I had the distinct pleasure of being named one of the Women Bloggers to Watch in 2008. It’s always nice to be recognized by your peers. I’ve been touting blogging since February of 2005, when I started my first blog over at Blogger. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen eyes glaze over and roll to the back of heads. What is blogging?  Only kids blog, right? Finally, blogging arrives as a business tool.

Let me share with you why blogging is so beneficial to a business.  Let’s say I visited your site a month ago, I saw what I saw and I read what I read. If I visit your site today, will I see what I saw and read what I read? Will anything be different?  If not, why should I come back to your site?

The two most popular free blogging platforms are Blogger and WordPress. You can start there. Here’s a document that shares the differences between these two popular free platforms. Here at Magic In Blogging you’ll find how-to videos for common tasks .  As I work on adding videos, please let me know if there’s a specific task at Blogger or WordPress.com that you need a "how-to" for.

Now, if what you want is a totally robust blog like North San Diego Business, or Magic In Blogging,  you can have blog software installed and programmed for your site. I used WordPress because of it’s extendability, flexibility and the vast number of plugins available. It’s also very user friendly.

Blogging is here. It’s an essential asset to any business web presence. Think about embracing it!

Here is the actual post:

1. eJohnson and Company with Elizabeth Johnson
2. Susan Mernit
3. Personal Development Demands Success with Priscilla Palmer
4. Mom Gadget with Gayla McCord
5. Laura’s Learning about Business
6. Organize Your Life with Sarah Kimmell
7. The Technology Vixen with Gennipher
8. Natural Living Blog with Pennie Mills
9. What Sells Online with Samantha Tang
10. Organicsyes with Susan Loughrin
11. California Musing with Susan
12. Phoenix Consulting with Theresa Rhoden
13. Angie Pedersen – Scrapbook Marketing
14. Debra Simpson – Magic in Blogging
15. Ash Joie-Lee – the Paisley Goddess
16. One Minute Book Reviews with Janice Harayda
17. And a Mom with Jules
18. How I changed the world today with Julia
19. Social Net Rocks True with Jacinta Gascoigne
20. Biz Chicks Rule with Kristen King
21. Home Biz Notes With Mary Emma Allen
22. Suburbia Queen with Jamie
23. Eavesdrop Writer with Vienne
24. NuNomad Blog with Carmen Bolanos
25. ZenGuide by Yang-May Ooi

This is a tutorial on adding a custom header image to your Blogger blog. You’ll want to make your blog look as much like your branded business as possible.

Let me know, by posting a comment, if this has been helpful.

Like a lot of small business owners, I started with one of the free blogging platforms. The two free blogging platforms most chose between is Blogger and WordPress. Each platform has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

I have blogs at both Blogger and WordPress, but I now program WordPress blogs (wordpress.com is the free hosting platform, wordpress.org is the blogging software) that are hosted directly and not part of the free platforms.

Some of the solopreneurs in North County have asked me how they can enhance their Blogger blogs. This gave me the idea of creating a video on Blogger’s Page Elements, which is commonly referred to as the "new Blogger." This video is an overview of the page elements and how, or why, you might want to use them.

I’ll follow with specific videos on using each element in upcoming posts. Let me know if this helps by commenting, or if I can create a video tutorial for a particular task.