Tech Comm Student

Building your brand, whether that brand is yourself or your own company, can be very beneficial to increasing sales, landing jobs, or garnering interest from others.  Starting a blog is probably one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do just this.

A Blog Is Not A Diary

Sometimes when people think about an internet blog, they imagine a diary of an individual who only writes about their own life and is unable to relate back to their reader.  Ideally, a blog should be helpful and engaging to those who have an interest in your blog topic.  Think of something interesting to write about, and provide useful information!   If you would like to enter the technical communication field, publishing a blog can not only attract prospective employer’s attention and possibly supplement your income, but also act as a sample of your writing ability, additionally strengthening your perceived commitment to online publishing and your blogging topic.

Why A WordPress Blog?

1) Very easy to setup and maintain.
2) Hundreds of free themes (layouts) available on the web.
3) Ability to post your content without having to touch the code.
4) Plugins allow additional features such as user polls and statistics.
5) Fully customizable – No one even needs to know that you use it.

At this point in time, I believe WordPress to be the best free blogging tool on the internet (especially for beginners).  However, there are certainly a few rising competitors to keep an eye on: Joolma and Drupal.

How To Start A Blog With WordPress

1) Visit Wordpress.org.
2) Choose to either have your blog hosted by WordPress, or download the WordPress files to host on your own server.  Both methods are free, but if you choose to have WordPress host, your website url will end in “.wordpress.org.”  Some web hosts such as GoDaddy will automatically install your WordPress files for you through an option in your hosting account.
3) Search the internet for free WordPress Themes.
4) Extract your selected theme in you “themes” folder and select it from your WordPress “Appearance” menu.

I also recommend using the “All in One SEO Pack” and “Google XML Sitemaps” plugins.