Starting A Blog - What To Avoid

Some people are so good at what they do, they make it look easy. And many an aspiring blogger or website entrepreneur has been inspired by their efforts to say, "hey, I can do it to." And off they go. But as exciting as it is when starting a blog or website for the first time, it is important to make some good basic decisions, decisions that will have a huge impact on the long term success or failure of your site.
And I am speaking from experience.

Here are some fundamental basic no-no's of starting a website or blog

Your Domain Name
1. Get the right domain name - First off, make sure your domain name relates to your site. Search engines will respect you better when their bots analyze your site and see that the content and name are related. People searching in your niche will also take your site more seriously. It's also crucial if you are a business website for branding purposes.

2. Do keyword research for your domain name. While its tempting to think of a cutsie name for your site, a cardinal rule to remember is, that 'if no one is searching for it, it doesn't exist'. It's very simple really, just find a phrase that people are already searching for and integrate your domain name into it.

3. Domain name and - Hyphens. Most likely, the domain name you like is already registered, especially as a dot com. So you start brainstorming. One solution is to use hyphens. For example, powertools.com is already taken, so you might try power-tools.com. Google still takes note of your keyword based name and just treats the hyphen as a space. But the problem is that people are not used to putting in hyphens if they are typing a name directly into their browser, and so most likely, powertools.com will show up. If this site is well put together, the person most likely won't look any further. So be sure to check what your competitors are doing before going the hyphen route. And don't be afraid of digging even deeper for keywords to use.

4. When you start a blog or website it is always best to buy your own domain name. I t costs less that $10 a year to own a domain name, so do it. While using free blogging platforms are nice, use them to augment the site and domain name that you own. Any free blogging and hosting programs you sign up for generally retains the right to your domain name, (unless they specify otherwise) so they can shut your sight down for any reason and you can lose all of your efforts.

Web Hosting

Free or really cheap web hosting sounds very tempting, but also comes with many potential problems. Most free hosting platforms are very slow, that is, slow to load up your website for visitors, and your ranking will be penalized for this, plus, people don't want to wait too long for your site to load up. They will move on quickly, because it shows a lack of professionalism. Should you have website problem, and you will, their customer service is also slow and often inadequate.

In order to make money many of these free hosting companies require that you accept ads on your site. Ads that you have absolutely no control over. I would recommend free webhosting, but only as ways to augment your main site.
Good quality webhosting isn't very expensive. Start with the least expensive plan and upgrade as your internet business grows. You will have a greater peace of mind because quality website hosts depend on having a good rep and their customer services are usually very helpful.

Website Design
1. Keywords. Whether you are relying on organic searches or are using PPC - Pay Per Click, you really need to have done your keyword research. If you want to attract new visitors you need to be using the right keywords and phrases. Make sure you use the terms that people are searching for. And then use these keywords to build quality content and write articles around specific keywords. Make sure whatever your advertising is tied in.

2. Don't spend most of your time creating a cool looking site without also creating great content. Noobs especially, who start a blog, spend a lot of time searching out the 'perfect' template. Instead you should be putting in 10x the effort in getting your content together. Don't let your site distract from the content you are providing. The search engines place a higher value on content than what your template looks like.

That being said,

3. Beware of poor navigation. Not only is it frustrating for your visitors, who may be searching for some specific information and can't find it, the search engines don't like it either. Make sure that the links are arranged logically and the link is information specific, so that when people click on the link they go to exactly what your links says.

Be sure to have a Sitemap.

4. When starting a website don't just design it for the search engines. Quite a bit of emphasis is placed on SEO - Search Engine Optimization, and no doubt about it, this is quite important. Even more important is to design a user focused website. This will encourage visitors to come and stay on your site, meaning more traffic and higher rankings. You will have to tweak your SEO continually anyhow. And as you find out which keyword searches are working you will want to give them more prominence in your SEO efforts.

Starting a blog is exciting and fun but never forget your targeted audience. Invite feedback and keep your content focused on what is working. As you discover what your readers and potential customers want, give it to them. Meet their needs and they will gladly reward you.