Blog Tipz

Photo by Wolfgang Staudt

Looking to start a new blog today? You’ve heard of the dynamic medium that has created a sensation worldwide, spawning the creation of more than 112.8 million other blogs (Technorati: February 2008), a craze that has yet to peak. Combining the power of website creation, monetization, SEO, content creation, and networking, blog systems help you express your opinion, but won’t do all the work for you. After you publish a post, the blogging platform will notify and ping other services. At this point, the work of the blog publishing system is done – now it is up to the publisher to spread word throughout the internet of the great content he or she produced.

The internet will still be here if you don’t blog. The ideas you want to share won’t be spread, your readers won’t exist, and you’ll still be going about your normal life.

People start blogging for many reasons, however, they can be summarized into three distinct categories:

a.) Personal – to make money, improve your life, enjoy writing about things you enjoy, be more creative, improve your skills
b.) Economic/Business – to make money, create a business/identity, form a resume (that’s what a blog is)
c.) Social – stay connected with other people, meet others, help others, become “well-known”

Starting blogging is pretty simple to start doing for most. All you need is a computer, internet connection, decent/good English writing skills, and the ability to produce content and some knowledge of CSS/XHTML (for styling), which can be self-taught. With these basic “materials”, anybody, no matter how rich or poor, can meet a few of their dreams – such as generating an alternative revenue stream from online sources.

First of all, perseverance is one of the largest resounding factor in blogging. What are you going to blog about? How are you going to achieve these goals? Create short-term goals such as 50 readers within x months and long-term goals, perhaps you want to be able to pay off a certain monthly bill with your advertisements’ earnings. Even if you don’t meet a single goal, you’ll learn from them, and recreate them after the period is over, discovering how to improve the previous failures.

Planning – In similar respects to perseverance, without planning, your blog will never amount to anything unless you plan wisely. Don’t expect that you’ll be able to post everyday, so make a schedule and work around your lifestyle. If you know that you will be without a computer, internet access, etc., then plan accordingly, such as creating posts ahead of time.

Read articles of other bloggers, review their experiences, failures, and successes, and ask yourself whether you’ll be able to learn the ins and outs of blogging to become successful down the road.

Time and Effort – Blogs don’t write themselves. Spend time developing good content that others will leave your site knowing something new. Ask yourself several questions before publishing the post, such as:

- How will this post benefit my readers? Is the content unique?
- How does this concept relate to my blog?
- Will this post help me achieve my goals more quickly?

One of the most common misconceptions is that blogging will solve all their problems. Truth is, it won’t. When you meet a period of bloggers block and feel like quitting, don’t. Reassess how you came to the point you are at, then reposition yourself to come out of the slump with better, recreated goals.

Time is (once again) money. Blogging isn’t labor intensive, it just takes time.

Adaptability – When you receive negative comments and no longer feel like posting, or face a severe lack in quality content, or if you are judged around the blogosphere in forums and social networking sites, how will you react? Will you evolve from the situation, become stronger, and fix the problem, improve your previous tactics, simply give up, or ignore the situation?

Connectivity and Networking – What type of comment policy are you going to implement on your blog? Will you be able to respond rather frequently if you receive a large amount of comments? Will you be able to set time away at least several days a week to connect with other people in your same or a similar niche, to help build your “brand” up online?

Finally, what types of investments will you put into your blog? What methods will you use to attract new visitors with ad campaigns? Are you willing to spend money on a domain, hosting, blog platforms (Movable Type, TypePad, and so on), and blog themes to set yourself apart? Blogger definitely has its benefits – but not as many as having a site that you can completely change to suit your needs.

Blogging doesn’t have to be complicated. Employ your own methods of starting a blog. Yes, at first, there are many choices, but once you discover the option that is best for you, it won’t be too long before you meet many of your goals.

What were the reasons you started blogging? Did you research the benefits and risks of starting a blog first?