Do I Need My Own Website To Blog?

[shoegal]

Just wondering if I need my own website before I can start a blog?
I am new to all this internet stuff and I am trying to create some hype about my shoe store and thought blogging might work.

[torka]

Not at all.

After all, a blog is a website. Blog software is simply a type of web content management system.

There are plenty of people who only have blogs, not traditional websites at all. A few professional bloggers actually make their living writing blogs. There is no requirement at all that you must have a "traditional" online store or brochure-ware website in order to start a blog.

The only requirement for you to start a blog is that you have something to say.

That said, blogging requires time and effort. And before you commit yourself to the ongoing task of blogging, it's probably a good idea to realistically evaluate your chances of getting out of it what you think you'll get out of it.

So... here are a few questions to jump start the evaluation process. What do you anticipate the results of your blogging to be? Trying to be as objective as you can, what do you think your realistic chances are of attaining those results? Are your potential customers online in the first place? What will you do if the blog doesn't achieve the desired results, or if it takes longer to "catch on" than you expected? How much time and energy do you have to invest in writing posts (or how much money to pay somebody else to do it for you)? How much time and energy do you have to invest in promoting your blog (by reading/commenting on related blogs, guest posting on other blogs, etc.)? Are you mentally prepared for the "long haul"? Can you think of enough interesting things to write (not just sales pitches, but interesting article type stuff) to keep people coming back?

Good luck and happy blogging!

--Torka

[ilexx]

So I agree with torka 100% because that is the way it is and blogging can be a great form of income if you monetize your blog properly and just write about whatever you feel to feature on your blog. Initially just figure out what topics and subject matter you want to feature on your blog and just write about them.. make posts and optimize your blog for the search engines and just watch your traffic grow as you write more and more.

[Tom Lindstrom]

Torka explained it very well.Before getting into blogging it´s good to know that this will be a project that will never be finished.It pays to choose a topic you all ready know something about and feel comfortable writing about.

[shoegal]

Thank you to everyone....it all makes sense! Now a days it is easier for people to communicate via internet and post more of personal views to provoke response. Obviously I am still learning all available and advantages to using some of it. I will ask myself these great questions, thanks again.

[DennisChang]

I suppose you are asking about whether you need to have your own domain and stuffs like that. The simple answer is no as there are plenty of blogging platforms available free of charge like blogspot, wordpress, etc. Those accounts are easy to setup and good for people with very little IT knowledge.

Of course, you can opt to have your own domain like xxx.shoegal.xxx. But you would need to pay a yearly domain registration fee (around $15 depends on the TLD), and web hosting fees (depend on the plan, normally around $10/mth). The advantage is you would have your own domain name instead of a blogspot or wordpress one, and you have almost total freedom in what to put on your site. But of course you need to be more tech-savvy for this option.