If you've recently decided to start your own blog, I highly suggest you decide on these important things before you start blogging.
1. Decide If Blogging Is Really Something You Want To Do
If you've ever read an income report from a successful blogger before, you'll know that can be tempting enough for you to try and start your own blog. And that's alright, we all want to be successful people, we want to achieve something in life no matter how big or small it is.
But, if income reports from certain successful bloggers are your only inspiration, then that will be the biggest factor responsible for your blogs stagnant growth.
Blogging takes time, it takes patience and a lot of it, there is no instant gratification when it comes to blogging. So thinking carefully about whether blogging is something that suits you, interests you and is something you can be passionate about for a long time.
2. What Kind Of Blogger You Want To Be
In the blogosphere, there are many types of bloggers. Some people blog only as a hobby and some are part-time and/or full-time bloggers. From the moment you decide you want to be blogging, you should also decide the kind of blogger you want to be.
What I mean is, you should be asking yourself these two questions:
- Am I planning to blog full-time? (You should have a very solid plan for taking up this option.)
- Or am I planning to blog part-time? (I recommend this, later you can be full-time if your blog grows.)
If you're just starting out as a blogger, I strongly suggest you do it part-time, this will help you figure out whether you're going to be able to keep up with blogging or if the lifestyle suits you.
3. Decide If You Are Going To Blog As A Hobby Only
This probably means you'll be spending less than 3 hours per week working on your blog. If you think you only want to blog as a hobby, you're better off with a Tumblr or Wordpress Blog, or for that matter any blogging site that lets you blog for free.
If you've decided to start blogging only as a hobby, you're not alone. There are many bloggers out there that don't give a damn about blogging for profit.
However, if you would like to keep the option of making money from your blog then this is a decision you should take before you start your blog.
4. Decide What Your Blog Will Be About
This is what most people generally term as the "niche" of your blog. In simple words, you need to figure out what you will be writing about.
Knowing what your blog is going to be about can help you:
- People will start to associate you with what you write about.
- Your blog's niche will determine who your target audience is and who will read your blog.
- Once you know "who" your people are you can try to solve their problems one by one through the medium of your blog and become a successful blogger.
- Over time, and with consistent effort you'll be the go-to person for your niche. People will trust your verdict.
Alternatively, if you want to go for a blog which blogs about a little bit of everything then that decision should also be made before you start blogging.
5. Decide If You Want To Make Money Blogging
I prefer using the terms professional blogging or profitable blogging. But the idea is that you need to decide if you ever want to make money from your blog.
Even if you're starting a blog only as a part-time or weekend thing, you still need to decide if you'll ever be wanting to make any money off of it. Because the moment you decide you want to monetize your blog you'll have to plan your blog accordingly.
Making money from your blog is possible, but it takes careful planning and execution, so know what you're up for.
6. Decide Whether Your Blog Will Be Self-Hosted
I can't tell you how many "how to start a blog" posts I've read that immediately throw the "get a self-hosted site" on you when they are telling beginners how to start and set up a blog.
You know what, that should be your decision!
Think about a newbie blogger who just wants to blog for fun, reads up one of those tutorials and ends up paying yearly fees and what not to start a blog because that article told him/her to do so. That's just so misguiding!
Blogging can be entirely free, partially free and fully paid depending on what a person chooses is best for his blog:
- Entirely Free: Using popular blog creation site like Blogger or Wordpress etc.
- Partially Free: Using a free hosting service like Blogger or Wordpress but using your own custom domain name
- Fully Paid: Buying a custom domain name, buying hosting, buying a premium theme for your blog, hiring content writers, using paid campaign to bring around traffic etc.
I wrote about the differences between using Blogger and WordPress for blogging, which a person who uses a blog for journaling his/her thoughts, writing about hobbies, and personal musings should opt for.
7. Decide How Often You Will Be Able To Post On Your Blog
Starting a blog is the easy part, running a blog is what will take most of your energy and free time.
Depending upon the amount of time you can set aside each day, week, and month you should be making a schedule of how often you want to post on your blog.
Neil Patel from QuickSprout wishes he knew that consistency would be the key to building a successful blog before he started to blog. [Tweet This]
So whether you decide to blog every day, every alternate day, once a week, once every fifteen days, so on so forth is up to you.
But deciding on it is important so that you can effectively and efficiently manage your time and your blog.
8. Decide On The Theme Of Your Blog
No matter what platform you choose to blog on, you will need a design. This design is what is called your blog's theme.
- You want to decide on whether you want to use a paid or a free theme for your blog.
- You want to decide what type of a theme you want, floral, vintage, modern, black and white, minimalistic etc. since there are a lot of options to choose from, deciding this from the beginning will help you in branding yourself in a better way.
I've personally used Designer Blogs and my current theme is from Fearne Creative Designs and I liked both their works so you can give them a try if you're looking for paid themes.
9. Decide What Pages and Categories You Will Have On Your Blog
Say what? That's right, I'm telling you to decide the pages you're going to have on your blog, and the categories as well.
Here's why:
- If you are getting a custom design for your blog, your designer will need you to tell them this information.
- Knowing what categories you will write on will help you decide on what you are most interested in writing on.
- It will keep you from going off-track with your blog. In case you're into fashion blogging a smartphone review is not something you want to write about and your categories should remind you of that.
I also suggest having these pages on your blog for your audience to connect with you better:
- About
- Contact
And also consider adding some specific pages to your blog, where necessary. For example: If you're a freelance writer who blogs as well, having a Hire Me page is a good thing. Just like I do ;)
10. Decide On The Layout Of Your Blog
Whether you want a two-column layout, three column layout, or something different entirely this is the time to take that decision.
If you want your blog to look like a blog, or have a landing page where you collect e-mails etc. are all things you should think about before you start blogging.
I personally prefer the blog style two-columned layout where it's easy for my readers to be able to easily locate the information they want.
For example: If my readers want to follow my blog, they can do it through Bloglovin' or by Putting in their e-mail, this is a functionality I chose to give my readers so that can read what I write no matter where they are and what they are doing. They don't have to visit my blog daily to see If I've written anything new, they can just check in their inbox.
So deciding on these little things is really important for your blog to look and feel they way you and your readers would want.
11. Decide What Social Networks You're Going To Use For Generating Awareness For Your Blog
This is the phase in which you're taking baby steps towards setting up a blog since your blog is going to be very new, you're going to need something that will help you get noticed.
What better way is there to do that other than going social?
But managing a social schedule along with blogging will quickly become overwhelming if you're a one man/woman army. So until and unless you have a team of people with you, I suggest you stick to a few social networks.
I would recommend Google+, Facebook, and Twitter in the beginning and if you want to choose only one, for the time being, go with Google+ as the number of +1's you get on Google+ will boost your SEO. [Tweet This]
Nevertheless, Facebook and Twitter shares were also a google ranking factor as of 2014. [Tweet This]
12. Decide On A Social Media Strategy
Once you've decided what social media platform to use for generating awareness about your blog, you'll need a social media strategy to back you up and help you do that.
Without an effective social media strategy, your page views could take forever to grow to the point where you want them to be.
I've personally used Holly's Twitter Schedule and it has given me great results. And I promise you her schedule works!
I'm not on Google+ or Facebook yet, but these are the strategies you can use for growing your social media accounts:
Is there any decision you'd like to add to this list? Let me know what you're thinking!
Happy Blogging :)
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