Surefire Tips for Customising Your Blog

June 18, 2009 · Filed Under Blogs, RSS and Podcasting · Comment

Starting up a blog is probably one of the smartest ways a Virtual Assistant can invest their time and effort. It’s the first thing most people will see of your business, so there’s absolutely no margin for error. Trying to make it too extravagant or complex is largely futile. These days, you don’t need a computer expert to do the job for you, because everything necessary is readily available, most of it for free.

The one point that I would recommend, if this is going to be your primary internet presence as a Virtual Assistant, then you should have your own Hosting Package and a domain name that’s the same as your business name, or as close to it as you can get it. The steps you need to follow when developing your blog are:

First of all, before you begin, here is a big warning: Keep your site classy and uncluttered, simplicity is everything! Ensure that the site is easy for your users to get around, so that they can quickly find what they’re looking for. Whilst in technological terms it may be state of the art, your blog still needs to appear stylish.

1. The first thing to do is to pursue some keyword research around the topics you are going to talk about on your blog. From this you can identify the most optimised names for the blog. From this you can identify the most optimised names for the blog.

2. Your next step is to research the blog platform that you are going to use. There are a great number of choices available, offered by providers such as WordPress.org – the Moveable Type for the self hosted option, or the likes of WordPress.com, Typepad, Blogger, Blogspot or Blogsmith for hosted platforms. The things you really need to make sure that you do are:

* Use a platform that is widely support by a very active community.

* Use something that is portable, and always keep a back up should anything go wrong.

3. Once you have chosen the platform, sign up using one of the optimised names that you chose for the blog, or install the site onto your own domain.

4. Choose the template that you want to use, and make sure that:

* It ‘s appropriate to your topic.

* You fully customise it with headers, pictures, buttons and so on to make your blog stand out.

* The end result suits your style and brand.

5. Once you have completed this see what else you are able to add to your site, i.e. available widgets and plug-ins.

6. When you’re comfortable with the general style, you should add some posts to get a good idea of how the blog will appear once users start to interact with it. Once you’ve verified all is well, make any adjustments necessary to improve the style and visible structure.

7. When you are happy with the overall look you can then publish your blog.

Maintaining your blog can be challenging as you really should post more than once a week, two or three unique posts at them minimum would be best. You should be displaying something that visitors will want to return for – and motivate these users to opt-in to your feed.

Remember that this is an online business blog and you’re displaying your corporate image, so keep the discussions agreeable, as you want to put forth your individuality while still remaining completely professional. Don’t intermingle business with pleasure on your site, and as you don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, try to stay away from any sort of controversial subjects.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an accomplished Executive Virtual Assistant Service which helps companies of all sizes reach their commercial targets. Want to get more information about online business building success strategies that really work? Then why not get involved with the Campaign for FREE Virtual Assistance now!

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