9 Frequently Asked Questions About Starting A Blog
The internet has become a technological and cultural phenomenon in the past few decades, with countless people taking to blogging to voice their opinions and share their knowledge. Creating a great blog is an easy process that shouldn't take longer than half an hour or so.
Here Are 9 Frequently Asked Questions About Starting A Blog
What Do I Want To Blog About?
If you already know what your blogging subject is going to be, go for it. It might even help to plan out how your content should flow and where exactly different points will fit in.
If, however, you're still pondering the question of "what," take a look at some other blogs and see if there's anything they have in common.
For example, leading off with a general topic like 'tech news' or 'photography' leaves room open later on for more specific ones like 'Apple watch reviews' or 'nature photos.' Your best bet is probably somewhere between those two extremes, though, as it lets people get started following you without feeling lost as your site progresses.
Who Am I Writing For?
This is a corollary to "what.". It's also the most important factor. While you may believe your favorite topics are the only things anyone could ever want to read about, that might not be true. You don't have to reach out and grab people by the lapels – subtly will do – but work towards identifying a target audience.
It can even be as loose as 'women in their 20s who enjoy DIY' or 'men over 50 with interest in politics.' Make sure they're specific enough to set clear boundaries but flexible enough that the group isn't too tiny (and therefore limiting).
Once you've chosen your audience, think about who you're trying to appeal to. What makes them tick? What are their hobbies and interests like? These should be different than your own (or, at the very least, yours should not be the only thing you write about). Your writing style might also mesh better with some sub-groups more than others; try to pick an audience that fits both of those factors.
Where Am I Going To Blog?
This part is fairly straightforward: Do you want a WordPress blog or something self-hosted on your website? There's no "right" answer here, but it can help if you determine what kind of content management system would best fit your future blogging plans. If you envision potentially adding community-based features, maybe WordPress is best. Going for something with greater ease of adding media files? Maybe go with a more flexible blog platform like Squarespace or Tumblr.
Whatever the case may be, keep in mind that free hosting solutions have some potential drawbacks. Namely, you're at the whim of your host's content policies and their uptime integrity (to say nothing of site speed). A lot of newcomers will try to get by with these kinds of services while not giving much thought to actually monetizing their blogs, but it can make things complicated if they ever decide to move onward from the hobby phase.
What Are My Costs?
You'll obviously want a domain name (that is, a website address) and web hosting. You can even take this as far as getting an SSL certificate if you want to ensure the security of your visitors' information, but that might be going overboard for a beginner just starting out.
What Should My Blog Name Be?
This part depends entirely on you. There are some fantastic blog titles that are just straightforward or clever takes on the topic at hand, but it's also possible for blogs to have more creative names based on wordplay or Internet memes.
If your goal is to have the most search engine friendliness possible, keep in mind that choosing a name based on what Google will already find can be tricky. You might not want to go with something too obscure if you're still looking to grow an audience later down the road, but don't feel afraid of using a made-up word either (that way, no one else seems to own it).
What Should I Write About?
Once again, this comes back around to who your target audience is. Are you trying to sell some product(s) or service(s)? If so, you'll want to have a distinct focus on those topics and affiliate links for easy referral payouts.
Perhaps your goal with the blog is to establish yourself as an expert on a specialty subject – one that might not necessarily be directly related to money-making – but it could still lead back to a financial gain.
Maybe you are into fitness and healthy living; you can definitely start your blog and click here for some fitness advice. There are plenty of possibilities here; just think about what kind of content you'd most enjoy writing and read up on how everyone else does it (and whether their model has been successful).
What's My Style?
This can be hard to pinpoint at first glance, but don't worry: You'll soon find yourself honing in a distinctive voice or tone that reflects your own personality. Of course, you could go for a formal, professorial air if you wanted complete authority when writing about a topic, but there's no need to be quite so serious all the time.
In fact, it might actually work much better if you take a less "academic" approach by injecting some humor into things every once in a while to keep readers engaged and coming back for more. That's not an invitation to trip over the line into obnoxiousness; just think of what kinds of jokes you tell with friends that don't feel forced or awkward.
How Do I Structure My Blog?
This is going to depend greatly on what kind of blog you're trying to run. Plenty of blogging platforms serve as hosts that might also provide tools for statistics, archiving, and other neat features, but they won't really be effective if the content or style is nothing like a personal journal or a more traditional news site.
If your blog uses WordPress (which is free), there is a wide range of themes to choose from in order to make it look exactly how you want it to. From color schemes and fonts right down to the placement of posts and widgets on your home page, everything can change pretty quickly through trial and error with all these options at your disposal.
Who Will Write For Me?
If you're working alone, there's really nothing to keep you from writing about whatever comes to mind. However, for the sake of consistency, many bloggers decide to use a rotating cast of writers so that they have other people contributing articles as well.
