Running my Blog – is it better to host it myself?

Question

If I want to run a Blog for my business, what is the best place to host it? Should I use a hosted service or would it be better to host it myself?

The Blog Coach replies:

If you are looking to set up a Blog which you will be using for your Business, then I would always recommend that you would be better to host it yourself, just as you probably already do with your website. The simple reason for this is that it will give you most control over it and flexibility which means that it will best be able to answer your business’ requirements.

I think that the free hosted systems such as Blogger or Wordpress.com (as opposed to Wordpress.org) are great for personal blogs because they are free and because there is very little for you to do except start to write. However, they do come with an inherent risk, as you may decide over time that you want to do more with your blog than can be done with a hosted system like this, at which point it is very difficult to move all of your content across to your new blog. Even making permanent (301) redirects so that people can still find all of your content that has been indexed is not possible on some of these blog systems, which will lead to a lot of frustration and possibly lost leads too. There have even been cases reported where proper Business blogs have been mistaken for spam blogs (splogs) and had their content deleted. Not a good situation!

Making the right choice in terms of your blogging platform is a key early decision and you want to try to consider not only your current requirements but also try to look forward to what you are going to want to do in the future as well. Ideally, something like Wordpress or Movable Type will be able to grow with you.

If you decide to host it yourself, you will need to consider whether to choose a new domain name and run your blog there or whether you should incorporate the blog into your current website. Both options have merit. If it deals with issues which are distinct from those that you talk about on your main website then it may be sensible to select a relevant domain name and separate the two. However, by incorporating the Business Blog alongside your other content (and integrating it graphically into the look and feel of the site) then you can use it as a complementary means of engaging with prospects and customers, and so enhance the positioning of your business through it.

To sum up: overall, primarily for reasons of control, security and future-proofing for your business, we would recommend that you steer away from hosted services for your blog as it is likely to become a key part of your business.

Your Profile and contact details

Business Blogs as well as personal blogs, have a personal side to them which, in part, differentiates them from being just another website full of product information and advertising speak. That’s a key part of why they work so well in communicating ideas and opinions, and in gaining positive reactions.

So make sure that you provide your readers with a clear way of finding out about the person who is writing the blog and who they are going to be communicating with. Always remember to put up a profile up on your Business Blog and also a way for your readers to get in touch with you.

If you prefer to include your details as part of your sidebar then keep it short and sweet – there’s lots more information that you also want to be highly visible there. I personally prefer a link through to a separate page where you have a little more space to include whatever details seem appropriate to you.

Some profiles will focus on past work and experience ( no CVS though, please), others will have more of a current focus and outline future plans. What ever you put there, try to make it personal though and, for extra impact, put up a picture as well. Remember that from a networking perspective, your Business Blog acts as the hub at the centre of that network – people are therefore going to be interested in the “real you” and what makes you tick so give them some insights into the person behind the Blog.

You also want people to be able to contact you. They can do this by posting comments on your blog, but they may also want to get in contact with you directly. So, make sure that you also have your contact details on your blog, either as part of your profile or in a separate section – or both! There’s nothing more frustrating than finding a really interesting blog and wanting to get in touch with the author but not being able to do so.

Key tip: make sure that your profile and your contact details are clearly visible on your Blog and help start that conversation!

Technorati Profile

Choosing a name for your Blog

As part of the process of planning your Business Blog, you need to decide what you want to call it. You may have decided this long ago – many people actually start from a name that they like and then develop the blog from there. Not recommended if you are doing it for your business though!

It is an important factor though, and certainly one which is worth spending time on. It’s important because your blog’s name is what people will remember first and foremost, it is what they will use to recommend your blog and this is what the blog search engines will use to refer to your Blog in their results.

The name of your Blog is likely to be mainly a personal decision – you may want to choose a name which reflects its contents, which incorporates the name of your business or which you simply liked and just wanted to use. A couple of words of warning on this:

• you need to choose something that you will feel comfortable promoting. So be aware that a name that you think is funny or clever now, needs to still be clever or funny in 12 months time;
• you may want to have the same domain name as the name of your blog, so it might be advisable to check on the availability of the domain name as well;
• in most blog software, the name of the blog is automatically included in the “Title tag” which is important in Search Engine Optimisation, so you may like to consider using one of your keywords in the Blog’s name.

The decision regarding the domain name that you use for your Blog is important as well, as I touched upon above – there is a fuller look at this area in the article Choosing a Domain Name for your Business Blog which covers the areas that you should bear in mind as you do so.

An additional point, some blogs give you the opportunity to have a tagline as well which is also used in the “Title tag” on the first page of your blog. Since you are given the opportunity, then select something which is catchy and works for you or add a short description about what the blog is aiming to do.

Plan your Blog: what to consider

When you start to put a Business Blog together, the planning phase is very important! If you are intending to have a blog which will last and will be successful for you, then you need to spend time planning certains elements of your blog rather than diving straight in and writing your first post – much as you might want to!

When planning your Blog, you should be clear what you want to achieve with it and who you are writing for. The answers to these will help you to focus the content of your posts and make sure that they fit with the requirements of those who will be reading them.

So, as you start to plan your blog, try to answer three key questions:

What is the Blog looking to achieve?
You need to able to clearly identify why you wish to start the Business Blog. Are you looking to build a network of contacts for your company, or perhaps position yourself as an expert in your field, or promote a particular service or product using ‘educational marketing’ or even help create a group of evangelists for your new product? All of these are perfect goals for your Blog, but you should identify and focus on the one that you want to achieve in order to make it really successful.

Who is the Blog aimed at?
You need to decide who is the target audience for your Business Blog, just as you do with your products or services, and consequently who you are writing for. This will dictate the content of your posts and also the way in which you write them – both elements will influence how you are perceived by your readers.

What results are you looking for?
You should also have an idea of want you wish to achieve with the Business Blog in terms of results. A Blog is not a direct sales tool and yet there are many ways in which you can measure its direct effectiveness. These might include number of visitors, subscribers to your RSS feed, sign ups to a newsletter, contacts or clients initiated through a contact form on your Blog etc.

Make sure that you spend time on this part of the set up of your Business Blog. If you do, you will reap the rewards because you will ensure that the Blog maintains its focus in terms of its content and, as a consequence, provide your readers with what they are looking for.

What is RSS? A Beginners Guide

Basically, RSS is a technology which allows you to have exactly the information you want to read from the internet delivered straight to you. Once you have found a source of information that you are interested in, RSS will let you know every time a new piece of information is available and deliver it to you rather than you having to revisit each of the sites to look for it yourself!

So what is RSS and what does it mean?

There are two commonly held views of what RSS stands for – Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. Each of these touches on one of the key uses of RSS. It provides the publisher with a way for other sites to use and hence “syndicate” news and content that has been created and, for the reader, it gives a summary of the updated contents of a favourite site.

If you want to subscribe to and read an RSS feed, then you will need to have an RSS reader (also known as an RSS aggregator) which will either be one that you have installed on your PC or one which you access online. (More info on RSS Readers here) Then, when you wish to subscribe to an RSS feed, you simply copy the relevant URL of the feed into the reader and everything else is done for you. Couldn’t be simpler!

Publishing your own RSS Feed

If you want to publish your own RSS feed so that visitors to your blog can receive an automatic update when you add new posts, then you are in luck. Most blog software creates the feed automatically for you, so all that you have to do is tell people where they can find it – the best way is with the new orange icon which is now becoming the standard as it gets included in both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox. You will also find branded buttons from Newsgator, Yahoo and the like (as you will see on this site) for people using those RSS readers – however, they all supply the same information so you are just making it easier for your readers to subscribe.

So, should I use RSS?

I would certainly advise using RSS feeds, both from teh point of view of a reader and also a publisher. RSS feeds are a great way to provide easy access to information and create a sense of community among your readers. From the reader’s point of view, using RSS feeds can save hours of work looking for new information or keeping up with developments in your marketplace or areas of interest.

And from a Business Blog’s perspective, they provide a simple way of promoting your blog by sharing the great information directly with the people who want to receive it. A match made in heaven!