Page 154 - Social Media Marketing

138 Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

BlueHost has been hosting web sites since 1996, has a history of
providing excellent service, and is packed with tools that make
setting up and managing a blog and web site very intuitive.

BlueHost includes a tool called Fantastico that can install the
blogging software for you, which is one of biggest hurdles that
most novice bloggers face. You simply run Fantastico, click the
blogging platform you want to install-b2evolution, Nucleus, or
WordPress-and Fantastico steps you through the installation. Joe
was able to install WordPress and start blogging in less than five
minutes. Customizing it took additional time. You can check out his
blog at joekraynak.com/blog.

Get the Best of Both Worlds with Remote Hosting Options

Remote hosting options combine the power of a standalone
blogging platform with the flexibility of hosting the blog on your
own domain. Both Blogger and Typepad offer these options. The
blog runs on your domain and hosting service, but you go to
Blogger or Typepad to post content and configure your blog. This
way, you can avoid the complications of installing the blog on your
hosting service.

Avoiding the Temptation to Advertise

All content you post to your blog should be soft-sell, if you choose
to do any selling at all. The purpose of your blog is to provide free,
valuable information and insight. Rob Levy (www.roblevy.com). a
tech-savvy real estate agent in Portland, Oregon, recently explained
how he used the Internet to market his services. According to Levy,
"With the old way of doing business, we used the MLS book, so
buyers had to come to us, because we had all the data. Nowadays,
with IDX, Realtor.com, and other sites, buyers can find housing data
themselves. In other words, in the old days, we sold the agent and
then gave the buyers data; now, we give them the data and then