First, why spend any money when you can set up a blog for free? Lots of reasons, but here are my 3 most important ones.

1) Credibility – If you have your own domain, folks take you more seriously. I experienced this first hand, as I used to have Make It Great! over at TypePad (you can see it at http://makeitgreat.typepad.com if you wish). When I told people what the URL was, they would inevitably type makeitgreat.com which is someone else altogether.

2) Personal e-mail – As much as I love Gmail, it’s nice to have phil @ philgerbyshak.com to give people, plus it looks better on a business card.

3) Control – I get a LOT more control now that I have my own domain on a shared hosting. I can add widgets to the sidebar, I can control my design, I can change colors, and if I wanted to, I could add advertising and do other things to make money. Please note: I am not going to tell you how to be a professional blogger. If you want those tips, please head to http://problogger.net and Darren Rowse will tell you how to do this!

There are tons of other reasons you may want your own domain, and one day I may go through them with you. For now, if you’re interested, please keep reading, and if you’re not, then go ahead and go back to set up your blog for free.

Register your domain for $10 a year and sign up for small hosting at A Small Orange (It’s only $5/month). Pick your name, pick your mantra, pick your niche, but pick something easy to remember and easy to spell (except for your last name). ALWAYS register a .COM address. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this!

Wait for the e-mail to come to you with your control panel (CPANEL) information. It usually takes less than 15 minutes.

Log into CPANEL and scroll down until you see the Fantastico De Luxe smiley face. Click on Fantastico De Luxe smiley face.

Look on the left side for WordPress and click on it.

Install WordPress

Here’s a screenshot with 1 of my domains

• Leave the install in directory blank
• Enter your administrator name (please don’t use administrator) and your password (please make it 7 or more characters with letters and numbers to be safe).
• Enter your name in the Admin nickname, and your e-mail address in the Admin e-mail.
• Enter your site name in the site name, and enter 3 or 4 keywords in the description field, then click Install WordPress.
• Click on Finish Installation.
• Follow the instructions on screen to get your admin stuff (if you followed my instructions, you’ll be able to login with your administrator username and password at yoursite.com/wp-admin
• Get writing!

And now you are set up with your website for just $70 for the entire first year!

Any questions?

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I write a blog called Slacker Manager. You can visit it at http://slackermanager.com Don’t be distracted by all the stuff going on up top or on the sides when you visit the website. Look at the left side of the page, and you’ll see a new article every day for the past year or so on the topic of management. I do this because, by day, I am a vice president of information technology and manage people as a large part of my job. If my firm were ever to let me go, I now have an online collection of my thoughts on managing people in a business environment. It is a much richer, more-complete record than any resume could possibly be.

Don’t worry–you don’t have to write every day once you create your blog. It doesn’t hurt if you write every day, but you don’t have to. If you plan to get ahead in the field of your choosing, though, you need a blog.

Why do you need to start a blog?

1) Blogging creates visibility – If folks don’t know you exist, it doesn’t matter how great you are. More and more recruiters and headhunters are doing a Google search of prospective candidates. Having a blog on the topic you are passionate about gives folks a sample of your style and thoughts on the topic. It gives them just what they may be looking for: a way to know you better before they even talk to you.

Not everyone will agree with everything you write, and you may even lose out on some jobs because of what you write. Wouldn’t you rather know you’re not a fit before you interview or begin work somewhere rather than after you have accepted a job?

2) Blogging creates a safe place for conversations to happen – Think of your blog as your living room. You can invite folks into your house and set the rules for participation. You can create a blogging comment policy, decide what to talk about, and determine how it looks and who can visit you. Don’t be fooled; you don’t get total control, but you do get significant control. And wouldn’t you rather have your friends visit your house than you traipse over to theirs every time?

2) Blogging improves your writing skills – The more you write, the better you write. Obvious, I know. Still, it’s worth saying. When I started out writing a blog, my writing skills were just okay. Now, I’d say they are well above average, and I am able to get my thoughts written faster and more accurately. The more you write, the better your writing skills become.

3) Blogging connects you with people who can help you – You’d be surprised at the people who will come out of the woodwork to help you when you ask for help on your blog. There are tons of searches done every day on every topic imaginable. Folks you’d never be able to connect with in person because they are halfway around the world might stop by and offer to help. Folks at a competing company might offer to help you. Folks at your own company might offer to help you. But you’d never receive all that help if you didn’t have a blog within which you could ask for it.

4) Blogging allows you to help others – Just as others will help you, you can help others, too. From folks who e-mail you asking for help, to folks who leave a comment on your blog, to anyone who links back to you, to folks you had no idea were reading your blog, you will be able to help others when you write well on popular topics.

5) Blogging clarifies your thinking – The more you write about a topic, the more you know about the topic. The more you know about a topic, the more you clarify what you believe about a topic. Greater clarity leads to a greater ease with which you can handle the routine things that come your way. I write about a lot of really basic management stuff at Slacker Manager, and I’ve realized that many people need help with the most-basic aspects of management, so I keep writing about the basics.

6) Blogging allows you to be seen as an expert – If you write about the same topic over and over again, and if you interview experts, and if you read what other people say about a topic, you’re going to become well-versed in whatever topic you choose. The more time you spend, the better you get at it. The better you get at it, the more people will see you as an expert. Remember what I said in reason 1: It doesn’t matter how smart you are if nobody knows your name. If you’re putting it out there day in and day out, you’re going to make a name for yourself, and you’re going to be seen as a better source than the person next to you who isn’t writing about their knowledge.

What do you think? Do you think you need a blog?

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NOTE from Phil: I got introduced to Chris when he featured me as one of the 150+ Experts on Twitter ALL Job Seekers MUST Follow. I was impressed with the time he took to create this list, and the care he took to really talk a bit about each person he profile. I quickly realized this was someone to learn from, so I asked him to write a guest post and he asked me to write one, so here goes his fantastic article.

Bloggers from across industries and areas of interest are always seeking new ways to reach greater audiences with their articles and gain increased recognition for their expertise.  Developing your reputation as a blogger often takes a lot of time, effort and patience through consistent publication of valuable content.

Because we live in an age in which we are being bombarded by more and more information on the screen, it is increasingly important to be able to convey the content of your blog in a concise and visually pleasing manner that visitors can swiftly survey and assess.  One way to generate more buzz for your blog (i.e. attract more visitors and get talked about) is to compile and publish critical information in lists.  A list appears shorter and more organized on the screen.  Furthermore, lists are easier for busy professionals to digest on-the-go.

You can create buzz-worthy lists on just about any topic that is relevant to the theme of your blog. Even when you are not specifically writing a list, you should think of ways to break down your articles into bullet points or shorter parts to make them more quickly digestible for your readers and in turn, increase the potential for them to go viral.

The following is itself a list of some ways to generate buzz for your buzz-worthy blog content:

• LinkedIn offers a number of ways to promote your blog content.  First, place a description and a link to your new article in your LinkedIn profile status.  Second, join LinkedIn groups (maximum limit is 50 groups) that are relevant to your industry or areas of interest, and,  where appropriate, submit the article link to each group’s News section.  Third, if you own or manage your own group, you can send the link out in your weekly announcement to your group members.
• Facebook is not the ideal syndication platform for your articles; however, you can also use your profile status to link friends to your article.  If you have a Facebook group or fan page for your blog or website, there you can create a link to your article for your members or fans.
• Twitter offers you the opportunity to “tweet” or broadcast a short description of your article and its link to your followers.  While you should never overtweet anything, you may choose to tweet this to your network at a couple different times of day throughout the week to provide your followers more of an opportunity to see content of interest to them.
• Business Exchange, by BusinessWeek, is a great resource for reading material that is relevant to your areas of interest.  It is also a place where you can syndicate specific articles from your own and other blogs and websites.  You can submit your article to multiple topic categories for increased readership.
• Ning networks within your areas of interest offer you forums where you can share your article content and links to your blog.
• Newsletters are great channels for the distribution of information.  If you maintain an email list of consenting newsletter recipients for your blog or website, your newsletter can be a great place for you to include a link to your article.
• MOST IMPORTANT:  If your lists or articles feature people, blogs, websites, services, organizations , books or anything associated with someone who would value such press or promotion, don’t forget to contact them by email, LinkedIn message or Twitter direct message to let them know about their coverage and politely request that they promote it to their own personal networks.  We all appreciate recognition (you wouldn’t be reading this article if you didn’t) and we are often more willing to do something to help someone else if it also helps us, too.

Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

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