First step to blogging: Don’t write a post!
Posted on January 14, 2008
Filed Under Beginning Blogging |
How do I get started blogging is frequently asked. Getting started is actually quite simple in itself. You can go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and sign up for a blog. Both of them make it really simple to do the actual mechanics of starting a blog and they are even free. Then all you need to do is start posting.
STOP!
Before you select a blogging platform or write a post, there is some work to do. If you are planning to make money on your blog (or even if you aren’t), there are some basic questions that you need to ask (and answer) before you even select a blog platform. Blogging for money is a business. It may be a part time business, it may be a fun business but it’s a business and if you are going to be successful, you need a plan.
Here are some questions that will help you develop a plan for your blog.
- What is my purpose? The purpose of your blog will determine a lot of things like blog platform, theme, name, etc. Even blogs whose main purpose is to make money, need to determine how they are going to accomplish it. Having a blog and saying “come here and pay me” won’t make you very popular. If you already know what you want to write about, you are halfway there. If you don’t, you will want to give it some thought. A hobby or something you are interested in is a good place to start.
- Write it down. Once you have decided the main purpose of your blog, write it down. Similar to having a mission statement, it will keep you focused on what you want to accomplish and maybe how you want to do it. It will also help you to write a description of your blog when you are ready.
- Check out the competition. Every good businessman knows who the competition is and what they are doing. Spend some time reading other blogs on your topic and make a list of things you like about their sites and things you don’t like. It won’t do you much good to make a list of sites you like or sites you don’t like, you actually have to take a few minutes and analyze what it is about that site that you like. It will help you when you get ready to set up your blog as well as when you start writing your posts. If you find a site that you love to read, ask yourself why you like it? Is it the blog set up? Is it the writer’s personality or is it the great information offered?
By now you should have a written mission statement and a list of likes and don’t likes. You should be starting to get a clearer mental picture of what you want to do with your blog, but we aren’t done yet.
- Determine your audience. Who is going to want to read your blog? What do they look like? No, really. Think about who your average reader is going to be and make a visualization of them. What do they wear, eat, play with and do for a living. If you are going to entertain or educate someone and hopefully make money in the process, you have to know something about them.
- Make a list of broad categories. Even if your blog is about one specific thing such as a football team, you will want to include different aspects of it. Categories could be players, competition, special teams, coaching, etc. This will give your blog some depth and make it more interesting to a larger audience. Ben Cook from a Blogging Experiment writes a little about how a narrow scope hurt him on a blog here.
- Make a list of topics. Darren Rowse at Problogger uses a tool called mind mapping. It’s a process of taking all the possible topics, writing them down and then building on them. You will want to have some topic ideas for most of your main categories before you start blogging. Believe me this will save you on days when you don’t feel like writing, can’t think of a thing to write and just want to cover your head and go back to sleep. The hardest thing about blogging can be deciding what to write about or remembering what that great idea was that you had last night in bed.
Does it sound like work yet? It is but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s very rewarding both to write and to watch your readership grow over time. The blogging community is great and although competition can be keen, most bloggers are ready to jump in and help or offer advice.
Next in the series, I will talk about choosing a name, platform and theme.
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