Pre-Planning Stage 4 - Hosting

So you've decided a subject; you've decided a name. You've decided whether or not to get a domain.

Now it's time to figure out where you will be hosting your blog from. Their are hundreds of thousands of hosts out there; and everyone wants your business - but I'm gonna tell you what my opinion is:
- Get free hosting until you get a readership that is substantial enough to pay for your hosting.

Sure, using free hosting does give you less "street cred", but bottom-line: it's free. Also, some of the free-hosting blog networks (like the ones listed below) help you get ranked by publicizing your blog into their directories. Wordpress is especially good at this.

The free hosts I like the most are:
1) Blogger.com - Incredibly easy to use; easy ad-placement - especially if you're going to use adsense. This is where, obviosuly, this blog is currently hosted at.

2) WordPress.com - Quite frankly, This is my favorite. The only problem - THEY DON'T LET YOU ADVERTISE OR USE ANY SCRIPTS
- You can pay wordpress to host you on their network and then they allow you to advertise and script; but this is by no means the most efficient way. It's like $300 a month for this service.

Pay-Hosting
My tip is if you are going to pay for hosting; go with Godaddy. That just me; I have a lengthy history with GoDaddy.com for domain name registration and hosting and I love them. Domains are only 1.99 if you get any other service on the site at the same time (like a month of hosting).

If you are going to pay for your hosting; another option is to use Wordpress.Org's free-ware php scripts to make your site. This is probably the most professional and best way to go - if you are computer/blog literate enough to do it. What I suggest is blog a bit on free hosting and once you learn the ins and outs - slowly make your way to WordPress.

Their are also other blog-making script programs out there; but I'm not even going to mention them.

Pre-Planning Stage 3 - Domain or not to Domain

The Great Domain-Name Debate
- Most bloggers don't make much money, the saying goes "Blogging for pennies". However; its also true that most blogs don't aim to make money. Some dude studying abroad writing about his travels, perhaps dosen't intend to make a part-time job out of his blog, maybe he just wants to tell his family/friends how his trip is going. And thats fine.

If you DO want to make money blogging...
- You should probably get a domain. It adds professionality to your site. People see that you have invested in your blog and this leads them to conclude that you will update regularly (or atleast that you intend too).
Myself, I have not yet bought a domain for this blog - because I don't have the kind fo readership yet that will provide me with enough earnings to pay for the hosting/domain name. I'd rather just get free hosting and build up my readership and switch over to a domain once all the gears are moving.

Pre-Planning Stage 2 - Whats in a name?

The next step in pre-planning the strategy of your blog, after picking a subject area that you can blog about confidently and you believe the market is right for it (as in, no good competition - or atleast competition you can beat), the next step is to figure out the name.

There are several schools of thought on this subject as well. I'll go over the two that I know.

The SEO point-of-view:
- I'm not going to dive into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) here; but basically it is how a web designer goes about optimizing their site for the search engines - so that the engines have a much easier time finding the website and rank it higher due to it's proclivity to keywords.
- The SEO P.O.V. is that you should name your blog using keywords. Cut-n-dry. For example this blog is named "Beginner-Bloggers", I did this because I believe these 2 keywords will help my blog get noticed by search engines and ranked higher than if I named it "Nort's Blogging Tips". There is also a belief that putting a dash in your name will better allow search engines to differentiate between the keywords; hence "Beginner-Bloggers".

The Brand-Name Point of View:
- Their is also the conept of brand name. Some web designers will say that, although important to use keywords and to be seach engine optimized, do not underestimate the power of developing a brand name. Some sites have random names that - over time - have become synonymous with types of material. A good example would be BoingBoing.com . By the name of it; one has no idea what they discuss on it. However; because it has spent time developing its brand and cultivating an audience.

This concludes Pre-Planning Stage 2 - Whats in a name?, Keep an eye out for Stage 3 - Domain or not to domain (Coming soon)

Pre-Planning stage 1 - Finding a subject area

It is my opinion that before any site is done; before you buy a domain; before you even make a google account...

Do some Pre-Planning

The first step of which is to find out what subject you are going to spend countless hours discussing on your blog.
This means, listing out the subject areas you think you want to blog about. Keep in mind that "blog about" does not mean a few articles. "Blog about" means many articles; like an article a day for the life of your blog...

There are several schools of though:
I believe in "write alot about alittle, rather than alittle about alot".

This makes sense to me because I understand how important it is to have a site where people can come to daily and expect to see articles somehow relevant to prior and future articles. Not to mention; by honing in on a specific niche or subject - you greatly enhance your chances of getting good rankings in Search engines.

Make a list of all the subject areas you believe you have the experience; authority; and the education to be able to provide continuous - QUALITY - content about.

Begin the process of elimination; based on these factors:
- How's the competition for this subject area?
- What is my market, is it a niche? Are their enough readers of this kind of content? (sometimes you won't know until you make it)

Thus Concludes Stage 1, Stage 2 - Whats in a name? (coming soon)