Nooo! Not A Blogspot Blog

Do you have a business blog? Bravo! Blogs are a fantastic way to connect with your target audience and existing clients alike. Our fellow Small Business Branding blogger Nick Rice mentions that in a recent post too. Yet, there is one problem I see consistently among small business blogs and that is their URL.

I Cringe

Every single time I see a small business blog that has blogspot.com, wordpress.com or even typepad.com in the URL, I wince. Why?

But It’s Stunningly Simple Or Is It…

On second thought. I know why. I know it is super easy. What can be simpler than signing up for an account and launching your blog in a mere 5 minutes. No crazy HTML, no web hosting to deal with, no funny domains and DNS issues… you don’t even know what DNS is.

Something’s Gotta Give

But with simplicity something’s gotta give – that is, you aren’t building traffic to your site because you don’t own the blogspot.com domain. You aren’t even building your own brand because the URLs can get difficult to remember.

It’s also unprofessional. You would not dream of putting your business web site on a free host Angelfire so why do that for your blog? Yes, I am kicking butts here but I wouldn’t be if it weren’t that important. So please, before your blog traffic grows any larger, before you build up a huge amount of content on your blog, transfer it to your own domain and make it a part of your web site. This is the most desirable option.

If that is not possible, at the very least, get a domain exclusively for your blog. Blogger, WordPress.com and TypePad are all able to do this. While this second option is not the best, it’s still better than status quo.

What if you don’t have a clue how?

If you are the DIYer type or you would rather have a designated staff learn how to do this in-house, then I suggest Blogging Starter Pack. If you’d just like to completely outsource this, your first action step should be to approach your web master. Any web master worth their salt these days should be able to set up a blog. Don’t know anyone? Vera is getting ready to offer this right here at Small Business Branding Services. You might want to contact her.

Ed Roach

Pointing a domain eliminates the long "blogspot" branded domain. What do you mean - "no brandable?"

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hoteblog

yeah blogspot is:
1. no brandable
2. long url

yanuar

thank's for your information

Noobpreneur

Lynette,

Totally agreed - free hosted blogs are somewhat 'dead' right now - not in a sense of quality, but as a web property - you simply can't sell a blogspot.com or wordpress.com blog...

IMO, You can make $1000+ a month out of a free hosted blog, but it's web property value? zero, zip, nada, nothin'. You are actually building THEIR brand, not YOURS.

Cheers!

Ah, thanks Lynette, as they say - you learn something every day. Blogspot has changed quite a bit since I signed on over 2 years ago. How do you stay on top of this stuff. With all the marketing I do for myself, time is an issue.

Thanks for the education.

Lynette Chandler

Hey everyone thanks for the comments.

@Ed. I think you misunderstood me. When I'm referring to BlogSpot.com I'm referring to the hosting part if you will, not Blogger. Blogger is the publishing tool. These are different things yet they are closely tied together and I understand how they often get confused being one and the same thing.

Obviously you are talking about the use of Blogger which by all means I agree it is simple and easy and who cares what you use to publish? That's not what defines professionalism. What I am definitely saying is the use of (for example) lynettechandler.blogspot.com blog is unprofessional. I don't care what anybody uses to blog but whatever you use, make sure it's not a sub-domain on someone else's domain.

Yes you are right about the content but when the content is on lynettechandler.blogspot.com I'm not building up my own brand at all. Redirection is not my choice either but a tad better. Also, you don't have to do a redirect. With Blogger, you can publish it to your own web site or if you prefer, it also has a feature where you can use your own domain on there. That is the big idea I'm trying to get at here.

@Santa: Good points.

@Melissa & @Roger: I think yes experimenting is OK only if done on a personal level. Thanks for the note about Blogging Starter Pack by the way.

Fair enough Vera, a lot of good practical benefits, but they do not dictate whether or not the blog is "professional". I honestly believe the content dictates that. If a body doesn't mind Google's restrictions, then it's merely a platform choice. I don't think it reflects on the brand what-so-ever.

Vera Raposo

Hey Ed, thought I would chime in as to why I also do believe that Wordpress is the best solution. :-)

I'm not a hugely technical person but from what I understand is that when you have a blogspot blog, Google owns your blog and everything that's on it unless you host it on your own domain. Yes, you can host it on your own domain, but there is so much more to Wordpress.... (too many to even name)

There are also oodles of plugins that can literally change almost anything you need with Wordpress to increase readership, traffic from the search engines, and customization to your brand and your business.

If you know how to get into the code you can really do some wonderful things, I'm sure that blogger really is push button easy, but I think the benefits of Wordpress outweigh the use of a blogger blog.

I made a post about wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org as well here
http://tinyurl.com/4c7h2v

I think in the end we need to do what we feel is best for our business and if you're comfortable with something then you will continue to grow but at the same time to me it's was well worth the time to discover all that wordpress has to offer.

Essentially I respectfully disagree with you Lynette. I don't think blogspot is unprofessional at all. As far as I'm concerned all that matters is great content. The platform is irrelevant. I've been blogging for over two years now and in that time I've gotten press from all media including TV, radio, trade magazines, trade blogs and have been quoted on several industry blogs, I've retained business from blogging, been invited to speak on branding, and have a nice selection of valuable contacts made from blogging. Not once in all that time have I ever been accused of being unprofessional for having used Blogspot. it never comes up.

Actually I do have a Wordpress blog just to see the difference myself and i like Blogspot better and it is the one I have my clients use because it is idiot proof. I find it simpler to use. I will say that I do not use their templates because they are too cookie-cutter. I design my own and have my programmer make it real.

As for the domain name issue, I do agree that having one of your own is more professional but I have a great work-around on that one. I simply point it to the blogspot name. IE: The BrandCorral.com is pointed to brandcorral.blogspot.com. Simple solution.

To say the platform makes the professional is to say to be a great graphic designer you MUST be on a Mac. The Mac is just a tool, as is Blogspot, Wordpress and the like. (I use a Mac by the way).

Content, Content, Content is what matters.

Ed - I noticed that right away too, not sure why. I'll delete it and you'll have to post it again.

Lynette, My comment I made last night seems to have vanished. Could you check this out?

Santa

Lynette,
i think many people refrain from setting up their blog on their own site in fear of destroying something that works.
Some also abondon this idea because of costs associated with it when they have it outsourced to their webguys.
I see two approached that are beneficial to websites:
a) include the blog into your existing site - the old structures remain (e.g. online shop and main content) and you have the freedom to add content the easy way.

b) you set up a new domain with a blog, choose a domain name that is keyword specific to your niche and create a lot of content (yourself and user comments). these pages get indexed by the SEs and you get lots of backlinks to your main site.

Roger Hamilton

Well I think it's fine for startups or for those who want to give it a try rather than dumping a whole lot of resources on outsourcing to others. Of course though, it is definitely better to blog on your own domain etc. but it really depends on the situation.

The Blogging Starting Pack seems useful. Might check it out and refer it to someone who I think might need it. Thanks!

Photoshop templates

Yes, you are right, having a blog for free sounds good. but it doesnt look that professional.

Melissa Donovan, Copywriter

Research that I did for an upcoming blog post showed me that there are a lot of small business owners with these free hosted blogs. Every once in awhile, these blogs break the mold and do really well, but in general they're a bad idea unless you just want to give blogging a try and do so on a more personal (not professional) level.