I recently attended the Burlington, VT social media breakfast. During the course of the 2 hour presentation an introductory price of $250 per month for a blog and a version of analytics was mentioned. After the meeting I spoke to two attendees who pined at $250 $600+ per month.
You can start your blog for less, much less.
I have started this blog as an experiment to determine how long it will take and how much it will cost for this blog to show up on a Google organic search for, “inbound marketing budget.”
Steps Taken Today
I went to Godaddy and bought this URL. I activated the URL in the control panel and added a new directory on the Godaddy server where WordPress will reside.
I created a new directory on my computer with the same name as I selected on the Godaddy server and downloaded the most recent version from http://www.wordpress.org and then uploaded it to my newly created directory on Godaddy.
On Godaddy, I entered my hosting account (from column menu on left), then clicked databases, then clicked MySQL and then added a new database by name, and password. This creates the database to run WordPress. You will know you have created it successfully when you receive a host name, which you will need when configuring WordPress.
Configuring WordPress:
I opened a Worldpress file called wp-config.php in a text editor, around line 20 or so, you will see the following;
I added the host name that I received from Godaddy and the database name and password. I then loaded the wp-config.php file back up to the wordpress directory on the Godaddy server.
I then went to www.inboundmarketingonabudget.com/wp-admin and logged in, went to new post and created this entry.
There was approximately 1 hour of real work with 2-3 hours of wait time for program components to be loaded onto the Godaddy server.
Granted, it’s not the most beautiful site out there, but it’s a start. In the meantime while I wait for the Google™ spiders to show up, I will start thinking about design changes to make it more appealing.
Today’s expenditure. $7.33
Time: approx one hour- with approximately 2-3 hours of wait time while Godaddy configured my requirements.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree that you can start a blog for much less than $250, that’s for sure, however I’ve been thinking about that dollar amount for an important reason:
If $250 buys you software and advice — a game plan, really — that helps your business increase sales and leads in enough volume to make the investment a bargain, well, isn’t it worth the money?
I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.
But for most small businesses, blogging and content creation doesn’t come naturally, so they’re looking to spot signals they can trust in all the noise that’s out there online. I just hope business owners don’t balk at $250 per month — IF it is money well spent — when they already spend thousands on traditional advertising that may or may not deliver quality leads that turn into sales.
By the way, I love websites like this with the aim of showing people how to create. There are plenty of bootstrappers out there who will take the advice shared here and run with it. Just remember to test, track, and adjust for success.
Cheers!
Joe, the question for me is not if there is value in the software or the ROI in the decision. The goal of this experiment is to determine the time involved and costs associated with first page Google™ organic placement. The care and feeding of a blog requires requires work, our results allows us to report findings so the reader can make the decision with eyes wide open.