Do you need a blog?

Internet marketers have various opinions on whether you need a blog to make money on the internet.
Because I’m interested in helping new internet marketers, I’m going to keep my posts very simple and not get into too much detail. Forget technical–I don’t know a lot of technical stuff. I’ve already begun to hire people to do that kind of thing for me. You’ll soon see that you can make money on the internet just by doing what you know best, and concentrating on that. In the same way, you don’t have to do what you don’t like doing, or spend a lot of time learning what doesn’t really interest you.
Anything you want to learn, though, is already on the internet–a lot of it for free. You just have to do a little research to find it.
Until a short time ago, I didn’t have a blog, mainly because I didn’t know it was important. I also didn’t know the first thing about setting up a blog, or what to put on it,  for that matter.
That was before I became a student of Alex Jeffreys. One of the first things he teaches his students is to set up a blog and start making “posts”.   A “blog” is short for weblog, and “posts” are what you write about and “post” or “publish” to your blog.  This will serve several purposes.
You’ll start to become known on the internet. As people read what you write, and share it with others, you’ll get what’s known as “traffic” to your blog. Traffic is the name for the people who visit your blog or website–just the same as if you had a business somewhere on Main Street, and people walked by and came into your store or restaurant, or some other business. All business owners want lots of “traffic”, which they hope to turn into customers. There are several ways to get traffic, which we’ll discuss further in future posts.  You can also start to build a mailing list by putting an opt-in box on your blog.  For now, though, let’s say you don’t have to have a blog, but you should have a blog.
So, what do you do to get started? First of all, you need a domain name. It should be something related to whatever niche you’re going to work in, or just “your name.com”. There are several good places to buy domain names. I personally use “GoDaddy” because I like their service and support. You can find them easily at www.Godaddy.com. Domainnames.com is another choice for inexpensive domain names. They will cost you around $8 or $9 each. Try to pick a domain name related to your niche, or theme,  of your blog.

Next, you will need hosting for your domain name. There are also several places to get hosting and you can research different hosting companies to see what fits your need.
I use what I believe to be the best hosting on the internet–ProHost Management. They provide very inexpensive basic hosting if that’s all you need. However, if you’re “Techno-challenged” as I am, I can’t say enough good about Adam Spiel and ProHost Management. I don’t know how long I would have struggled to get a blog set up and working properly if I hadn’t found them. At ProHost, they will set up your blog on WordPress, submit your site to the social networks, and much more. Of course, it costs a little more than basic hosting, but for what you’re getting, it’s an exceptional bargain. Maybe you can’t afford not to host with them when you’re starting out. They will definitely get you started on the right foot. You owe it to yourself to check them out here:
http://razschultz.com/go/ProHost/

So that’s all you need to begin blogging:  A domain name, hosting, and WordPress or similar program installed, and you can begin “blogging” or writing, on what-ever subject you’re interested in or passionate about.
You may recognize that the links I gave you are “Affiliate” links. That means, of course, that if you buy something through those links, I will get a small commission, which will help keep this blog going. This is something you can do on your blog, also, and it’s one way to monetize (make money from) your blog.  More on that later. (Of course, you won’t always tell people it’s an affiliate link–this is just “secret inside” information for you). Come back to visit and we’ll talk soon.  Feel free to ask any question you may have.

What information would you like to see on this blog, or what suggestions do you have?  I would appreciate any comments you wish to make.

Thank you for visiting, and all my best to you.