Investments Every Serious Blogger Should Make

Posted on 11. Jun, 2010 by Ashwin in Blogging

Beginners on the Internet – be it for Internet Marketing, Writing, Web designing, Blogging – are taught to go the ‘free’ route. Although starting for free is a really a no-headache, no-risk, no-heartache way of getting started, there is no so much impact you can make with it. For example, consider blogging. How much of an impact are you going to make when you start out with a free blog based on wordpress.com or blogger.com.

Please be warned that there are a few exceptions here as well. One of good old friends Dana Prince has been writing on her blog for a long time now and it has quite a dedicated following .Want something more sensational? Check out Seth Godin’s blog if you are looking for a truly successful example of a free blog rocking the Internet; well, it works if your name is Seth Godin).

Apart from those examples above, everyone else must make some investments and do some due diligence. Here’s a list of them:

Invest in a domain name and hosting: No, I am not going to recommend any hosts here. All I wanted to communicate was that with a self-hosted wordpress blog — or any other CMS like Joomla, Magento or Drupal – would give you tremendous amount of flexibility to do what you wanted. It’s not even about monetization; it’s about being professional and giving a serious image to your readers. A hosting account and domain name wouldn’t cost you much and if you did what you were supposed to, you will very well make up for the money spent many times over.

Invest time on continuous learning: This thing never stops; when you think you mastered the art of developing content, the question of knowing design inside out kicks in. When you think you mastered design, the field is forever changing with new technology such as jqueries, Javascripts and Ajax.The world of affiliate marketing is constantly changing. Blogging has evolved from simple online dairies to full-fledged informational powerhouses. If you aren’t investing in learning, you are still under a rock?

Invest in a great theme: Mike and I have always been debating whether a paid theme is better or a free wordpress theme is better. While we haven’t been able to come to a conclusion yet, what’s more important is the look and the presentation of your site. Be it paid or free, it’s important that it looks good. Design plays a vital role in your online success and hence you must invest in either a ready-made paid theme or pay up for proper customization.

Say, have you made these investments yet? What other things have you spent on?

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