The final three sections of the ‘Start a Blog’ guide aren’t exactly steps anymore. Once the blog is installed and properly themed, there is very little administrative work that needs to be done after that. For the remainder of your blog’s life, you will constantly be working on developing content, gaining readers, and making money. These are the three main focuses of every blog out there today. The main focus of this blog is to help you develop as a blogger and expand on content, readers, and money. Before you can really do anything else with your blog, you’re going to need some content.
Initially, writing for your blog should be no problem. You should already have the main focus of your blog nailed down; however, there are a few things first that you should know before diving right in.
- Keep your posts on track with your blog’s focus. If you run an online poker blog, no one will really care to know that you had to take little Fluffy to the vet because his tummy hurt. This is supposed to be a professional blog, not a Myspace account.
- Separate emotions from blog posts. If you find yourself angry or frustrated and you begin blogging, there’s a good chance your frustration will come out in words. While it may not be your intention, your reader may feel personally attacked then thus less likely to return.
- Post at a consistent frequency. A common mistake that many new bloggers make is to update four or five times a day for a week, then not post again for another month. If you have a lot of content, that’s great, but you’ll need to spread it out. If you write everything you know about the topic right of the bat, you’ll be scrounging for posts later. Find a posting schedule and stick to it.
- Don’t let updating your blog feel like work. If you need to force yourself to sit down and churn out a post, it’s not going to be pretty. Take a break or a day off and try and draw some inspiration.
- Blog in a stress free environment. Or as stress free as you can make it. A constant ringing phone mixed with eight kids yelling and screaming while the TV is blasting reruns of Dora the Explorer does not constitute a suitable writing environment. Remove the distractions, then blog.
- Write with the interests of your reader in mind. I know that it is your blog, but you aren’t writing for yourself; you’re writing for everyone else. Don’t ever forget this.
With those points said, you should now try and figure out a posting schedule and strictly adhere to it. If you can make multiple updates per day, that is great and highly desirable. You just have to be able to maintain this type of posting frequency. Always remember to stay on topic and keep focused. Once you start building content, you’re going to need someone to read it.