Planning Out Your Blog at the Beginning
When embarking on a new blogging project there are a few things that you’ll need to think about early on. What are you going to name your blog? What topics will you blog about? How often will you publish posts? What kind of writing style will you use? In the remainder of this article I’ll look at these questions more fully.
Picking a Name For Your Blog
The first decision to be made is of course the name (and domain) of your blog. There are general two choices - using your own name or using a name related to the primary topic of the blog.
Your choice here will depend on the aims of your blog. If you intend to use it to promote some kind of personal service then using your name can be a good idea because it will always remain relevant even if your services differ over time. If you’re blogging about a specifc topic and you intend to monetize it via external methods then it can be better to use a name that is related to the topic.
Choosing Your Blog Topics
Many new bloggers start their first blog by just blogging about anything that comes into their head and end up with a broad range of largely unrelated topics. This is not all that efficient as many readers simply don’t have time to wade through posts they are not interested in and it makes it more difficult to target monetization efforts.
By clearly defining the topics you intend to blog about at the outset you can organise your posts into categories which will make your blog more organised and it will also be easier for new visitors to find what they are looking for.
Deciding on a Posting Schedule
Many people advise you to blog every day when launching a new blog with the theory being that the more you post the more people will come to your blog. However many blog readers find that blogs that post every day or even multiple times a day are simply too much and they can’t keep up with them.
In my experience it doesn’t really matter how often you post or on what days of the week etc. The most important factor is that whatever schedule you set for yourself, you try to stick to it and remain consistent. There are very successful bloggers that only post once per week and their readers look forward to reading their weekly post.
Another danger with trying to post too much, especially in the beginning, is that you may not be able to maintain your pace. You may run out of ideas, find the time committment to be too much or simply burn out and if you start posting less and less, this looks bad and it looks as though the blog is dying. Many readers will unsubscribe when this begins to happen.
A much better idea is to start off with a gentle posting schedule (you wont have many readers at the start anyway) and if you feel that you want to do more, to increase it slowly over time. Don’t do it the other way around!
What Style of Writing Will You Use?
I have often read advice that suggests that you should establish who your target audience is (this is good) and then alter your writing style to fit and that part is not so good. People will read your blog for its content and if you try to write in a style that is not comfortable for you it will show. Your blog is a reflection if you, your thoughts, opinions and passions and so on. Let the real you shine!
As for the style of the content itself, again this is highly personal. Each of us is different and you should write in your own style and not how you think your readers want you to write. Some people like to use humor, others prefer to stick to dry facts, some people like to rustle up some controversy and so on. Do what works for you.
Similarly, I see people asking questions such as, how long should my posts be? This again is down to personal style though it is perhaps influenced by your posting frequency. Short, snappy posts may be best if you post very often but if you only post once per week you’ll probably want to publish something with a bit more substance!
It really doesn’t matter what your style is because the readers who like your style will stick around and subscribe and the ones who don’t, wont! Simple as that really! There is no way that any single style is going to appeal to everybody so don’t try! No matter what your posting style is, there will be people who like it and some who don’t, but it never pays to try and be something that you are not.
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