This post is part of a guest blog series I’m doing over at The Odd Dad Out and was originally published on October 27, 2010.

Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of talk about how dad blogs suck. Even I got a little snarky about the whole matter. Among the many arguments made, both good and bad, was that many blogs don’t look professional.

If you are using your blog as a platform for more commercial endeavors, then it is important to keep in mind that your site is a reflection of you. A simple, yet solid design on the right platform with the right social outposts and calls to action will go a long way if you goal is to work with brands or if you are trying to develop your own personal brand.

I’m not normally the how-to type of guy (unless you count recipes), especially when it comes to parenting or relationships. Still, I thought I’d share some of the knowledge I’ve gleaned from assembling my three sites, as well as the numerous ones I’ve developed for clients.

None of this information is particularly groundbreaking, but I figured I’d consolidate the basics and give my personal opinion on things. If you were looking to upgrade your site and didn’t know where to start, then I hope that this will give you some direction.

Hosted v. Self hosted

There are plenty of platforms from which you can start a blog. You can go with services like Blogger, WordPress.com, Square Space or TypePad. You can even use micro-blogging platforms like Tumblr or Posterous. All but one is free and all are very user friendly.

However, depending on your purpose for blogging, there is benefits to hosting your blog on your own domain rather than utilized a hosted service. The two biggest benefits to hosting your blog yourself are customization and search engine optimization.

Free services like Blogger and WordPress.com blogs have limited themes (designs) unless you pay for some custom work. Also with WordPress.com, you are limited in the plugin options to enhance your user experience.

As an example, you can’t use a plugin that utilizes java script. From a resource allocation standpoint they just can’t offer something like that with as many sites as they are hosting on their servers.

With regards to SEO, if you update your blog regularly at a hosted service all the benefits of the links go to the host, not to you. By paying a modest annual fee for a hosting account those links will inure to your benefit giving you more exposure and, hopefully, organic search engine traffic.

Get a host

If you’re ready to take the plunge to using a self-hosted platform such as WordPress.org or Moveable Type, then you’ll need a host. There are plenty of options to choose from and most packages run about $7-9/month when paid on an annual basis.

Get a domain

If you are going to open a hosting account then you’ll need to acquire a domain name, unless you already have one. Even if you’ve chosen to not self-host, I’d still recommend getting your own domain. Blogger and WordPress.com (the two free hosted services I know the best) both enable you to use a custom domain.

You can register a domain through your host (some even offer one free domain name with per year) or you can use a service like GoDaddy and point (or redirect) the domain to whomever you plan to use for hosting.

If you have a Blogger blog it is best to purchase your domain through Google’s registrar partner so you don’t have to mess around with configuring name records or DNS entries. There may be less expensive options, but the convenience of it being automatic is a big plus.

We will stop here for now, but tune in for more as we continue to explore how you can step up your blog’s game.