Page 153 - Social Media Marketing

Blogging Your Way to Credibility 137

manage the blog yourself. The actual process of setting up a blog is
too complex to cover here, but it generally consists of the following
steps:

1. Register your own domain name, such as yourname.com. This
usually costs about $10 a year. Any of several companies can
register your domain name for you, including GoDaddy.com,
Register.com, and NetworkSolutions.com.

2. Subscribe to a hosting service. For a basic package, you can
expect to pay $6 to $10 per month. Again, numerous compa-
nies offer hosting services, including Yahoo! (smallbusiness.
yahoo.com/webhosting), BlueHost (www.bluehost.com). and
InMotion (www.inmotionhosting.com).

Tip: By getting your domain name through your hosting ser-
vice in Step 2, the hosting service will usually give you one do-
main name for free, so you may want to hold off on registering
your domain name until you find a hosting service. I'd hate to
see you lose out on a $10 discount.

3. Install the blogging platform. Most platforms are free, but
some charge a licensing fee. A number of blogging platforms
are available. Here are some of the most popular along with the
web site address where you can go to download the platform
and obtain instructions for installing it:
• WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com,
which offers the free, hosted blogging platform)
• MoveableType.org
• Joomla.org

4. Select a design (or presentation) template and customize the
appearance and function of your blog.

Consider signing up with a full-featured hosting service. My co-
author, Joe, strongly recommends BlueHost at www.bluehost.com.