Creating Your Blog

In our previous post, Blogging Glossary, we presented a glossary of blogging terms.

In this post, we continue the series by discussing the process of creating your blog.

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It’s very easy, and free, to start a blog. It’s harder to create a blog that will amass a following, or make a difference. Like all the social media sites we discuss in this blog, you should start with a plan that includes your goals, the audience you are trying to reach, the tone of the blog, the name and branding of the blog, your marketing plan, and a publishing schedule. Review the post Elements of an Engagement Plan before starting your blog.

There are all kinds of blog platforms available that will host your blog. The most popular are WordPress, Typepad, Blogsmith, Blogger and Movable Type. Here’s a short list of sites to consider when choosing a hosted blog platform:[1]

Blogger.com — free, by Google
Blogspot.com — free Blogger hosting
LiveJournal.com — free, by SixApart
MovableType.com — paid, by SixApart
Typepad.com — paid, by SixApart
WordPress.com — free

If you’re ready to take on the responsibility of hosting your blog yourself, there are several blogging platforms to choose from, some free, some you need to buy:

WordPress.org — A free, installable version of WordPress.com software
Movable Type — Charges for a license for the platform based on number of blogs and whether they are for commercial, personal, educational or not-for-profit use. Also has a free version.
LiveJournal — Open source software that enables you to create a virtual community. LiveJournal goes beyond blogging by allowing you to create self-contained communities and add social networking features.
Textpattern — More than a blogging platform, Textpattern is an open source general-purpose content management system
Drupal, Joomla, and other Web content management systems also have blogging features, although they are primarily designed to run your whole site.

One advantage of self-hosting: You can use your own domain name — blog.yourorg.com. A major disadvantage is that if you don’t have a technical staff, the upkeep and maintenance of a blog hosting platform can be baffling and time-consuming.

Next up: How to Blog

Creating Your Blog is the 144th in a series of excerpts from our book, Be a Person: the Social Operating Manual for Enterprises (itself part of a series for different audiences). We’re just past page 377. At this rate it’ll be a long time before we get through all 430 pages, but luckily, if you’re impatient, the book is available in paper form at bit.ly/OrderBeAPerson and you can save $5 using Coupon Code 6WXG8ABP2

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[1] There’s a good overview of blogging platforms and a list of the top 100 blogs and their blogging platforms at: bit.ly/9ooHQO