Some Thoughts On A Blogging Alliance

I've been thinking about blogging alliances ever since I read Darren Rowse's great article on Problogger.net  If you have not read it then you should. I think the way the group Darren wrote about is going about it the right way. I would like to be in one if it could be done in a similar fashion because it will be a benefit to all involved if done correctly. I'm still new to all of this and trying to learn as much as I can and I'm not alone out here because I see posts all over the blogosphere from new bloggers asking similar questions. We are all out here trying to fly solo and there is no problem with that if you are a seasoned pro, which I'm not! My idea would be to join up with other new bloggers and help each other out with advice and ideas. If any of those veteran bloggers want to join as sort of a mentor, that would be great as well! One thing I want to make clear is that everything will be for free and there would be no fee, or anything people have to buy in order to join up. Those are some of my thoughts, I would love to hear what you are thinking. Let me know if you have any ideas of your own, I look forward to hearing from you! My email is Beltwayboy7@gmail.com

What Blogging Platform Will You Use?

After you decide that you are going to give blogging a try, there is one more very important decision you must make. What blogging platform are you going to use? There is a bunch of them to choose from. You have Wordpress.com and .org, I will explain the difference between the two later in this post. Google has Blogger and to be perfectly honest with you, those are the only ones that I have personally used. I like all three of them and each has their pros and cons. They are pretty easy and straight forward when it comes to using them. I started out with a Wordpress.org site. It's Beltwayboysports.com you should check it out sometime. This blog that you are reading is a Blogger site that I got from Google.

Now onto the differences of the Wordpress.com and .org. The differences are .com is free and wordpress will host the site for you, but you don't own the site and can't put ads up if you decide to monetize your blog. I have heard of people losing their blogs because of some type of rules infraction and lost all of their content. Now with a .org blog you control the whole show. You will need to pay for hosting and pick out a domain name like I did with Beltwayboysports.com. I should have went the free route to begin. I knew absolutely nothing and had to figure it out on my own. It really is best to get a handle on how everything works before striking out on your own. It will save you a bunch of headaches, trust me!

Hosting is not all that expensive to get. DO YOUR HOMEWORK when you are searching for a place to host your site. I would recommend my host, but I'm not totally satisfied with their service. I did not do enough homework before I selected them. So I learned a very valuable lesson. I was just so excited to get going and let my guard down for a second and wham. My suggestion is to go and research all the different platforms. Only you will know which one fits your needs. Everyone is going to talk about whatever one they are comfortable working with!

Here is another good resource site that is packed with a ton of great information to help you out as you start your journey into the blogging world. http://2createawebsite.com

Great Online Blogging Resources For New Bloggers

Where can a new blogger go online to get the best information about how blogging works? That was one of my earliest questions. You can get all the information you need to start your blog and to get traffic to come as well, for FREE! Sounds easy enough, but how do you know what sites are legit and which ones are not? You don't, you have to be careful because there are some sites that are scams. I have come across plenty of both in my brief time on the net. You should go with your first gut feeling if something does not jive. I operate the same way. One thing I can promise you is that I will never recommend a site or a product that I don't beleive in. So I'm going to recommend some sites that I found that worked for me. I still go and check them out from time to time.

http://Becomeablogger.com Is a 10 part video series that is designed for the new blogger it is very,very good. Plus it's free. Each video is about 10 minutes long and packed with quality.

http://Dailyblogtips.com Is a very informative site with alot to offer. You should check it out.

Another great site to check out is SBI, Sitebuildit. SBI is a very unique site because of all that it offers you. The best thing is that you can get some great training for free even if you don't buy anything. They will give you free Affiliate marketing training by signing up as an affiliate of theirs and that is free as well. If you plan on making money blogging then you should learn about affiliate marketing. There are more great sites that I will be putting on here in the coming weeks. You need to determine what blogging platform you will want to use. I will get into that in my next post.