By now, stories abound pointing out the risks of rushing to a web presence only to discover you’ve made some costly mistakes. Blogging is a huge advantage for many business owners, but it’s not as easy as getting started. Use free website hosting, sometimes called blog hosting, as a means of determining if you should take the plunge and build a business blog.

Look at the topic that other free blogs focus on, whether it’s hobbies, travel, or movie reviews. Pick a topic you think you should blog about and set up a free blog. Since your goal is to determine if you want to incorporate a business blog into your own Internet presence, stay away from topics that you would not want associated with your business reputation.

Before you start using your free blog website hosting service, determine how easy it is to remove your blog from the web host that runs the free blog. The best feature to look for is the “Delete” blog option.

Once you’ve set up your blog with free web hosting, create a plan for your posts just like you would your business blog if you decide to create one. Start with how often you plan to post. Many blogs begin with a flurry of activity because the blogger has something to communicate, but quickly runs out of things to discuss. Consider whether his ability to sustain his blogging efforts will be better supported by limiting his posts to once a week rather than a once a day approach.

Determine if your message will get across better using another approach, such as a Facebook or YouTube page, rather than blogging.

Always keep in mind how long it takes you to post. Whether it takes you an hour or a day to write your blog post, it will take time away from your normal business activity.

Consider how website hosting alternatives incorporate blogging options into their services in terms of cost and availability, as well as the ease of adding a blog to your website.

The website hosting service will offer a set of plugins and tips on how to include other web information on your site. You’ll want to examine how the website hosting companies you’re considering handle blogging. You’ll find that some web hosting services allow you to blog on their site and others have ways to install your blog on your website’s hosting account.

Determine how quickly blogging becomes a chore for you. You have enough business pressures without blogging because you think you should. By using a free blogging website hosting service, you can assess whether blogging is really for you before including a blog as part of your business efforts.

Blogging can be a big part of marketing your business that you’ll want your web host to be able to support. Before you decide to experiment with business blogging, consider using a free blogging web host to determine if blogging is for you.