Designing, Building and Integrating the Blog

Some people or businesses have a blog that is separate from their web site, but generally for a business blog you want it to be part of your main web site. So, I built the blog to be a section that is completely integrated into the navigation of my existing web site. And the URL is visiblelogic.com/blog (hey why not go check it out!)

I built the blog using WordPress. Doing the research on WordPress, I think there is a lot of confusion between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. They are essentially the same product but one is designed to run off of your existing web host and the other is a stand alone product. If you already have a web site (and therefore web hosting) you can download the completely free wordpress.org software and run your blog with no software costs. Depending on the level of web hosting you currently have in place, you may need to upgrade, but the features you'll need can still be found for relatively low cost ($6-20/month).

With WordPress you can use pre-built templates, or a custom template can be created. For Visible Logic's blog we developed our own template that matches the look & feel of our main web site. So the two pieces integrate seamlessly. There may be cases where you want the look of the blog to maintain a similar branded look but have it's own unique twist on the look & feel. This is all possible with a custom template.

Write, edit, post & practice. I actually started posting entries to the blog in early January but I wanted to make sure I understood the tool well and had some content in place before going live. I just wrote a post about the first 60 days. My point is don't rush yourself to get the blog live.

If you are thinking about adding a blog to your web site, give me a call and I'll walk you through, in more detail, what's involved. There are other software tools besides WordPress and it makes sense to look at your longterm web site goals to decide what package is best for you.

What's on the Blog?

My goal for the blog is to pull together tips, resources and ideas for how small businesses can use design as a business tool. You can read about: How to use the power of color when building your brand; The difference between design & branding; and the importance of electronic letterhead.

Please, check out the blog, read some posts, subscribe to the feed, write some comments, and let me know what you'd like to see me write about.