Hello all..
This blog entry is about starting a blog the right way.
– Related to my “blogging challenge” post here –
Here’s the deal..
There are plenty of services out there where you can start a blog for free, no upfront costs, no monthly fees. There are also services out there that actually charge you a monthly fee so you can blog on THEIR domain – and that one I REALLY don’t get. I mean, why would I give someone my money every month, AND give them all my content at the same time??
That’s like me saying: “Sure I’ll teach you how to play guitar, but let me pay YOU to learn from ME.”
At first you may think that this is a good way to start out in the blogging world, because admittedly it does sound attractive at first, right?
“.. well, it’s free and it sounds like a good way to get my feet wet and see if I like it..”
You have to understand that once you start out the WRONG way in blogging, the more you do it, it
gets harder and harder to turn it around the right way. To put it simply, you need to stop blogging on someone else’s domain!
By “blogging on someone else’s domain” I mean if you have a blog that has a URL like these:
http://myblogname.wordpress.com
http://myblogname.blogger.com
http://myblogname.someotherdomain.com
Doing it that way is essentially the same as YOU advertising in order to build someone else’s contact list. And we all know how I feel about that.
As an internet marketer, you NEED to have your own presence on the internet. You need to have your OWN blog on your OWN domain. There really is no other way around this, and it’s important.
Question: is this a hobby for you, or is this a business you want to build? That’s the difference.
If you are blogging on someone else’s domain, you’re really just setting yourself up for disaster..
What happens if they delete your posts? What happens if their domain gets slapped by Google and your traffic is gone? What happens if their servers get hacked? What happens if some other blogger on the same domain spams the server out of existence? Well.. too bad for you I guess. There goes all your hard work, there goes your content. It happens. Back to square one. How fun is that?
If you have your own domain, your own blog, YOU are in control of your online presence. YOU own your own content. YOU are in control of the “look” of your blog. YOU can easily move it to a different hosting company if need be. YOU can back up your blog in case of a disaster. And best of all, YOU look professional and attractive to your prospects.
If you host your domain and blog with GlobalNPN we will NEVER expect you to increase our domain’s popularity by blogging on our domains. Your domain is YOURS, and your blog is YOURS. The web hosting is simply a service that we provide to our members to help them build their own brand.
Seriously everyone, do it right the first time. This is one of those things that you will look back on in a year and say, “.. sure wish I’d done this right the first time around..”
That’s it for now, keep on blogging 🙂
If this post helped or was of value to you, please “Like” it and share…
Thanks.
– Geoff Stephen
It’s ironic, Geoff, that you chose today to point out the importance of having and using your own domain. I’m in the process of putting together a quick-start guide for building a blog and your points are precisely the ones I made..
I’ve seen some http://myblogname.someotherdomain.com
blogs where the front page is the blogger’s geography and the rest of the pages on the blog are all about the business opportunity and controlled by the owners of the domain.
To say the least, I’m not impressed with them. Thanks for pointing out the very valid reasons for owning your own domain and hosting if you want to build a business.
Excellent, Jane.
Promote yourself first, you can’t do that on someone else’s business domain.
– Geoff
I was in a skype chat group this morning and the commentary provided terrific post content about the way Memorial Day has turned into an online marketing sales fest. I removed all reference to members usernames and where the skype chat was. I was “taking action” on an at-the-moment idea – and it was a good post.
Then i let the members know and they took offense. The post is now deleted.
So as of now I’m in reverse on my 1 post a day challenge. That will get you going – you’re ahead of me already!
Matt
Just wanted to say – today I restored the post I mentioned.. after realizing it left an SEO hole in the great googly-moogly.
But as a complete post rewrite, of course.
Otherwise, if it did get indexed, wouldn’t that return a 404 error page? So now I’m back on track with the 30 day challenge. thanks.
I left the wrong email when I posted – how’s your avatar everybody? Are you working on it?
Geoff, What level in NPN allows someone to have hosting and a blog? Also, can you only host one blog with NPN?
Hosting accounts start at the Director level.
It’s an unlimited hosting account as far as domains go, so you can have as many blogs as you like.
– Geoff.
It should be obvious by now that as online marketers we need to have our own presense online. Just like as online marketers we need to incorporate social media into our marketing. Whether you own a blog or not you are leaving big money on the table if you are not using social media.
I so love this post, and I’m so excited that I can reply from an experiential place. I was bound and determined to teach myself the right way to leverage the Internet for business. Truth be told I opened my on self hosted (host gator of course) wordpress blog because that’s what one does if your serious about learning Internet Marketing. That was February 2011 and I never thought it would happen but I’ve fallen deliriously in love with my blog. I have a real sense of ownership, my Internet real-estate. Over the past 5 months my Alexa Rank is dropping like a rock. That’s been so exciting. I checked it on New Years Eve and it was 5,000,000 and today it’s 404,280! I love my blog and everyone who takes your blog challenge will be so glad they did.
That’s awesome, Wendy!
Thanks for sharing your experience, keep it up..
– Geoff.
Hi Geoff, Your title in your e-mail today Really got my attention so here I am. What a Great Article. I Love It!! I do have to agree with you.. I know quite a few people who blog on other platforms and I think to myself WHY would you want to help build someones else’s brand.. Brand Yourself!! This is your reputation RIGHT? Anyways I am Happy I finally made it to your Blog I will stop back again.. Chery Schmidt 🙂
Great post, Geoff, and perfect timing, as I just wrote one that’s almost word-for-word what you said, and am about to post to my blog… It’s the first in a short series of four, and promoting NPN Director, of course. Cheers, Karen
I agree owning your own blog on your own domain is much better than a free wordpress or blogger blog simply because you could have your account deleted at any time and it is also hard to spread link juice and word of mouth to your site.
I need help in posting a blog, since never having done it before.
I am an independent consultant with aprivate funding company that offers amounts of 250,000 to 500 million from land projects to multi family housing and anything in between.
We are in all 50 states & Canada, & looking to work with owners & principles that need private funding.
I also work with families (not brokers) who are going into foreclosure by doing a short sale.
Thanks
Nancy
Geoff, I would love to know how you get the nice orange Submit Button. Your form is done nicely as well. Is that something I am able to produce using MMPro?
Also, did you use a custom template, paid, or free template for your blog. I am using wordpress and would like to know where the best templates are.
Mark -Barrie Ontario
I have never posted a blog before and would not know where to start. Help needed