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For many years there was a great hue and cry about the Internet making it possible for “anyone to publish!” While this notion is true, you’ll note that the phrase is not “anyone can publish well.” Registering a domain name and buying Web hosting are often quite easy to do, and you can learn basic Web coding in an afternoon. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your site looks as professional and credible as it really could. Just because you own a printer, for example, doesn’t mean that you can create a New York Times-quality newsletter right out of the starting gate.

Nonetheless, you can effectively learn much of what goes into a blog, and you should spend the time to do it — developing a readable writing style, establishing and editing policy, even setting up a blog in the first place. For some things, however, you may want to hire a professional, and setting up the HTML templates or creating the site design are the usual candidates for outsourcing.

If you’re wondering whether buying the help of an expert is really necessary, take a look through these issues, and apply them to your situation.

· Do you have technical expertise in-house? What kind? If you have an artist without Web experience or a Webmaster who wears stripes with plaid, it will show on the Web site.

· If you have in-house expertise of the kind you need, do you have access to it? We’re all overworked in this busy world, and it may be difficult to turn the focus to this new project. This is especially true when another department loans you resources, and managerial relationships and firm deadlines may be difficult to establish.

· Have you ever created a Web site before or managed a Web project? Your own preparedness and expertise play a huge role in getting what you need out of in-house staff, especially when you are trying something for the first time.

· Do you have the time and budget to bring outsiders into the picture? Estimating what your costs will be like if you choose to outsource can be difficult — everyone’s blog scope differs, after all! Sticking to your budget is probably the greatest factor in whether you choose to learn how to create complicated Cascading Style Sheet pages, install software on a server, or become an artist.

· A blog project doesn’t have to be a huge budgetary item, however. The design needs of a blog are minimal. For instance, most blogs use a standard layout that remains much the same from page to page. Even the graphic header at the top of the page usually doesn’t change. So when you approach a Web designer, be aware that what you’re looking for is help creating one standard page design and the templates for the home page, archive pages, and individual entry pages. Because many elements remain the same from page to page and probably won’t change much over time, you may be able to buy more designer time than you think.

· How good are your technical skills? How much time do you have to devote to learning new skills that you may use now and then not come back to for a couple of years? Web sites are usually redesigned every couple of years, so it can be difficult to keep your technical skills sharp if you aren’t practicing them daily. You can also get easily excited about learning something new and forget that you don’t really have time to become an expert in something completely outside your expertise.

Figuring out whether you need outside help to set up your blog has no easy formula, but as you go into the process, you can find some ways to make the process work more smoothly and save yourself money.