An Introduction to Blogging as an Internet Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest changes in the Internet in the last five to ten years has been the rise of the blogosphere, the massive, global network of personal, business, and group blogs.  This huge increase in the number of blogs means not only a huge amount of content to read, but a great deal of money to be made.  However, before you can begin to work from home from blogging, you first need to learn the basics.

So What the Heck is a Blog?

Possibly the weirdest word to come from the Internet lately, aside from maybe Twitter, is blog. Short for “weblog,” a blog is generally a website that chronicles the publishing of information.  Some people use these as an online diary, explaining who they are and what they are doing.  Businesses and professional groups often use them to describe various things happening within their institutions, such as promotions or the progression of new product development.

Some people have even figured out how to use blogging to make money – which is exactly what we’re going to teach you how to do. After no time, it will be directly integrated into whatever Internet marketing strategies that you may have.

Where Can I Blog?

You can publish or read blogs just about anywhere.  Many major news institutions and other websites, like Wired, have entire sections of their websites dedicated to blogs.  Other websites are nothing more than just a blog – in fact, most of the most popular websites on the Internet right now are essentially just well-designed blogs that publish new information on a daily or even hourly basis.

What this means is that if you want to, you can buy up a domain you like through a service like GoDaddy and begin blogging right away.  However, this costs money, as you will have to not only buy the domain, but you will also have to have the blog itself hosted.  After attaining your own domain, you will want to install blogging software, like Joomla or WordPress, to begin blogging.

Alternatively, you can jump onto a number of different websites dedicated to hosting blogs for free to get your feet wet.  While there is nothing innately worse about freely-hosted blogs, they do require you to have particular elements attached to your URL, as well as being forced to follow their terms of service.  Blogger and WordPress are two of the more popular free blogging spots out there.

So Where Should I Begin?

If this is your first time blogging, then we recommend you begin by jumping onto one of the free blogging websites so that you can learn the basics without having to pay for it.  Create a few entry posts, read other blogs of similar content, and familiarize yourself with the publishing text and images process. You’ll be ready to be making money blogging in no time!