Now that you’ve taken the preliminary steps of designing your blog, it’s time for technology to take over.  Because you are going to create a WordPress blog,* the first thing that you will need is hosting.  If you have a website for your business already, you likely already have a web hosting provider and either space on a server or your own server. If you are setting things up for the first time, you will contract with your chosen web hosting provider who will allot you website space on a server and set you up with a FTP (file transfer protocol – this is the way you upload and download files from your server) account.

Basics: A server is essentially a large computer that is held in a hosting provider’s data center. Your hosting plan determines how much of the server your account “owns”. There are three main types of hosting services: shared server, virtual private server, and private server.

Shared Server: The most economical option.  Your website is hosted on a server along with multiple other websites.  The hosting provider that you choose will set limits for your account so that you do not overload the server and cause the rest of your server’s websites to go down.  This option is great for those of you just getting started, as the memory and bandwidth that you will be provided is likely sufficient for your needs.  However, if you expect several thousand visitors per day (at peak times), you may experience slowness with shared server hosting and your web host even has the ability to take your site down to steady the server.

Best for: Just getting started; Non-complex sites; Static websites (non-blogs); Sites without a rush of traffic at peak times

Virtual Private Server: Picture a server as a packing box for glassware.  You get the space for one glass and share the box with multiple other glasses.

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The server is partitioned off so that you have full control over only your piece.  No other website can touch your area of the server, and vice versa.  Advantage: your own place to play, guaranteed server resources up to your partition’s cap.  Disadvantage: you can’t take advantage of the resources that the other partitions aren’t using like you can with the shared server.

Best for: I personally don’t recommend VPS hosting.  I tried it for a while and was completely unimpressed.  In for a penny in for a pound, I say, and if I’m spending money and getting dedicated resources, I’d rather have…

Private (Dedicated) Server: your very own home for your website.  With dedicated hosting, you will have full control over your entire server.  There are differences between private server plans, so you should do your homework and speak with potential hosting companies to see where your website fits in with their offerings.  Be sure to know:

1) Exactly what type of server you will receive and how much horsepower it has
2) The level of support you receive from the hosting provider
3) What you will be charged for (bandwidth, number of databases, disc usage, FTP accounts, etc)

Best for: High-traffic websites, those who want lots of control over their site and the resources it consumes.

For experienced website owners: what type of hosting do you use and recommend? Have you had good experiences with Virtual Private Servers? If you have a high traffic site, when did you switch to a dedicated server, or, have you been able to stick with shared hosting and save money?

Coming up in this series: Domain Names; Setting Up Your Server

* Of course, all of this applies if you have a website without a blog too!

You’ve read my previous post about deciding whether you’re ready to start a blog and the green light has appeared.  Now what?

(If you are a vendor with an existing company name (and you plan to add a blog with your existing company name on your site) move on along to Step 2.)

It sounds quite obvious but naming your blog is not as easy as it sounds.  After brainstorming blog names, you will first need to verify in the US Trademark Database (TESS) that your chosen name is not taken.  You will also want to verify with Whois that the .com of your chosen name is available for purchase.

I cannot stress enough how important branding is to your new blog.  This includes color schemes, fonts, and most importantly your blog logo and header.  You want your blog to be a reflection of you, your company, and your content.

Think of brands you use on an everyday basis.  What makes you choose Tide vs. Cheer?  Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi?  A generic granola bar may taste almost exactly like Quaker, but how likely are you to choose generic?  What makes you lean towards brands that you trust?  It isn’t always taste, usefulness or tradition – in some cases it’s as simple as the overall appearance of the product on the shelf.

The web is the same.  You may have the best content in the world but if your blog/site is poorly designed and difficult to navigate, you’re not going to generate the readership you want.  So when you’re branding, as difficult as it may be, you’re in Field of Dreams land.  “If you build it (and have excellent content, and market yourself, and make sure you SEO your site properly, all of which we’ll discuss soon!), they will come”.

In Photoshop, Powerpoint, or with stick figures (my preferred method), begin sketching out your blog’s look and feel.  Do you want a 2-column or 3-column layout?  How do you want your front page to appear?  Do you want to immediately display excerpts or full-text posts?  What information do you want to display in your sidebar?  What information do you want included in your posts’ headers?  Their footers?  What navigation elements are essential?

This is a daunting task but before any technology is implemented you need to have a vision!  Review as many blogs as possible for elements you want to incorporate into your preliminary design.  This is also the time to work with your graphic designer on any special illustrations for your site, or to gather the best photos of your work to display.

Now that you have a good idea of the look and feel of your new blog, it’s time to get technical!  Next up: a series of posts on Building Your WordPress Blog!

Bloggers are:

• IT developers
• Librarians
• Intellectual property experts
• Editors
• Graphic designers
• Advertising execs
• Marketing gurus

As small business owner, entrepreneurs, or hobbyists, if you are considering adding a blog to your business the first question that you should ask yourself is:

Blogging offers lots of amazing rewards but comes with a great deal of responsibility, and each time you put a post, a tweet, or an email out into the blogiverse you are representing yourself or your business… that’s a lot of pressure!

Sit down to think for a moment about the blog you hope to create, the audience you want to reach, and the true reason you want to start a blog.  Make a pro/con list.  Consult your business plan.  Read other people’s blogs to get an idea of the audience you may want to reach and the network you want to join.  Then ask yourself…

Whatever your chosen topic, you should be a subject matter expert in that field.  Your field may be yourself.  It may be your business.  It may be your own taste.  Clearly you are an expert in all of those!  But let’s say you want to start a blog about gardening.  What can you add to the gardening blog industry?  Do you personally garden?  What do you know about growing specific plants, vegetables, or flowers?  Are you prepared to answer questions from readers and advise them on making their garden grow?  If the answer to these questions is no, stop here.  Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, and do not start a gardening blog.  But if you’re a bona fide gardening pro, then the last and most important question is…

For many of us, blogging is a full-time job (on top of our full-time job).  It’s a huge commitment.  You must take the time to realistically assess whether or not you will have the time and energy to devote to your site.

If you’re a brave soul and are ready to jump in feet first, I’m going to be doing a series of posts to help you get started. I remember vividly how it feels to be brand-new to the blog world and tackle the setup of a website, so we will go back to basics, answer all of your burning questions, and you will be blogging in no time.

If you’re on the fence, well, that’s OK too.  Starting a blog is not a decision to be made lightly, and we’ll have much more discussion on the realities and benefits of blogging, and why it may or may not be for you.

For all of you experienced bloggers reading, what other factors should those who are thinking about creating a blog take under consideration?