Have you ever found a blog and thought I could do better? Or do you just love to write? Then blogging might be for you. There are some things you need to decide before you start your own blog.
- Why do you want to blog?
I started blogging as an extension to my reflection routine. I work as a manager and used to reflect each Friday. Now I blog a lot and it has become my #1 hobby. If you want to blog for money, you might have a rough time ahead of you. Reasons to blog should be: Passion for writing, online branding, great knowledge on some topic, reflection, writing for yourself. - What do you want to blog about?
If you are serious about blogging find a topic and stick to it. Random topics of suggestions: wine, food, fashion, motor, leadership, personal development, blogging, writing, book reviews, movie reviews, travel, boats, local politics, news, flowers, hobbies. - Are you good enough?
Yes you are! There is no requirement to blog, but your audience might be few is the quality is low. Anybody can blog, even my mom if she wanted to. If you are very good at something you might end up building a lot of followers. Everybody can blog! - What platform to use?
I have tested a lot of different blogs and if you trust me you will start with a wordpress blog. If you want to blog for free and not risk money you could start with blogger.com or wordpress.com, no need of a hosting plan or domain name. But as you grow you should consider creating your own domain. I started with http://properpants.blogspot.com/ and after about a year I moved to http://www.nevermindthemanager.com/ To move from one to the other is not difficult.
So I hope that you are willing to try blogging. It is fun it is cool and you will end up meeting great people from all over the world. I have made a lot of online friends where about ten have become as close as online friends can get. I have met fortune 500 leaders, authors, fellow bloggers and some great people blogging. I also want to give you some starting tips.
- Write 10-15 blog posts before you start
Write as many blog posts as you can, at least 10-15. Publish 3-4 of them at once when you start, and automate the next 11-12 posts with one week between. For instance a weekly update on Tuesday. Now you got more than two months to write some more and your blog will keep updating on a regular basis. - Keep your post short
Online reading is straining on your eyes. So keep your blogs short. Anything between 200-1000 words will do. - Get to know the term “pillar posts”
These are the best stuff you can deliver. Try to make a great post at a rate about every 3-4 post. You can chit chat in between if you feel like it, or have shorter posts. A pillar post should be about 1000-1200 words. (Not a rule of course) - Picture your reader
Imagine your core reader and write directly to him/her. Imagine your audience, what are they looking for? This will help to keep you on track.
So get started blogging, you can do it. I could and I am just a plain ordinary joe from Norway with good but not great English grammar and spelling. And do read how to blog blogs as you will get a lot of knowledge about your new hobby. This equals subscribing to my blog about blogging.
Did you know that I can set up and run a full running professional blog for you? All you need to do is figure out a domain name, your topic and leave the rest to me, while you write on your initial 15 blog posts. I will adjust design to your topic and I will set up all the technical mumbo jumbo. Please do contact me if you are interested. I would love to help you. And yeah… do check out how I optimized one of my own blog posts to get great results.
