“Why do you charge money to set up a blog when anyone can go out and do it for free?”
I get asked that question and it’s cousin “why so much?” quite a bit. The problem is, if I try to explain what all is involved after you hit that button and set up that shiny, new, blank Wordpress database, I watch the person’s eyes glaze over and their brain shut down. It can be difficult to remember all the details that go into a blog installation when you do them all the time, but for someone who only knows that they want to have a website where people can read about their products (or maybe buy them right there), trying to keep it all straight can be close to impossible. Here’s a case where a picture can truly say a whole lot more.
Blog set up
I offer a couple of different blog installation packages for clients, but whether you hire me or do it yourself, don’t forget to allot the time and resources to building on that initial content (or the keyword research that should drive it — but that’s a different post) . The “hello world” post isn’t meant to be kept!
You may have noticed one thing that sets this blog apart from the majority right away. It wasn’t done as a mistake, though it is something I may change in the future.
Right now, there are no dates on the blog home page to indicate when I’ve posted an item to the blog. I’ve done this to show you how you can use a blog even if you don’t intend to provide a steady stream of new content to your site.
When you set up a blog you gain a lot of functionality on the back-end that makes maintaining your web presence very easy. Every time you do write something to your site, all you need to do is type it in and hit the publish button. Wordpress programming — with a little help from the plugins we use — takes over to keep things neat and organized from that point on.
Without you having to do a thing, here’s what happens in the background:
- A permanent spot in your directory (or permalink/single post) url is assigned
- The story is published on top of your blog home page as most recent
- Internal links between all posts are established/adjusted
- Backend links are created within categories, page or post types so you can find and edit this post easily
- Navigation links are made, updated and displayed on every page of your blog
- Links between the category you select and the post itself are established
- Any images, video links, podcasts, or other audio links are automatically sorted to the right directories and stored for you
- Links between the post and any image or other asset file are created or adjusted as a the post is moved
- A notation on your sitemap is made and the search engine spiders are notified (pinged) that there is fresh copy for them to come index
- Your RSS feed is updated and subscribers notified that you have added content
…and so on and so on. It really is true that the blog you see is only the very tip of the iceberg that is all of your blog. It’a slso true that there can be no magic formula that will tell you when it makes sense for you to set up a static website and when it makes sense to set up a semi-static blog. The choice comes down to how much money, time or expertise you have to lavish on your website/blog.
Do you have time to go through and complete each of these tasks manually if you post infrequently? Even if you only made two additions or two deletions to the content of your website each year, chances are good you would overlook one or more of these steps. That’s assuming you worked from a very good checklist that remembered them all for you in the first place.
On the other hand, dates do help. Human readers love fresh changing content as much as the search engine spiders. They want to see that they’re getting the up to date scoop on all the specials in your retail store, or know that you’re up on the latest judicial rulings relevant to the legal case they may want you to handle for them, etc.
I’m going to continue making entries to this blog without dates for a few months. Of course I’ll be watching my stats closely. It will be interesting to see if traffic to this blog does or doesn’t grow at roughly the rate I’ve come to expect using web 2.0 promotion methods. Benchmarking numbers on this point are the one thing I wasn’t able to find, so we’ll just have to grow some ourselves — along with your comments and observations of course.
Blogs are websites, but not the static, unchanging kind. They have been purposely designed to be easy to change. Their coding is completely hidden to allow anyone to grow their web business without having to know a single thing about how it all works. that makes them an extremely powerful Internet marketing tool.
Busy business owners who have no desire to spend hours on the web can use blogs to keep in touch with current customers and attract new ones to their business in minutes. Posts that feature a specific product or service, comment on current news and how it affects potential buyers, remind people of a scheduled event, or just wish readers a happy holiday don’t have to take hours to write to be effective. In fact, when blogging, a simple, conversational style in a shorter format has proven to be far more effective than long, formal articles.
There’s also plenty of help available if your blog starts doing it’s job so well you need to devote every minute to running your business, not blogging. (Yes, that was a shameless plug).
This blog was set up to show you what I do when I set a blog up for you. I include several posts that talk about specific features, functions and benefits that make my blog installations extra powerful search engine marketing vehicles as well as the kind of professional storefront you want your visitors to associate with your business.
Once we have your blog set up and you understand how to keep building on the base I’ll provide, you’re not done. Subscribe to my RSS feed to keep getting valuable information on how to turn your new blog into a tireless business generator.
Oh, and did you notice the one thing this – and all my posts are missing?
