Ok, so I am thinking about starting a website for my business. I do plan to create a blog for it. However, do I want to create a website that has a blog associated with it or do I want to create a website for the business and then have a seperate blog on one of the free blogger sites out there? I guess I just need a little direction for how to set this up.
Hi Kyle, I would recommend owning your own blog, not using a free one. If you set up your own website with a WordPress blog you can do all you want. It is possible to have both on one domain if you want to do it that way. There are many sites that have both static pages and a blog, I have 3 myself. If you use a free blogger you will not have as much control over what you do. If you can afford 2 websites then linking between them could boost rankings. Nothing wrong with using a free blog to link to your own site but do own your own. Nothing beats your own WordPress installation for SEO rankings.
Yes, I would recommend you actually pay for a domain name and get your own blog. Don't use the free blogs out there. It is really a bad idea in my view. With your own, you pretty much can do what ever you want to it.
yasser: create your website and put the blog on a subdomain I was thinking it would be something like that. Though, do you have to then pay for both domain names? Can you get two seperate domain names and have them hosted with the same website. I kind of figured based on what I have read on the forum here that a free blog is not really the way to go. I've seen others that have a blog and then there is a link to their website on the blog somewhere. So, are those typically seperate sites or it's just a different page within the same webpage. I don't really understand what is the best way for setting it up.
You can use one domain name to host both like this: with a sub domain: myblog.mydomain.com or as a sub directory: mydomain.com/myblog Having a second domain name is not necessary but adds clout. It also adds work and expense!
My SBI sites have their own blog function, but I did set up blogs on blogger and wordpress both, targeting some of my more profitable keywords and have them linking back to the main site.
Kyle_K: Can you get two seperate domain names and have them hosted with the same website. To directly answer that question is tricky. Many hosting accounts allow you to have more than one website with separate domain names. The account I use allows unlimited domains/websites for one price ($99/yr). OR, you can re-direct one domain name to a sub directory of another domain name. Only problem with that is only the main domain name will be ranked. Having 2 separate websites allows you to link from one to the other. Google may not count the link since they are usually from the same IP address. (Squidoo, eZines, and Blogger or Wordpress hosted sites add extra link juice.) The traffic referred from one site to the other is what you get from the links.
Some really good input here. Thank you for the advice. I think I will build my website. Then, create a blog on wordpress.
Your blog is going to allow for more commentary, interaction and the like. You website is likely to be more information sharing or promo without the blog aspect. Both are the way to go. As noted you only need one domain, unless you want a specific domain for your blog. Blog are great for helping one create their unique online presence, I always recommend having one for online marketing mastery.
Hi Kyle, You've received plenty of opinions already, but I thought I'd go ahead and add my own experience, too. Like MountainMom, I use SBI to build my websites and their blog feature to automatically blog every new page that I add to the site. It cuts my work load in half. I understand what the others are saying about allowing the interaction of your visitors, but we have that feature also on our websites. It's not on the "blog page" but rather on any page we choose to engage our visitors and request their opinions, questions, input, etc. It gives you a little more control, I feel. Having said that, I have to be quite open about the fact that I've never really built a traditional blog, so they aren't an area where I can speak about fluently. I'm glad to hear that you have made the decision to start with a website. I think you'll not regret hat decision. Blessings, Angie
Kyle, Agree with others you need your own domain name and one is enough. There are 2 ways you can tackle this: 1) Host your website on the Blog itself - so your domain.com will be a blog (wordpress preferably) 2) domain.com is a html or other site and you host your blog at domain.com/blog If you go via the second option please do not use a subdomain - blog.domain.com This is not good for SEO Also you could and should make sure that you have the necessary plugins installed for seo on your wordpress blog I use namecheap to purchase my domains, previously i used bluehost. Hostgator is good for hosting. I am using namecheap as my card doesnt work on hostgator Let me know if you need help setting it up. Also, I think you might already be aware of this but cant help it. Please please please do keyword research and use the primary keyword in your domain name. If you are branding a company name then that should be a part of your domain name.
Just2EZ: Having 2 separate websites allows you to link from one to the other. I do not think this is needed in your case. Just stick t promoting one website. If you come to a point where you know that this niche is working for u then u can support it with another domain. I first used a squidoo lens to promote a product. Once I started getting a regular income, I moved this to my own domain. I also cross promote it using free sites.
Some great information here! Like everybody else said you need your own blog/website on your own domain name! Anything that's Free can be shut down without a warning. But you want to set up blogs on other blogs site to link back to your blog! The more quality links you have the more traffic you will get your way! That's the name of the game you want quality traffic coming your way!
Don't forget that you can use wordpress for more than just blogs - if you can afford a nice theme, some of them can handle everything you need as a non-blog website, along with the blog, too. This way you don't have to work twice to keep the look/feel the same across a blog platform as well as however you design the main part of your site.
Hi I have been reading this discussion and I agree with some of the posters here that having your own blog is better than using a free site. Mainly because it is yours, you are free to do what you like with it. Also no one can ever take it away from you. These big companies are free to take things away at a moments notice if it no longer fits in with their business plan. How would you feel if suddenly all your hard work was gone overnight ? I have a couple of blogs and have only used WordPress - it is simple, easy to set up and had loads of free Themes and Plugins that allow you to do what you want... Building a blog and adding content is great fun...Especially when you start to get readers....
kyle I would recomend your blog first, depending on your Business, you need to drive traffic to this,but just make sure the content, co insides with your niche. i would use wordpress. set up your domain name, that links in with your blog, and i would recomend ,godaddy and hostgator
I suppose it depends on what you're selling. If you're selling make money online biz opportunities, go with a list. Create a squeeze page and promote it. A blog is another avenue to help promote a list, but you'd have to apply free information first. See what this guy did with his blog and how he used it to draw customers to create a list: http://mattsmarketingblog.com/ If you're selling a niche product like shoes: You might want to try selling it on Squidoo, Wizzley or Seekyt first. You can create your own niche site if you wish. If you're selling T-shirts, then you want to do a store like Zazzle, Cafe Press or use your own ecommerce software.
For a business its ideal to have a website front page look and a blog installed in sub domain like yoursite.com/blog. So visitor can browse your site as your business and read updates and how you interact with customers via your blog. Also if possible have an option for users to register in blor/post comment or interact in some form if they did not optin, this can increase their interest with your business. I hope this helps. Thanks
I would recomend to make site with the blog as part of the site, you should use paid hosting it's not so expensive but you can rely at it.
