How to Start Blogging

This comment came through as SPAM this afternoon from visitor Bernice:  Wonderful blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option?  There are so many options out there that I’m totally confused .. Any tips? Thanks!

Bernice, thanks for reading, commenting,and the positive words!  I’ll try to answer some of your questions – they are commonly asked by many other readers.

WordPress.com is a free blogging platform and one of the most popular with 60 million bloggers.  Other popular and free blogging platforms include: Blogger, Tumblr, LiveJournal, Weebly, and Blog.com .(1)   WordPress.com has built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and is very user friendly.  The support staff is great and the user community is helpful and friendly.  Just post a question to the group and someone will respond to your inquiry.  We all had to start somewhere as you want to do.

WordPress.com Start

Blog or Website Posts That Drive Massive Traffic

Does a big difference exist between a website and a blog.  In some cases – yes.  A website is often larger with static content; a blog is dynamic with shorter snippets of text.  Both are very similar: blogs or websites are personal or corporate or used by non-profit or government.  SEO or search engine optimization is similar and each provides information, opinion or both.  Websites might be a storefront, blogs not as much.  Both are hosted, though blogs are often free or inexpensive.  Websites are larger and are often hosted by the company or third parties.  Blogs  – WordPress.com is an example – is hosted by WordPress at minimal cost to the blogger.  Finally, websites are more likely to make money, whereas only the larger blogs will get a return on investment.  Blogs can lead to book deals, if the content and topic is appropriate.

In either case, every blogger or website content writer wants to drive large numbers of visitors on a regular basis.  The best blogs or sites have millions of visitors per month.  Homepreneurs – by contrast – has a few to several thousand visitors per month.  Listed below are the top 5 websites and their approximate number of visitors:

1)     Google.com – 185,000,000 monthly visits

2)     YouTube.com – 160,000,000 monthly visits

3)     Facebook.com – 150,000,000 monthly visits

4)     Amazon.com – 100,000,000 monthly visits

5)     Yahoo.com – 95,000,000 monthly visits

Using Instagram to Create Great Photos for Social Media Sites

Instagram is a free photo-sharing program and social network now owned by Facebook.  Instagram is useful for home business: it quickly allows users to post product pictures on social media sites for marketing. Instagram users can take a photo, apply a digital filter, and share the image with other Instagram users via a social network platform.  Instagram has about 100 million registered and is growing quickly.

Instragram supports iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android camera phones.  The application is available for free thru the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

Instragram addresses three problems associated with mobile cameras:

1) Mobile photos are average quality, but Instragram filters transform the photos into closer to professional quality images.

2) Uploading photos to social networks is a pain.  Instragram makes the process fast and efficient.

3) Sharing photos on multiple platforms requires multiple uploads, edits, etc.  Instagram will share a photo instantly on multiple services.

Instagram also automatically creates 4:4 square pictures.  This is different than the 4:3 aspect ratio used by mobile devices.

Instragram currently works with Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Also available is a limited Windows version of Instagram – Instagrille. Testing suggests the feature is limited to viewing and downloading; not uploading and editing.

Below is a famous Lipizzan horse taken in Vienna, Austria before Instagram filtering:

Below is the same Lipizan horse, after applying Instagram’s brightening and sharpening.  Sizing was automatic.

That process took 15 seconds after experimenting with the filters.  Neat, huh?  Think about how this can make your product photos pop!

Blogging with Tumblr

Tumblr is an increasingly popular microblogging platform and social media site owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc.  As of mid July 2012, tumblr had roughly 65 million blogs with about 13 million unique visits per day in the United States.[i]  It is a potentially useful – and free – tool for home business and entrepreneurs.

Tumblr is different than other blogging hosts like WordPress, Blogger, and Blogspot.  Less text-driven, tumblr uses multimedia posts to share blogger messages.  About half of tumblr’s daily posts – over 15 million – are image-based.  Like other non self-hosted sites – if tumblr is down, individual blogs are offline.  Scalability is another potential drawback of tumblr and customization can be difficult.  Tumbler’s reader base is more male than female, and close to 60% are under age 35.

If regular text-like blogs are journals, tumblr’s blogs are digital scrapbooks.  Fast, simple, and with 6 types of posts:  text, photos, quotes, links, conversations, and videos.  Many free background themes are available, with no mandatory advertising either  “Share on tumblr” bookmarklets in Firefox and Internet Explorer allow easy, instant posting directly from a browser.

Why The Interest in Pinterest?

Pinterest is now the third largest social media site behind Facebook and Twitter.  So, what the heck is the buzz about Pinterest, how does it work, and can it help my home business?  Pinterest is one of the latest social networking services that allow users to connect by sharing pictures, videos, photos, and other media by using a virtual “pinboard.”   Pinterest also connects to Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, giving registered users an option to share within the larger virtual social networking world.

“Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.  People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.”[i]

Source: etsy.com via Emily on Pinterest

Pinterest uses virtual “pins” and a “pin  it button” to post media that users want to share with friends or the public.  Users can in turn re-post or “re-pin” images found on their own pinboards.  Pinboards are generally themed so that pins are easily organized and found by other users.  Users can allow other users to add to their pinboards or comment on existing pins.

Can Pinterest help my home business?  Definitely.  Pinterest is growing at an exponential rate.  As of January 2012, Pinterest had about 12 million unique visitors, the fastest social media site to achieve that mark.[ii] Marketing, branding, and sales are excellent uses of Pinterest.  The sheer number of users, a simple user interface, and an ability to host multiple types of visual media makes Pinterest an ideal choice for testing new products and gaining potential customer feedback.  Much like other social media sites, Pinterest is dynamic and easy to modify as circumstances demand.  This flexibility is an advantage for home business; owners can monitor and change Pinterest postings throughout a day.

Pinterest is the latest phase in social networking and is too large to dismiss.  Its demographic – 80% women (ages 35-44) in the United States[iii] – is documented and allows for targeted marketing.  (UK numbers are considerably different with more men than women and a younger age group).  Do you have pictures or video of a new product you want opinions on?  Pinterest may be exactly what you need.  A good website for Pinterest marketing tips is located here.

By Dion D Shaw

Dion D Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012, All Rights Reserved

References

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[i] Retrieved 4/2/2012 from http://pinterest.com/about/help/

[ii] Retrieved 4/2/2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest

[iii] Retrieved 4/2/2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest