REPORT: Technical Blogging an Overview

Technical Blogging, Turn Your Expertise into a Remarkable Online Presence
Author: Antonio Cangiano
Publisher: The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Copyright © 2012 The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.

A Blog is a communications medium that combines the internet and writing or web and log. Technical blogging is writing non-fiction concentrating on a particular expertise, take your expertise to the masses and promote your business or your technical skills to the world. Whether you prefer a niche or a broader theme there are four steps to a successful blog are planning, promotion, building the blog and making money.

During the planning phase, the first decision you should make is the blog software and hosting options. Here we will discuss two popular options Blogger and Wordpress in summary form (use the links at the end of this document for setup instructions). Most blogging software packages work in in a similar manner, however, Blogger is a free and straightforward no frills choice.

With Blogger's control panel known as Dashboard you can customize the features you like or search the internet and paste custom widgets (snippets of source code). There are many templates to choose from but you cannot create your own or format your blog to match your existing website, this is where Wordpress come into play.

Wordpress comes in two forms wordpress.org and wordpress.com. Wordpress.org is the organization that developed Wordpress. The software is open-source and very customizable; however, you will need to maintain software yourself and you will need your own-hosted domain. This inconvenience is worthwhile, as your blog can be seamlessly integrated into your existing website with CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS gives your website a uniformed look and feel from page to page and your blog will look any other page on your website. Now that you have the "look and feel" that you desired you have to promote the blog.

"Build it and they will not come." The truth of the matter is promotion is your grandest task. Do not self-sabotage by adhering to anti-marketing stance. Millions of blogs are created every year and most will be abandoned for lack of interest and poor maintenance.

• Create plenty of well-written and well-researched content.
• Create keywords rich content.
• Use informative and catchy headlines.
• Use links to source material whenever possible.

Generate interest in your blog by link building. Google uses "backlinks" for page rankings so use well-known sources and link back to them. That being said a link to the CNN, The New Times or BBC is for more valuable than a link to a small town newspaper. Share links to your blog on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, again those catchy titles will create a click through to bolstering your site ranking.

Build a community around your blog. Engage, entertain, educate and interact with your readers. The more your readers interact with your blog the more successful your endeavor will become. Create an environment that induces your participates to engage in the conversations and share to Facebook and Twitter.

• Write great content.
• Ask for comments.
• Reply to questions.
• Provide updates and corrections.
• Credit participates when responding.
• Praise insightful comments.
• Ask questions in your post.
• Allow readers to answer some questions.
• Keep in mind that you are building a community.

How do I make money from my blog? That is the question first there are ads, second are sponsors and third using affiliates. Google AdSense is the most commonly used ad network and you can sign up for free. Once you have enrolled you, embed some JavaScript source code on your page. Ads that are relevant to your blog topic will appear in strategic locations in headers, footers, boxes or sidebars (you decide). You begin earning the CPC (cost per click) income when readers click the ads from your site. The income from ads can be minuscule to very lucrative based on volume and traffic.

Obtaining sponsors is another or additional option. To get sponsors is a marketing task, whereby, you create an artificial need for your product (blog). Good graphic design coupled with key information about your blog (site usage statistics, geographic information, relevant keywords) is marketed to potential sponsors.

Affiliates links offer have tracking ids embedded in them to identify your blog. Visitors click the advertisement and a browser cookie is created associating your site and the visitor. When a customer buys a product from a vendor affiliated with the link from site a commission is generated for you.

Blogging can be create name recognition, excitement, share information, create a community and generate an income. Experiment, enjoy and explore the links below.


Useful Links
Amazon Affilate Program
Blogger
Click Bank
Flickr
Google Affiliate Network
Google Blog Search
ProBlogger
WordPress Web Hosting
WordPress.com
WordPress.org
WordPress Community