Okay, so what is a blog? And getting started!

You're on one, so you already have an idea. But if someone asks you what is a blog what do you say? Simply put, it is an online journal. Blogs can cover the entire spectrum of life and events. There are blogs for political statements, personal statements, sports, travel and just about anything you could think of.

We're including a definition of blogs in our beginners' tutorial because blogging is about the easiest way to build an online presence. And if you're building an online business then a presence is what you want to create. It is easy to get started blogging, usually free, and a good way to gain experience in your marketing ventures.

Blogs differ from the static website in that the very nature of a blog is up to date changes. When a standard website is changed and updated the changes may not be so obvious as on a blog where the most recent post is right there in front of you.

Blogs are easy to start. A popular choice that many professional marketers use is to register a domain and buy hosting services. Then there is a process of setting up a blog template before you can begin blogging. Another choice, and one I would recommend especially if you don't want to take on too many new things at once, is to create a free account with Blogger.com.

Blogger.com offers choices of templates and widgets (such as Follow with Google Friend Connect that you see here on this blog). You can start right away or explore the many features they have to customize your blog to make it stand out.

It may seem like a big step to begin blogging for your business, but the hardest step often is just to make yourself get started. That is the point, after all, where most ideas perish. If you prefer, you could create a personal blog first, such as a blog about a hobby, to get familiar with the features and get used to using the interface. After that it may not seem so big a step to start a blog to create a business presence. While you are gaining experience with your personal blog, you can take the time to plan out some ideas for what you would like to do for your business blog.

I chose blogging as the starting point for my online presence, so it does not matter which affiliate programs I happen to be promoting at any given time. I have this blog as a long term asset. Developing a long term asset, such as a blog, is a worthy investment of time and an easy thing that you can do to build and promote your online business.

© 2009 Louise Ciofalo
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