10. Develop a Clear Vision
You should know exactly what you want to accomplish with your blog long before you sign up for a blog account or install the software. If it’s a business blog, you should investigate who your target audience is (no matter how much marketing has changed demographics are your friend, and always will be) and craft your blog concept around your projected readers. If it’s a personal blog, think about just how personal you want to be. Do you want to spill your guts? Do you want to write a memoir? Do you want to keep it light and fun? The answers to these questions will determine exactly what kind of blog you launch. Launching without a clear vision will only lead to chaos.
9. Prepare to Network
Even before you begin blogging, think of ways that you can incorporate social networking into your blog. For example, free WordPress.com hosted blogs come with a widget that lets you import your latest Twitter updates right into your blog’s design. If it’s a business blog, you’ll want to network a lot. So be sure to choose a blog platform or host that clearly values social networking with plugins, widgets, and a richly-featured comment system to make it easier for you to reach out to other people right from the get go.
8. Sketch Your Design
In a perfect world, you’d have your own hosted blog and a professional designer giving you the exact layout you need. This may be something you should look into if you’re launching a business blog. But for most casual bloggers, built-in, readily-available, free themes are the way to go. But that’s not to say you have to compromise too much or give up the features you really want in your design. Take a piece of paper and sketch your ideal blog. How many columns does it have? What’s the header like? Does it have a large font? Once you have an idea what you want to see, you can go through themes that exist and easily eliminate those that don’t meet your requirements. For example, if you use WordPress and you’re looking for a built-in theme with 3 columns, you can eliminate all 2 or 1 column blogs from your search. It makes life easier in the long run.
7. Write, Write, Write
Don’t be afraid to blog daily, or more than once a day, if you have something valuable to say. If you’re using your blog to promote your business, it’s best to keep it to one or a couple posts per day – you don’t want your news/information to fly off the radar too fast. But if it’s a personal blog, the more you post the better off you’ll be if you’re hoping to monetize your blog. Basically, you can land “pay to post” gigs where you’re paid a few dollars to write about set subject matter given to you by the contracting company. Sometimes these are product reviews, other times they’re keyword-rich material. You publish these posts right in the midst of your other content. These companies will not likely consider your blog if it’s newer than a few months old and it’s infrequently or sloppily updated. Write routinely over the course of several months and you’ll demonstrate a commitment to publishing.
6. Use Writing Prompts
If you’re writing a personal blog daily, it’s easy to run out of ideas. If you get stuck, there are a number of writing prompt sites (try a Google search and you’ll see) you can rely on to help you get past writer’s block. Basically, they give you a keyword, a quote, a photo, or a concept that’s intended to inspire you. Even if you’re not crazy about the prompt you’re given, try to write about it – you may be surprised how creative your post ends up being! You can also find books that contain nothing but writing prompts and inspiration. There’s a nice list of writing & blogging prompts at the Creativity Portal.
5. Do a Meme
Memes are something you’ve likely encountered on personal blogs before. They’re surveys, quizzes, photo scavenger hunts, and other types of material that many blogs are posting simultaneously because they’re prompted by a meme repository. I don’t recommend populating your blog solely with memes if you’re looking to monetize it, and I don’t recommend memes for business blogs, period. But for a personal blog, they’re a fun way to get the wheels turning in your creative writing mind. You can even paste e-mail surveys into your blog and do them there! There’s a side benefit to website prompted memes, too: many of them offer a place where you can add your blog’s URL when you participate, or invite you to comment with a link to your blog. That gets your URL out there to like-minded individuals, leading to…you guessed it…networking! You’ll find a great list of memes sorted by day of week at The Daily Meme.
4. Join a Writing Group
There are many social sites that focus on bloggers and provide prompts, support, tips & tricks, and ideas that can be useful to you regardless of the type of blog you’re writing. One such site that frequently e-mails topic ideas to its members is Red Room. You’ll also find a lot of expert advice and inspiring materials by your fellow writers all over the site. Sometimes the best weapon you have in your writing arsenal is the support of fellow writers, who are all going through the same process as you.
3. Pay Attention to Experts
Expert bloggers are an invaluable resource for novice and seasoned bloggers alike. Usually when an expert has something to say, it’s something worth reading, and it’s almost guaranteed to give you ideas and guidance to steer you towards better blogging practices. Trust those who’ve been around the block to teach you what you need to know to follow in their footsteps. One such writer with excellent advice is Anne Wayman of About Freelance Writing. Bonus: she frequently posts extensive lists of jobs for writers and bloggers.
2. Don’t Ignore Social Bookmarking
You want traffic. Would you talk to an empty room? Probably not. So why write if there’s no audience? One of the best ways to drive in traffic is social bookmarking – like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, Yahoo! Buzz, and Facebook. Most blogs come with plugins that give you the ability to easily submit your posts to one or more of these networks with the click of a button. Be sure to enable any such plugin or widget, or install one if it doesn’t come standard. The more your URL is spread through these bookmarking sites, the greater the chance that people will visit and, in turn, spread the buzz by social bookmarking your posts, too.
1. Plan an Editorial Calendar
Even if you’re using your blog for personal purposes, it’s worth planning what you’re going to publish when. This is key to ensuring that you write regularly, which is just good practice – it keeps you sharp, and it builds your blog’s profile. An editorial calendar is just a calendar of topics. On Monday, you’ll write about X topic. On Tuesday, you’ll write about Y and Z. And so forth. It’s a fantastic way to stay organized and I highly recommend never blogging without one, no matter what the goal of your blog may be.
Don’t miss Top 10 Reasons to Start a Blog here at IndyPosted, too!
From IndyPosted published on Aug 15 2010