My charge for you today is to really think about WHY you are starting a blog. As some of you know I recently started a blog on one of the free platforms out there and I have been blogging about my free blog set up process on my Compendium blog. So far it has been o.k. A few challenges here and there but nothing too difficult to over come. The reason I can say that is because the obstacles I have faced so far have been around the bells and whistles of the blog....NOT the optimization of the blog.
I actually started the blog for my wife to be able to post family updates and communicate with her network of friends that share her same enjoyment of scrapbooking. The intent of this blog was NOT for her to make money with her blog. If that was the case, my tune may sound a little bit different when it comes to the success of my blog set with my measure of success based on search ranking.
If you plan on using your blog for an author-centric purpose these platforms do the trick. Minimal fees for your bells and whistles, help from multiple forums that involve others who have or are experiencing the same problems as you, some custom design and templates if you are willing to add the charge to your bill...and most importantly a spot, one single spot, on the web to communicate your thought.
NOW.......
On the other hand if you are a business who wants to leverage their blog for SEO and ROI, a business who needs ultimate control over content and messaging, or, you are a business that doesn't want or care to spend the time manually managing a blog to drive the business you need to substantiate the effort then you need a different type of solution. You need a Compendium solution.
I have had a lot of people ask me since I set up her blog "Jim you work for an awesome blogging company, why didn't you just use Compendium for her blog?" My answer to that is "it isn't the proper tool for her need. I wouldn't use a flat head screw driver to turn a phillips head screw." It's not that I couldn't, it is that it would take a really long time and chances are the screw would be crooked and not as tight as it could be if you know what I mean.
The point here is before you begin blogging, before you pigeon hole yourself with the wrong type of solution, understand what you are building. Then you can make sure to use the right tools for the job.
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