How To Start Blogging?

Lately I have the impression that many people start a blog but don’t think about what they should write about, no goal, no use, no sense. Just a hype they want to be part of.

How do I start blogging? I put together some suggestions in this article:

Before

Before you even start a blog, should you really take the time to think about what you would like to write about. May it be a personal, commercial or a niche blog.

Please add further suggestions or critics to this post in the comment area, I think there is a lot to discuss about and even more to add.

  1. Why do you want to blog?
    Ask this question more specifically. Just to be on the net is not a real good reason. Who do you want to approach with your blog? Is your target group pretty small or is it spread out all around the world? Which language will you use? How much feedback would you like to get through your site? Do you want to make money with your blog?
  2. What is your blog about?
    Do you like to talk about something specific or do you prefer to write about anything that comes to mind?
    The initial idea behind blogging began with people talking about their lives, an online diary. If this is the purpose of your blog, then it’s difficult to get more readers than your family or friends. Unless you are a big star.
    If you look for more readers than just your family or friends, then look for a niche of a specific topic. It can also be 2 or 3 but you should know about this topic quite well and you must love it. If not it will fail.
  3. Do you want to make money?
    If the reason for having a blog is one of financial interest, then you should think about your theme a little bit more, because you will need a big readership for your blog. Many people think it’s easy to make money with Google Adsense, but that is a delusion. Your content is the most important thing and even with good content it doesn’t mean your ads are interesting for your readers too.
  4. Write content
    Before you announce your blog to everybody, write some posts. After you have enough quality posts go online and tell everybody about your blog. If you tell everybody about your blog without any posts, people will be disappointed when they visit your website and probably never come back.
    Keep some good articles in your draft, don’t publish all at once, so you can publish new articles consistently.
    To gain in readership it is recommended to write about something in separate posts. Start a series, people might be interested in. The Reader who likes your first article of your series will come back or even subscribe to your feed.
    Also show visitors your most popular articles and link to older post with the same topic.
  5. Use your Network
    Mention other blogs within your niche which are already well known. Build a network of blogs which have the same topics or interest as you do. They probably have the same target group as you have. Exchange ideas and also exchange links. Try to gain backlinks and also use pings to acknowledge a bigger readership of your new posts. You can use existing services like technorati.com and feedburner.com.
  6. Search engine optimization (SEO)
    Before you go online check out how search engine friendly your blog is. Read the article: WordPress SEO – Definitive guide to high rankings for your blog . Or you can use the excellent WordPress SEO Plugin wpSEO which is coming soon in English.
  7. Design
    What will your blog look like? What is your main focus of your blog; the design or the content? It should normally be the content, the design should make it easier to find and read interesting content for the reader. Try to adapt a design to your theme and what is most appropriate for your target group. The only time your design might be more important than your content is, if you are a graphic or web designer who wants to show their skills and work.
  8. Statistic
    Of course you want to know who, how many, how and from where your readers are coming from. But your website performance will sacrifice for every statistic tool you use. So think about if it’s really necessary or what statistics you really need.
  9. Ping services
    In point 5 I already mentioned why it is recommended to use ping services. With the help of ping services you can constantly get new visitors. Use different services and not only one. Right now I use:

    • http://rpc.weblogs.com/pingSiteForm?name=…
    • http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
    • http://ping.feedburner.com
    • http://www.bloglines.com/ping
    • http://ping.wordblog.de/
    • http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
    • http://ping.blogg.de/?name=…
    • http://weblogs.com/
    • http://ping.blo.gs/?name=bueltge.de&url=http://bueltge.de/
    • http://pingoat.com/
    • http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
    • http://ping.blo.gs/
    • http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
    • http://geourl.org/ping/

Afterwards

When you are online and your blog is running you have to have patient. Your readers are not rushing to your website from one day to another. Continue to write good content and have fun, this should be the main reason why you have a blog. Consistency is very important if you have a blog, stay motivated and be open. The comment function in your blog is an important asset and helps you to communicate. Pay attention to all comments, especially critics. Stay polite and don’t offend any readers. Discussions on your blog are very important for your blog to stay alive.


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Comments

10 responses to “How To Start Blogging?”

  1. Dan Avatar

    Great article here, good points that I’ll take into consideration when I relaunch my blog and design company.

  2. Alex Avatar

    Hey Dan, glad this article was insightful for you

  3. […] Hur gör man för att starta en blogg? – Artikel med tips och tricks för er alla som vill börja blogga. […]

  4. Rajawali kecil Avatar

    I started blogging last month and just go…
    This article make me realize what should be done.

    Thanks a lot!

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  6. […] Nice guide to starting blogging. […]

  7. frank  ani Avatar
    frank ani

    I am in process of understanding bloging process. The above writeup present an insight into process I need for my understanding of bloging. It is valuable information.

    Thanks,
    Frank

  8. […] Hur gör man för att starta en blogg? – Artikel med tips och tricks för er alla som vill börja blogga. […]