Resources for New Bloggers

Growing list of recommendations to help you with your blog. Please be sure to read my full disclosure.

Networks

Informational Resources: General strategy and how-to advice.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog: By far, this is my favorite blogging resource. It’s not just for new bloggers or new blogs, even. It’s for anyone looking to get focused, write better content, and attract more visitors. This ebook was written by Darren Rowse, of ProBlogger.net.

Platforms and Hosting: Where to host your blog, get a domain name and blogging software

Bluehost.com: I highly recommend using Bluehost as your hosting provider if you have not started your blog or are considering moving it. Of all of the blog hosts I’ve used or have worked with on client sites, Bluehost is the most efficient, speedy, and problem-free. U.S.-based customer service and a phone number you can call (that actually works) are just the icing on the cake. Your blog will be up and running in 10 minutes (including the time it takes to sign up for the service and buy the domain name, etc).

GoDaddy.com: While I recommend Bluehost for hosting, I recommend GoDaddy for domain name management. The reason is that GoDaddy has better sales and pricing. You will also enjoy the fact that you can specify the name servers at the time of purchase, so if you host your blog at Bluehost (or plan to) you can add ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com to the purchase order when you buy the domain.

WordPress.org: WordPress is a free CMS (content management system) and is widely used for blogging. Some (including me) might say that if you’re not using WordPress for your blog, you should be. You will find WordPress incredibly flexible, and there are so many resources out there for WordPress that you’ll be able to do just about anything you want with your blog.

WordPress MU: If you plan to create a community of blogs – such as for a school, city, fashion magazine, etc., you should consider WordPress MU (which stands for multi-user).  If you’re interested in WordPress MU, you’ll want to check out WPMUdev.org, where you’ll find all of the plugins and themes you’ll need to make your multi-user blog successful. BizChickBlogs.com is powered by WordPress MU and as a premium member of WPMUdev.org, I can speak from experience as to just how valuable that membership is.