Most small businesses can't afford to hire in highly specialised roles, as useful as those roles might be. While your business might have a website it probably doesn't have a full time content creator, and despite your healthy Facebook, Twitter and Instagram presence you aren't likely to employ a social media manager. But have you ever considered using services, rather than people, to fill those knowledge gaps?

Dear Lifehacker, I'm thinking about starting my own blog. I don't expect it to make me stinking rich, but what are the chances I can quit my day job and make a living just by blogging? I see all these success stories, but how much money can I really make?

If you feel like tossing off a quick blog post, personal essay or anonymous rant and don't want to set up a whole new blog on something like Wordpress, IO offers a simple an elegant solution to publish your writing online, no account required.

Depending on your setup, it may be a challenge to get your site working fast enough when you post lots of media. I've experienced themes before that didn't respond well to multiple embedded Youtube videos, for example. But if your site is heavy on the images, you'll definitely want to look at ThemeIsle's advice.

Dear Lifehacker, I'm planning on starting a blog mainly to vent about issues surrounding the niche industry I work in. While I won't be doing anything illegal, it would certainly not go down well with my current employer and clients. Do you have any tips for remaining anonymous?

It really is possible to make a decent living or at least generate side income by blogging -- but you have to have a strategy. Problogger points out three key factors that influence how successful, revenue-wise, your blog might be.

If you've been hosting any adult content on Google's Blogger service, it's time to start looking elsewhere. From late March, Google will effectively begin hiding all those posts.

Those of us more experienced in life sometimes get asked by colleagues to be a mentor and offer advice. Instead of giving the same answer over again, consider turning it into a podcast or blog post and sharing it with others.

"Benny" brings inline video and tweets to unpublished posts, content focus and more easily browsable plugins.

Web: Want to quickly create a good-looking web page without starting a new account? Pen.io is a fast and free way to do just that.

Capturing crystal-clear audio with an external microphone can be tricky -- especially if you're recording from a cluttered desk. Here's a simple sound-vibration hack from IKEA Hackers designed to make the life easier for bloggers, journalists and bedroom musicians.

We've discussed some of the best blogging platforms and web hosts, but if you prefer to really control your data, there's no reason you can't do it all at home. All you need is Virtualbox, a virtual machine (VM) as your web server, and a shared folder for your posts and blog content. Maymay shows us how it's done.

Dear Lifehacker, I keep seeing these new blogging platforms pop up, such as Medium and Svbtle. Why would I use one of these new platforms instead of more powerful classics like Wordpress?

I hear every single day from readers who want to know exactly how I've made money with my blog, The Simple Dollar, or how they can make money doing a similar thing, whether it's starting a blog or posting YouTube videos or writing ebooks. I'm going to spell all of this out in detail so that the reality of it is as clear as possible.

Dear Lifehacker, I'm trying to start my own blog but am finding it difficult to find images I can use. Any ideas? Thanks, Picture Imperfect

Dear Lifehacker, I want to start a blog and I think I know what I want to write about. What's the best way to make it look professional without spending a year's salary? Thanks, Aspiring Blogger

Every day we see it. People seemingly coming from nowhere and finding their way onto your crowded radar; they're carving out a reputation for themselves as an expert or authority in a particular space and then over the journey you watch them get bigger and more influential as their star rises with each new blog or video post.

Running (or planning) a WordPress-based site and want to improve your knowledge? WordCamp Melbourne is on 27-28 April, with streams for both developers and content creators, and the cost of admission is a super-reasonable $50. Hit the link to find out more. (I'd be attending myself if my travel plans weren't already slightly on the insane side.)

Are you feeling burnt from Twitter's announcement that it is closing Posterous on April 30? JustMigrate is a free service that will migrate your Posterous Spaces to Tumblr quickly and easily, so you can get back to blogging and sharing without too much hassle.