What's a Blog?

Weblogs, or "blogs," can be defined as Web sites that can be easily created and updated by pretty much anyone who knows how to use a computer. Creating a website used to be a messy and often expensive process, but now with the creation of blogs, its almost as easy as sending e-mail and free in most cases. Setting up a simple blog involves no code, no file transfer, and usually no hosting setup. All you have to do is login to your site from any Internet connection, enter the content you want to appear, press a button, and your Weblog is updated. In addition to text, blogs can also display pictures, videos, links to other sites and even money making ads.

How do I create a blog?
Obviously the first step is to figure out what your blog will be about. You can use your blog as a personal online journal, a way to keep friends and family updated on things going in your life or you can treat it like a business and write about a topic that interests you or you know a lot about.

The next step is to decide which blogging provider you will use to create your blog. Two of the most popular and user friendly blogging providers are Blogger and WordPress.com. Both providers will let you select from a few ready-made templates that will help you set up what your blog will look like. Simply select one of the templates and personalize it by adding your blog name, a color scheme, interests, images, etc. You can also decide on whether or not you want your blog to be private or personal (do you want everyone to be able to read your blog or just friends and family?)

After you've set up your blog, write a few posts to test it out, and make any adjustments to the layout or style that you see fit. At first, it will seem tough to figure out what to write, but once you get into a routine of daily blogging, you will find it addictive. There's so much more you can do with a blog...the ways to customize it are endless! Hopefully this gives you a good start.

What's Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is basically a type of internet marketing in which a website or business seeks to achieve branding and marketing goals by participating in various social media networks (a few examples listed below.) The goals of each SMM campaign will differ for every business, but some common goals are to build brand awareness, increase visibility, get feedback about your brand, connect with customers and of course to try to sell your product or service.

List of SMM sites: MySpace , Facebook , Bebo , YouTube, , Dailymotion, Hi5, Gather.com, reddit, Digg , Stumbleupon , Flickr , iLike, Wikipedia , Squidoo , ActiveWorlds , Twitter , Eventful, ePinions, This Next, There.com

Registering a Domain Name

A domain name is like your address on the World Wide Web. Anyone in the world who has internet access can visit your website by typing your domain name into their web browser. Registering a domain name is a must if you plan on running website and usually the first step you should take.

I usually register all my websites at . I really like using GoDaddy because you can register your domain name for as little as $10. They also sell a lot of other features and services such as Private Registration, Site Builders, SSL Certificates, Web Hosting and even ways to increase your website traffic. The basic $10 package will get you started though. You can always upgrade and add services later after your website/business grows.

Who is Marketing Mommy?

I am married to the love of my love and the proud mother of a gorgeous little girl. I work in the marketing industry full-time, but would love to take the plunge and be a WAHM (Work at Home Mom) one day...maybe when my husband and I decide to have more children. My job focuses on helping manage large interactive marketing (aka online marketing) campaigns for brand name clients. I also help run our companies affiliate marketing program and blog. Simply put, marketing my company's and clients' websites is my job, marketing my own website(s) is my passion.

My favorite professor in college told me that the reason he teaches Marketing is because if you can teach a subject to others..then you know you have truly mastered that subject. I would like to master Online Marketing and hopefully by teaching the basics to some fellow working mommies, online entrepreneurs or anyone else interested in learning about online marketing...I can master the subject.