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Blogging has become a central pillar in the online world. Internet technologies come and go with increasing frequency but blogging has staked a claim and is here to stay. A variety of platforms allow people to start a blog in minutes and without a penny changing hands. In addition, countless other service providers have developed widgets that can enhance a blog with additional functionality and style. This article will look at a few of the basics so you can get off to a running start.

There are two decisions you need to make right at the beginning. The first is which platform you'll be using to build your blog and the second is whether you'll host it on the provider's servers or your own. Let's look at both decisions in a bit more detail.

The two primary platforms out there are Blogger and WordPress. Blogger is owned by Google and is probably the easiest platform to get started on. It's really designed for the novice. Functionality features are easy to use and the interface is simple and intuitive. WordPress is an open source platform. That means it's developed by individual programmers all over the world and is available for anyone to use, free of charge.

Open source software is a fascinating phenomenon. People with all kinds of different business objectives end up developing extensions to facilitate their needs and those extensions then become available to the entire community. As a result, you can search for just about any extension you can imagine and build your own custom blog with precisely the features you want. WordPress is designed for a more sophisticated user but the advantages for the final product are substantial.

The next decision revolves around where you host your new blog. You can host it on the Blogger platform or the WordPress platform. In both cases, you would end up with a URL something like YourBlog.Blogger.com rather than your own custom URL. The upside is that it's easier and your blog will then be part of a HUGE website. That may improve your search engine ranking. The downside is that the ultimate control is out of your hands and your branding isn't complete. In other words, you will never have your own free-standing web address.

Once you have created your new blog, you're well advised to register it with all the free blog directories. Not surprisingly, there are dozens of them and they can help you drive traffic. You can also cross reference other people's comments, leaving them with a free banklink. That will help you get established in the community and encourage others to reference your comments on their blog. Depending on the blog, you could easily get the majority of your traffic from such a link.

A number of companies have developed platforms that add functionality or aggregate information and their widgets can easily be added to a blog, simply by adding a small piece of java script to your platform. This has become so common that Blogger, WordPress and others have designed specific modules to easily accept such scripts. Done properly, these widgets can make a simple blog look impressive and professional.

Tactical Execution is devoted to helping people and companies position themselves for tomorrow's opportunities. Learning the mechanics of blogging can contribute directly to your ability to capitalize on those opportunities. Visit the website to learn countless other strategies as well.