There is no doubt that blogging is one of the best ways to get keyword-rich content on your site, get your message across in search engines, and drive traffic to your website. But how do you start blogging?
When considering starting a blog, there are many options. A great way to start blogging quickly (and for free) is to use a "freelance" online service like WordPress or Google's Blogger. These are highly customizable free tools that support new and more advanced bloggers. The negative is that you cannot use the domain name of your website. While you can link to this from your current website, search engines won't know to give you "credit" for the additional content, since it's a different domain. However, with creative cross-linking, you can still benefit from the increased exposure you can get from a blog.
These free services provide a powerful software tool that balances value, quality, and ease of use. While some people prefer to use more basic blogging services, they can also really benefit from the "built-in" benefits of WordPress or Blogger along with their existing large community of users.
One of the most notable benefits of these services is the ease of use and advanced functionality of the service compared to some blog software applications. Neither Blogger nor WordPress requires you to know how to "code" and allows you to create and publish to your blog with easy-to-use icons similar to what you would see in a word processing program. Having the ability to use a program like this allows people to create blogs that are high-tech and complete, like full websites.
If you're occasionally "offline," you can benefit from WordPress' ability to import posts. This means that you can put together your blog while you are not connected to the Internet and then import it later. If you already use another blogging service, you can also import your posts directly into Blogger or WordPress.
Another benefit of these services is their large widget or library of elements and themes that allow you to instantly add useful features and professional-looking styles to your blog. A very simple drag-and-drop interface allows you to add features like an RSS feed with just a few clicks.
Another option to consider would be blogging software that you can integrate directly into your website. Some hosting providers, like GoDaddy, allow you to use your existing domain name for your blog. The benefit is that your blog content becomes part of what search engines see for your domain. In these cases, you are more likely to pay an additional monthly fee to your hosting provider. Alternatively, Google's Blogger allows you to post to an FTP site, which means you can blog from your domain. You lose some 'of the' flexibility of the out-of-the-box service, but with a bit of effort, you can have a custom template and pretty easy publishing capability that resides within your domain.
As your needs become more advanced or if you are a more technical blogger, you may also want to consider blogging software that can be integrated directly into your website. A blog is an open-source PHP/MySQL application. If you don't know what the last sentence means, then this is not for you. If you know this, you can benefit from the greater flexibility that an integrated application could provide.
In the end, you have a wide, wide range of very cheap (or free) options to get you started.
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