A few weeks back, I touched on finding your next non-profit job through blogging, which sparked an interest in readers to learn the steps needed to create a successful blog from inception to completion. (Though, any self-respecting blogger will tell you a blog is never complete; it’s constantly being tweaked and improved upon – writing not withstanding).

Before you start typing away, you need to know where in cyberspace your blog will live. Questions you need to consider are:

Do you want your blog to be your name? You may like having a site that is your name as it could make searching for you online easier. However, if you have a common name (think Mary Smith, John Jones), searching and finding you won’t be as easy as you thought. Play around with possible blog names or identities. Then, whatever you decide for your blog name, market yourself consistently with that identity. Without such consistency, it may be difficult to find you in a search.

Do you want a dot com site? You don’t need to buy a domain name unless you want to. Blogger, WordPress, Typepad and even Myspace all have free, very user friendly blogging platforms. They aren’t difficult to set up, and you can switch to a domain name and url down the road if you find you’re enjoying blogging and want to take it to the next level.

If you do choose a dot com, you need to find hosting, which can can range from $5 to $10 monthly plus the $10 to register your domain name. Most hosting packages are also a contract of a year or more, so think about whether or not you can make the commitment and if the investment is worth your time and money before paying for a domain and hosting.

A simple Google search can help you find different companies offering domain hosting and support. Godaddy.com, Bluehost.com and Justhost.com are all examples of hosting sites offering different options, services and contracts for hosting your domain. If you’re not sure which to pick, you can check out reviews of hosting sites. Webhostinggeeks.com offers ratings as well as a great list of hosting companies.

Will You Allow Advertising? There are a lot of bloggers who blog simply for the joy of sharing what they know. They don’t run ads on their sites, and they don’t sell off the unused space on their blogs. However, there are a number of people who would like to make a little bit of money for their blogging time and effort. There are issues to consider before deciding if you want to allow ads on your site. First, think about how the ads will look. Second, if you opted for a free blog platform rather than for a domain name with hosting, you may not be allowed to have advertisement as it could be against the platform’s terms of service.

These are some of the basic issues to consider when it comes to building your blog. It may seem like a lot of information involving tough decisions, but once you start comparing personal blogs on the web, you will begin to see the drawbacks and benefits to each blog platform.

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Last updated on December 17th, 2009 at 09:11 am