Although there are many sites that will allow you to set up a blog for free and in a matter of minutes, don’t jump straight in without thinking. Instead, you should stop and ask yourself the following question: Why do I want to blog?
Why do YOU want to blog?
To answer this question, consider what your objective is for your blog. What are you hoping to achieve? Here are some possible answers – this list is not exhaustive:
- To share my thoughts and opinions with the world
- To share my knowledge and educate others
- To change the world
- To make money
- I haven’t really thought about that yet – I’ll figure it out later
If your objective is similar to #1 or #2, or if you chose an option that’s not listed but you have a clear idea of what you’re going to write about, you’re on the right track.
#3 is a bit too ambitious unless you know exactly how you can change the world! Simply saying “I want to become famous” is the wrong way to go about it. Some bloggers do want to change the world. Any post could change the world forever, providing it’s well-written, seen by enough people, interesting, crazy, revolutionary, and total nonsense all at the same time. Of course, aiming to writing a life-altering post and actually achieving it is not the same thing.
In a similar way, #4 is starting on the wrong foot. You CAN make money from a blog, but that shouldn’t be your goal. Especially if you think you can be one of those people who shows everyone else how to make money online by trying things and seeing what works. There are so many people already doing this that your chances of standing out are pretty much nil.
So what if you don’t have an objective?
If your objective is similar to #5, don’t start a blog until you know why you want to have one. If you’re struggling to think of a topic, try to think of something you know and like. Don’t write a science blog if you know nothing about it. Don’t review your CD collection if you hate writing reviews!
If you don’t know what to write about, decide who you want to write for – it’s a lot easier to write if you know who you’re writing for. What kind of person will read your blog?
If you want to experiment, it may be better to start a small blog on the quiet and see how it goes before promoting it. A lot of blogs die very quickly because the owner gets bored – don’t over-promote a blog that might not be around next month.
Basically, don’t start until you know why you want to do it and what you’re hoping to get out of it. You could get lucky if you jump right in, but you might end up regretting it. Don’t take that risk.
How often do you think you can write new content?
Don’t get over-ambitious – be realistic. Think about how long your blog entries will be. Can you really write a lengthy post every day for a month? Will you be able to maintain that kind of a posting schedule for three months, six months, a year? Some people seem to think they can, but they run out of energy within the first few months. It’s better to start out slowly than go crazy and burn out.
Here at Weekly Blogging, I’ve established a weekly posting cycle. This may not seem frequent enough as it would take a whole year to get 52 posts on the site – if I keep at it. But I think it’s much more likely to happen than if I were to try and write a post every day. Especially as I already have several other blogs.
Can you write original content?
You should be writing original posts, rather than only linking to other sites with a comment to “check it out”. Those blogs are very common – do you really want to have a blog that’s the same as thousands of others? Or would you rather stand out from the crowd?
Do you have the time for a blog?
Writing a blog is a time consuming hobby. It can be very rewarding and enjoyable, but you need to give it the time of day or your blog is never going to take off.
If you want people to read your blog, you’ll have to reach out to other bloggers somehow. This means joining networks that connect you with other bloggers, finding blogs that you like and that are relevant to your own, and commenting on them.
You’ll need to make the time to network with others if you want to get a name for yourself.
Will you ever have more than just a blog?
I see a lot of blogs that are just blogs at the start. This is fine until you decide to add a photo gallery, a forum, or a store. Suddenly you’re faced with reorganising things so that you can get to all of these places, but you don’t want to detract attention from the blog.
Perhaps you’d rather wait and see how things go than try to do everything at once. But some careful planning at the start can make life a lot easier down the road. If you have photos that you know you’re going to put online, you don’t have to tell people that they’re “coming soon”… just make a mental note of how you’d like to link them into your blog.
Remember that you’re actually building a website… even if it is just a blog. This site focuses more on the blogging side of things – but we may look at addons for your blog at some point.
What do you think?
New and potential bloggers: what’s the objective of your blog?
Existing bloggers: is there anything else that you would consider doing BEFORE setting up a new blog?
At this point blogging is an obsession. When I am doing other things I think about some element of whatever it is that will make an interesting topic. Or I find something that really interests me and of course, I research it and post it. I love writing, have been writing since I started to print. When I am not writing I become an addict in need of a fix.