blogging can be found on the internet as well as in most web base books and I would have preferred to just provide a link to any of the site that has actually done justice to the subject in question but I decided to do a proper write up on the definition and meaning of a blog myself.

…Why?

That because the subject in question is a social phenomenon and bearing in mind that this is 2008 and in the next 31 days it will be 2009. It won’t be fine to leave it to past definitions knowing that things change fast in our world and with the internet it’s even faster. So I will advice you watch out for the article.

Here in Nigeria, blog and blogging is just becoming popular though it is already a huge Internet phenomenon with other parts of the world. I think we will catch up, if we jump at it with a good knowledge of what it is and what we can do with it.

Enough of all this talk…let go straight to the purpose of today’s article.

A little history about blog and blogging.
I am not a good student of “the four walls system” not to talk of being good at history. So I am only going to tell you what you just need to know and save my time and yours from all the details.

Blog and blogging gained popularity somewhere within the late 1990s, back before then creating websites wasn’t easy. You need to have knowledge of HTML (a coding language which stands for HyperText Markup Language) before you can have a website up. We don’t actually see these codes when viewing a website.

This might sound a little technical especially if you no little to nothing on blog and website design. But don’t even let it bother you, I will try and make you catch up as fast as possible. For instance, this web page you are viewing or reading at the moment was made possible with the aid of HTML code. I am going to briefly explain that below.

Take a look at your Web browser’s menu,  click on view, within the drop down menu it will presents to you, look for an item that is either written as “view page source” or “page source” or anything close to that depending on your Web browser, click on it and you will see what codes look like. This is what actually defines how every Web page looks and how it interacts with every other web page. Without these codes I don’t know whatelse would have been done to make the World Wide Web a reality.

Hope you got that?

Now, imagine you will have to learn how to code before you can actually put up any site, you might not just be willing to go through the learning process and that might hinder you from putting up a site and if you must, your only option would be to pay someone who knows how the web works to do the job for you.

Although, HTML code is not the most difficult coding language, I personally find the whole coding thing to be time and energy consuming and this is likewise true for many others. Like I said before, publishing website before the late 1990s was left for people who were very tech-savvy but all that is history today.  Thanks to the early programmers who made it possible .

With available tools like Blogger and Wordpress, you can go on to publish a Website (blog), just by filling the blank field provide by any of these web publishing platform. Rather than having to code each page, you would just write what you want published by filling the blank field for the title and body, after which you hit publish, the software would simply do the rest.

What used to take a lot of money, time and energy can now be done within minutes with less stress and with little or no investment.

So far, so good that is the little I think I can share with you but if you choose to know more than what is written here on the history of blogs, you can as well Google it and read as much as you want.

Stay motivated and keep blogging.

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