How to create your own business blog?

You might think that setting up and maintaining a business blog is a complicated thing. But it’s not. It is easier than learning to ride a bicycle. Hey, but business men do not ride bicycles! Yes, true. But also, they are not scared of them!

I’ll assume that you already know the answer to the basic questions: “What is a blog?”, “Why do I need a blog?” and “Can I earn money trough a blog?” and I’ll get to the core: how to do it. Also, by business blog I mean blogs that must contain something related to doing business, excluding personal blogs and blogs made for fun.

There are three things that make a blog:

  1. The domain name – this is the identifier of your blog. People will reach you by searching for your name.
  2. The platform you use – the pages of your journal. The digital code that generates the pages on which you write. This is known as the platform.
  3. The hosting – the place where the platform is stored and made functional.

In business, it’s all about the trust!

I assume that you want your blog to have a professional image. If so, among the three resources mentioned above, only the platform can be obtained for free. If you don’t pay for a good name and if you don’t have at least a basic paid hosting server you’ll encounter some limitations like:

  • Depending on those that offered you the tools for free. Experts call free blogs ‘rented houses’ while your own domain is a ‘real estate’.
  • Benefiting from worse monetization options - on free sites monetization features are either not present or are very limited (because of the fact that you can’t customize it)
  • Having little control over the layout and the code of the website
  • Being less trustworthy when you need the blog to convey a professional image in business

So, among the three points above only the second one will be obtained for free. For the rest we will pay a small, but important sum of money (around 15 bucks should do it).

It’s important to know that you can set up a blog without spending any money. In another article we will focus on creating a blog without spending any money. In this article we will cover the basic steps for setting up a business blog. We’ll continue setting up all the three things mentioned above: the domain name, the platform and the hosting.

1. How to set up your domain name and hosting?

From here on I will split the readers into two categories. In the first category are the people who do not own any web property, or web site. If you are one of them jump to point A. The second group of people are those who already own a website and want to add a “/blog” besides the domain name. If you are one of them jump to point B.

  • A. You don’t have a domain name and hosting

    • For choosing a good domain name and hosting we recommend Hostgator.com, they have the best live support we came across, and that is why I recommend them. Of course you can order the domain name and hosting from any other firm, but my example will be crafted around their website’s functions. Follow the steps:

    1. Click the best package that fits your needs and in the ordering process, mark the [Register New Domain] option.
    2. Follow all the steps required to make the registration. After the registering process finishes, give it a few hours until the new domain becomes active.
    3. After the process is completed you will receive an email from Hostgator titled: “Your Hostgator Account Information”. From this email store on a piece of paper the following info: your domain, your username and your password. Now jump to step 2 below.

  • B. You already own a domain name and hosting package.

    • If you already have a domain name and hosting, access it by FTP and create a new directory titled blog. Then jump to step 2.

2. How to set up the platform for your business blog?

We recommend the Wordpress blogging platform. It’s free, regularly updated and widely adopted. Go to http://wordpress.org/download/ and click the blue button in the right column -> Download Wordpress 2.7.1 (or whichever is the latest version). Save the file on your hard drive and remember the location.

  • a. If you used Hostgator.com for domain name and hosting, then type:

    • yourdomain.com/cpanel (add “/cpanel” after your domain name) in the address bar of your browser. Scroll down to the 5th row of icons and click the File Manager icon. Select [Web Root] in the popup screen. Click the [Upload] button (the fifth on the tools bar), click [Browse] and select the Wordpress file archive you saved a few minutes ago on your hard drive. After the upload has been finalized click the bottom link: [Back to /home/yourdomain/public_html/]. Now mark the checkbox next to the wordpress-2.7.1.zip file and click the extract button. Press the [Extract Files] to confirm. A new folder has been now generated with all the required files. We have to move all the files on the root of the website. To do this, double click the wordpress directory and after the list of the files in it is displayed click the [Select all] button on the functions bar. Now drag and drop all the files in the [public_html] folder. Now access the cpanel again through yourdomain.com/cpanel. Go to the 9th row of icons. Click MSQL Databases. Create a new database named blog, create a new username and password. Scroll down and add your user to the database you created. Surf to yourdomain.com and in the setup screen insert the new username, database and password as you created them, leaving the other fields as they are. Write down the password you receive and you’re done!


  • b. If you already own a domain name and hosting:

    • Enter your cpanel through yourdomainname.com/cpanel (add “/cpanel” after your domain name) then create a new database, a username and a password. Add the user to the database you created. Surf to yourdomain.com and in the setup screen insert the new username, database and password as you created them, leaving the other fields as they are. Write down the password you receive and you’re done!

3. How to post a blog entry

Enter the administration module for your blog by typing in the address bar: yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Insert the password you stored a few steps back. On the left menu click [Posts] and afterwards click [Add New]. After you finish writing it, publish it from the right column.

4. Choose the way your blog looks!

There are many free layouts and designs for the way your blog can look on the official Wordpress website. The designs are called Wordpress Themes. We made a list with the best. Check them out on our page called: Free Business Wordpress Themes and choose the one that you like.