Starting a Blog

The first question you might ask is "why do I need a blog?". Fair question. So let me see if you really need one. Answer these questions for yourself.

1) Do you have a job that is recession proof at an employer that will certainly exist as long as you want to work there?

2) Are you 100% satisfied with your job, your co-workers, your boss, your commute, your benefits package?

3) Do you make enough money to save what you need for retirement without changing your current lifestyle?

4) Do you have the lifestyle you want?

If you did not answer all of these questions with a clear and resounding "Yes" then you need a blog. Well, you need more than a blog, but we will start there.
Just so we are clear, a blog, properly maintained, can help you find a job when you need one, help you find a better job when you want one, increase your social and professional connections so you can find more and better ways to pursue your goals. Create the lifestyle you want.

The two primary ways that a blog does these wonderful things is through developing an ever increasing network of likeminded people and by creating an online presence for yourself that you create and manage.

Networking is the path to improving your career. Today's networked world is demanding it. If you only interact with co-workers, friends and family and you find yourself in a position needing a new job you will be relegated to the back of the line because you came to the new opportunity through traditional sources like adds and recruiters rather in the front door because you were known by someone in the organization.
Once you are being considered for a new position or trying to land that next big customer, the chances are nearly 100% that you will be searched for online. What will the prospective employer see when they Google you? College drinking party pictures? Your web site dedicated to your dead dog Stinky? Out of date comments from a previous employer's web site? A blank social networking page that would make a person wonder if you even exist?

Starting a blog is listed as the #1 step by the internet marketing firm HotSpot on their Inbound Marketing Blog . Many other experts also list starting a blog as the first step in increasing your online reputation. See Doug Shimp's article "6 Easy Steps to Embrace Social Media and Networking".

Hopefully I have convinced you. Now you may be asking what is the best way to start a blog. There are any number of free and low cost services out there and they are fine as far as they go. I'm not going to say they won't work, I have one myself that I have had for several years. However to really make the effort worthwhile from a long-term career perspective you will need to look more professional than using Google's Blogger.com, Blog.com, WordPress.com and the like. To do this you will need a domain name that identifies you. I like to recommend the pattern firstname-lastname.net . Mine is http://rod-claar.net. The first and last name are separated because this is how the search engines can find you when someone searches for your name "firstname lastname". I have a unique name so I don't have the problem many people have that are lots of people with the same name. Then you will have to get a little more creative. Most of the time I recommend using a city name or a profession in domain name. For example "Joe-Smith-Jockey" or "Mary-Smith-Toledo". If you don't have a unique name, and Google yourself to find out, you will have to put some thought and a number of searches before you find something you like and will be unique enough.

The next thing you will have to decide is how to create the blog. There are choices here too. The first is how you want to create the content and the second is where the blog will be hosted on the internet. I mentioned before that I have a Blogger.com blog. It was my first blog and is very easy to use. I'm sure that most of the other free services are also very easy to use. Be careful, however that you can use your domain name. My Bloogger.com blog is actually hosted by another web site host. I use a domain name that I own, but have the ease of use of Blogger.com.
However there are some things I want to do that I can't do with a free type blogging account. The big thing is something called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. To do this you need the ability to control some very specific things that the free blog sites won't let you have access to. SEO is a topic of its own and you can deal with that later after you get your blog up and running. We will be posting information about SEO here in the future.

So unless you are a professional web developer with a ton of time on your hands, you will need a tool for managing your blog. Again there are a number of choices but the most popular seems to be WordPress standalone. Once you have WordPress and a domain name pointing to a hosting account at a reliable internet hosting provider you are just about ready to start blogging. In most cases you will have to upload WordPress to your site at the hosting provider.

If you are a little more technical and have a .net background you could choose to use BlogEngine.net . This has most of the popular features found in other blogging engine, yet built on a .net 2.0 platform with optional SQL Server database backend and asp.net roles and user management.

Either way the process is not difficult, but it can be a bit tricky. However there is a better way. At ProfessionalRecognition.com we have training and packages that you can use to make the process of getting started easier. If you want some in person training their Certified Trainers are experts in technical training and the groundbreaking course "Managing Your Professional Identity" is a great place to start. They will be offering introductory pricing the first time they hold a course in each major US market for the rest of 2009.

If you want to get started before we come to area check out the Quick Start package that gets you everything you need to start blogging. They will set up your site with a domain name of your choice and send you the popular book "How to Write a Blog that People Will Want To Read" by Scott McNulty. With this package you get the domain name, web hosting for a year and give you the keys to your new blog site! Then they will be there to support you if you need help and to help you make sure that the search engines find you and respect your great work!

So now you have no reason not to get started. Blog on!