Google Blogger for Small Business: Now just $5.99!

Great news for small business owners, consultants, freelancers, and others interested in establishing a presence on the Web: Google Blogger for Small Businesses In 30 Minutes is now just $5.99. This toolkit will show you how to quickly create a website with a dedicated .com domain (for instance, bakerybobs.com). The guide is written in plain English, and includes lots of examples, screenshots, and step-by-step instructions that will help you get up to speed in a very short period of time.

The guide is based on Google Blogger. Anyone with a Web browser can access Blogger to create blogs, but Google Blogger for Small Businesses In 30 Minutes takes things a step further: It shows how to use Blogger to make websites to market your business. Whether you want to make a static site that contains a description of your company and basic contact information, or a more elaborate business site that contains product pages, photos, and other content to engage with your customers, Google Blogger for Small Businesses In 30 Minutes will get you started. It only costs $5.99 -- what have you got to lose?

Purchasing options are shown here.

Blogger: Pages Vs. Posts

In Blogger, a page is similar to — but not the same as — a post. Both can contain text, pictures, or video. However, pages are meant to hold static content that seldom changes — contact information, “About”, et cetera. Posts are more like diary entries. The following chart shows how they stack up:



As the chart shows, some elements -- like the title -- are included in both pages and posts. But only posts display the date and author. Posts allow "tags", but don't show up in the navigation, which is the row of labels at the top or side of the site containing static resources (like "About", "Home", or other pages created by the author).

In Blogger's Pages section, you can also create a "Page" that is simply a link to another site, like a Twitter or Facebook page. These links appear in the navigation.

Blogger Tutorial: How To Remove Sidebars

In less than three minutes, learn how to remove sidebars in Blogger and change the width of the blog. The video uses the sample website for the fictional bakery/ice cream shop featured in Google Blogger For Small Businesses In 30 Minutes.

Press the icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to see the video in all of its full-screen glory.

How to add a "Like Us On Facebook" button to your website

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Here's the situation: You have a website. Let's call it dibblescandies.com. You also have a Facebook page, facebook.com/dibblescandies (these aren't real, people, just used for examples).

On the website, you want to add a Facebook "Like" button. When people click the button, you don't want them to like dibblescandies.com. You want to them to like the facebook page, so every time you update the Facebook page, they (and other followers) will be notified of the update. This helps you build a long-term relationship with the people who enjoy your content.

There is another requirement. When someone clicks the "Like" button, you don't want them to leave the website to go to the Facebook page. Rather, clicking the Like button causes them to "like" the Facebook page while remaining on the website.

Here's how to do it:

1. You'll need to alter the HTML code on the web page in question, so open up that page in an editor (or other environment, like WordPress or Blogger).
2. Go to the Facebook developer site, which contains a tool to create Facebook like buttons. 
3. Scroll down to the "Get Like Button Code" section.
4. In the "URL To Like" field, DON'T use the website address (e.g., http://dibblescandies.com). Instead, use the Facebook page URL (e.g., http://facebook.com/dibblescandies).
5. Fill out the other required fields, and press "Get Code"
6. Follow the instructions to place the code on your website.

If you want to see an example of how this works, go to the Business Insider website.

Video Tutorial: How To Add A Page To A Blogger Site

Here's another video covering the basics of a Blogger-based blog or small business website. In this three-minute video, learn how to add a page and change the order of pages in the website's navigation.

The video uses the sample website for the fictional bakery/ice cream shop featured in Google Blogger For Small Businesses In 30 Minutes. This is an easy way to add "About", "Contact", "Directions", and other types of pages. Press the icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to see the video in all of its full-screen glory.

Video Tutorial: How To Change Templates In Blogger

Over the weekend I finished a short, three-minute video that demonstrates how to change the template in Blogger. It doesn't matter if it's for a blog or a static website, or if you are using blogspot.com or a custom domain.

The video uses the sample website for the fictional bakery/ice cream shop featured in Google Blogger For Small Businesses In 30 Minutes, and switches templates using the default free templates offered by Blogger. Press the icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to see the video in all of its full-screen glory.

Google's $10 Small Business Website: A cheaper and easier alternative to WordPress

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Last year, in the course of co-founding a software company and talking with other new entrepreneurs who were founding their own ventures, I noticed a problem: Almost everyone wanted to set up a website to promote their businesses. But few owners, co-founders, or employees were ready to deal with the cost and complexity of WordPress, the online publishing software that is considered the standard platform for small business websites.

Don't get me wrong: WordPress is a powerful tool for creating websites. It's great for blogs or static websites (i.e., informational websites that seldom change). In fact, for our software venture, we ended up using WordPress. But this was mainly because my co-founder and I were both experienced with Web development and online publishing tools. We were also willing to pay the premiums. There were Web hosting costs for our .com domain (we used a Page.ly hosting package that cost $20/month). There were also costs in the form of time requirements. Setting up, configuring, and updating site features took well over 50 hours, spread out over several months.

Few of my fellow entrepreneurs had the skills or patience to deal with WordPress. One of my MIT classmates who started his own company attempted to get something up and running on WordPress. After a few frustrating days, he concluded it was a waste of his time fiddling around with themes, plugins, and other settings -- he had a business to get off the ground! WordPress costs were also a barrier. Even at the lower end, hosting a WordPress site with its own .com domain costs around $80/year -- enough to give many startup founders pause.

However, I knew there was a cheaper and easier way to create small business websites with dedicated .com domains. I have been using Google's Blogger service since 2004 for various blogging projects, and have also created some static sites around specific themes ("Bike Worker") as well as promotional sites for my In 30 Minutes™ series of books (Dropbox In 30 Minutes, Google Drive & Docs In 30 Minutes, and Excel Basics In 30 Minutes). Blogger is not intended for static sites, but it's easy to hack some of the settings and use Blogger's Pages features to make good-looking informational websites. Besides Blogger's super-easy interface for creating posts and pages, what makes Blogger a viable option for small business sites is the fact that hosting is free and domain registration is integrated into the service for just $10 per year.

In effect, for less than the cost of a pizza, it's possible for tech startups, consultants, shop owners, restaurants, and other types of small businesses (or people still at the concept stage) to rapidly create a small business website with its own .com domain. The site URL can be placed on business cards, on Twitter pages and Facebook profiles, or in email signatures. It will be indexed by Google and other search engines, and can help new customers learn about the business.

I showed a few friends how to create static business websites using Blogger. Very quickly a bunch of small companies, ranging from an established carpentry business in Rhode Island to a high-tech energy startup, had their own .com sites to promote their products and services. The time and cost requirements were a fraction of what they would have spent had they gone the WordPress route.

I realized that my in-person lessons could be expanded to a much larger audience through an In 30 Minutes™ book as well as videos. I began writing the book in September and finished it last week. I launched a small business website (on Blogger, naturally!) and posted some Blogger video tutorials.

Now, I am ready to get the word out about the book. If you have a business or a business concept that you want to promote, but don't want to invest the time or other costs associated with a WordPress site, Google Blogger For Small Businesses In 30 Minutes is an easy way to get started. The book is designed to be read in 30 minutes, and uses step-by-step instructions and lots of screenshots that explain all of the necessary steps to get a website up and running. Please also consider sharing this site with friends who have their own businesses -- links to send email or share the URL on Facebook or Twitter can be found on this page.

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