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Start Blogging - Today! Back to marketing articles By Elaine Saunders If you feel that regularly updating your web pages is beyond your capabilities, or too great a demand on your time, blogging could be a useful alternative to publicise your company, product or service. A blog is quick and easy to write, instantly published and, best of all, it's free. The software is provided for you and each post is simply a case of filling in a text box. Just place a link from your home page and your site visitors have instant access to your company's latest news. In this article you'll learn how to sign up for a blog with Google, navigate the software and make your very first post. From the Google home page go to the top right corner and click "Sign In". If you don't already have an account, create one and look for "My Account" which will take you to a page with an orange logo for "Blogger". Alternatively, go direct to www.blogger.com and create your account by following the instructions. This will take you eventually to the Dashboard where you'll be invited to create a blog. Choose a name for the blog and you'll be assigned a unique URL ending with ...blogspot.com. Follow directions to the blog's own page and click the "Layout" tab. Now select "Choose New Template" and decide which option you prefer. You can change this template at any time, no matter how far advanced the blog, and the the page elements automatically rearrange themselves. Therefore, don't panic about getting it right the first time. Now you can begin adding elements to the page. If you select "Add A Page Element" a dialogue box appears with several options, allowing you to add pictures, details about yourself or chunks of text. You can even drag and drop these individual elements around the page to change their order in the list. Every so often, click "View Blog" to check your progress and, if you don't like it, go back and edit. If you choose the "Fonts and Colours" tab you can alter the template to change the look of the blog even further. Make sure that you have a link to your website on your blog or, if you're featuring a product, a link to that product's sales page. And don't just make it one link, pepper the page with them and end every blog posting with a web or email link. When you're ready to make your first posting, select the "Posting" tab, give your post a title and fill in the box. Publish your post, view the blog to check it and you're done. It really is as simple as that. You can go back later from the same page and edit the text if you find a mistake. Otherwise, return at regular intervals to add more company news. You can run any number of blogs for different sections of your site - addressing trade and consumer buyers or talking about different ranges of products. Just remember to always link between them and to link back to your main site. There are, of course, blogging sites other than Google to try so look around to find which one suits you best. You can even give your visitors an option to subscribe to your blog so each update is delivered directly to their inbox but this is discussed in the next article, "Spreading The Word With Feedburner".
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