Possible Things to Consider Before Starting a Blog…

Following on from my little “blurb” about blogs I decided to try and write something about what to consider when thinking about starting a Blog – but do remember that this is ONLY based on my own experience and that of those I have spoken with in my own social networking circles…

If you don’t agree with me – that’s fine and if it helps any – that’s brilliant!

So what did I do? The first thing I did was asked everyone that I knew what exactly a “Blog” was? Just because I design websites doesn’t mean I know everything – these were the most common answers I got back:

• It is a diary of someone’s thoughts and associated linkage
• A web log (blog for short), is a sort of journal that is published and available for all to see on the web and is kept up-to-date by the owner (also known as a blogger)
• A Blog is a fun guide to the bloggers life, it can develop a life and relationship of it’s own with its very own audience
• A Blog can be a useful business tool, set aside from the usual information you would find on a website and can provide and informal tool for everyday hints, tips and support that you can find free on the Internet

The next thing I did was to ask the very same people how they set it up, what software they used and how easy was it to use and do? Oh and how much time would I need to spend “blogging” most importantly.

The response for the software question was either “WordPress” – which funnily enough is the software I am using now – mainly because you can set it up free on the WordPress site initially and then when you become more confidant and you know what you are doing you can download it, install it and move it to your own hosting space.

The second answer I got was “I don’t actually know what it is called it came with my hosting package”, which didn’t help much but got a lot of information in that it told me that if you look hard enough at your hosting package you may find you already have the functionality there.

So was it easy to do? Most people I asked said once they understood the terminology and the differences between “feeds”, “posts” and knew what “moderating” was and how it happened, although most admitted that they didn’t realise this until it happened for the first time . They were okay. It was simply a case of following the prompts…

Most admitted that they had changed their styles of writing once they had gotten to grips with managing their blogs and had actually tailored the sorts of thing they had wanted to write into a more focused approach for the business.

Time was the issue for everyone though – everybody I spoke to said that they would love to write more but just couldn’t find the time… Everyone was putting in around 2hours a week on a half hourly basis and forgetting a couple of days due to work or family commitments and then having the moderation comments processed in their daily mail routines, with little or no feedback comments being posted.

Other Considerations which were posed to me by my friends/colleagues:

Have you got a thick skin?  Blogging is a public activity and the plain fact is that if you have a blog it will be found and read by others and whilst you are receiving positive comments and feedback this is all wonderful, but every now and again you will receive harsh or negative comments and criticisms either about your work, products, services and sometimes even yourself! You do need to have a bit of a thick skin and to be able to handle the criticism.

You will also have to consider whether you want to put yourself into the public eye, on the forefront of the blog – if not consider whether there is someone that you can submit this work to who will run a blog on your behalf.

Do you have staying power and are you consistent?   Most blogs need a long term approach to be moderately successful. There are but a few that are overnight successes. One of the main reasons for this is that people change their approach to writing and blogging too frequently.

I have been told that one common mistake is that the blogger will themselves lose interest but not quite lose the commitment and their writing style becomes boring and general;  their readers then lose interest and stop coming back for the updates!  Your audience comes to expect a certain standard and a certain quality – stick with it!

Are you organised?  In most bloggers lives there comes a point when it all gets a bit too much – email here, feeds there, work taking over and where has the time gone? The blog gets pushed to the back burner and the audience you had loses out a little.  This is all too common from the reading I have been doing lately on this topic – the common message that appears to be coming across is when you are organising your day why not include your blog in that organisation routine?   Add a little more time into your admin schedule again for reading the blog comments, emails and feeds etc… Set yourself one hour a week for blogging articles – either reading, writing or responding – possibly even networking with others.

Face-to Face or Online?  If you are more of a face to face person then you might want to consider Networking instead of blogging.   Blogging although you can engage and interact with your readers through comments and emails, unless you organise an event you rarely get to meet with them.  You do, however always have to be careful with developing an online relationship, for safety reasons things will not always be what they seem, remember never give out your personal or financial details online.  Developing an ability to figure out if people are who they say they are is a skill and very hard to come by online.

Very Important – Do you Enjoy Writing?  Blogs are written and are more often than not updated on an almost daily basis – I have seen blogs updated daily.  If you do not have a love for writing then this is potentially something that is not for you.

Do you have a Message to Communicate?  A blog without a message is like a newspaper with no news! You wouldn’t read it!  Think about the message you have to communicate to your target audience, do you have something to say? Often blogs contain people’s opinions and personal thoughts, or from the business point of view contain information about products,  support, technical information that may assist the users when configuring particular products or information guides like this one – aimed at helping users make informed decisions (hopefully!).

DO you HAVE a Target Audience?  Often people consider that if there is not an article, product or service “in the wild”, then it will be a good idea to write, develop/create or sell one – this is not always the case.  Do your research properly – sometimes there is a reason why there is a gap in the market; for example, this is a product or service that does not sell, is it something that has a high manufacturing cost; or something that simply people love the idea of but would not buy, even something that has been written about sooo many times there is not much left to say.  Try to make sure you have an audience – this does not just apply to Blogs but to web sites as well…

-oOo-

I have lots more to write about for both Websites and Blogs but for one day I think this is enough for anyone to take in and I am aware that I have a “natural” ability to waffle

So for now…. this is me signing off