The single fastest growing segment of the Internet is blogs. With a quick search you can find a blog that focuses on just about any topic, from making money online to mixed martial arts all the way to maintaining aquariums. Everyday hundreds of people join the Blogosphere and most of the new bloggers will become disheartened and quit blogging in short order.This 4 part blog series is intended to aid the new blogger in setting up and designing a blog that will be successful and unique. The 4 parts will be 1. Getting Started, 2. The Set Up, 3. Customization, and 4. Branding and Advertising
Building a Blog
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PART 1 – Planning
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 When starting a blog planning is essential to success. A potential blogger must first ask themselves 3 questions, and the answers to these questions will help build a long term success plan. Write the questions down and answer them.
The first question a potential blogger must ask their self is “why do I want to start a blog?” Do you want to start a blog to make money? Do you want to start a blog to share your opinion? Is your blog going to be your artistic outlet to the world?
Next question is “What subject do I want to write about?” Finding a niche to write about is important. Blogs that discuss anything and everything are very rarely successful. It is important to have focus and it is important to keep your blog in focus.
Now that you know why you are starting the blog and what niche you are going to blog about “What am I going to write about in this niche?”
Finaly, “What is going to make my blog unique?” There are tons of blogs on the Internet right now, what is going to make yours unique?
Now that you have these questions answered it is time to put the answers to work to build a plan. I will give an example of a blog I built for a specific subject that has become quite popular in its niche.
Here where my answers:
Why do I want to start a blog: To share my experiences traveling around Florida.
What subject do I want to write about: Florida Travel
What will I write about: My personal experiences traveling around Florida on the weekends.
What will make my blog unique: Personal experience with recommendations and reviews that are not sales pitches.
I sat down with the information above and built a plan around them. I already travel around Florida on the weekends so that part of the plan was covered, but I planned to document everything I did, review places I went, and share my opinion on everything I did.
The blog has focus and is unique in the travel related blog niche. Now using the same 4 questions I answered sit down and formulate a plan for you blog. In the next part of this blog series we will discuss setting up the actual blog.
Comments and suggestions are welcome! |
