Perhaps you are already a blogger, perhaps not. If you blog, your blog may be one of the most read blogs on the web or perhaps it is just for you or for your family. In any case, blogging is a commitment. Someone or many may follow your blog with expectations that you may not even know about or understand.
Therefore, how do you approach starting a blog or what the content should be in a blog? There are a series of fundamental questions to ask yourself.
The first question should be whether you are willing to make a commitment to blogging? Blogging is not like a personal diary or journal. When you have a diary or a journal you can just stop and you disappoint no one. While you may have the option not to post or to disband a blog, there is always someone on the web who may be disappointed to not find a post or your blog.
The second question you should ask yourself is why are you starting a blog or writing on a topic? Are you starting it because you want to have the opportunity to explore a particular topic and receive feedback? Perhaps your rationale is simply that almost everyone you respect has a blog. Perhaps, you believe that it is necessary to raise your credibility from a professional viewpoint. Perhaps you think that it will drive traffic to your company. Perhaps you are frustrated with a company or a product, and want to discuss that publicly. Perhaps you have a deep interest in a subject or a philosophy, etc. If you know what the driver is, then you can set your personal expectations about how often to blog accordingly.
Assuming you are committed to blogging and understand what is driving you to blog, the next step is to determine is the mechanics. Perhaps you want to post on someone else’s blog. Perhaps you want to start your own blog or a second blog, etc. If you start your own blog, you need to determine what you want the feel of your blog to be. You can decide the host, layout, colors, crispness, images in your blog, etc. There are a myriad of choices and they are all yours.
Another step is to determine what the content will be of each blog. You may want it to be all original thought. You may want to post a scholarly blog, replete with references, attributions, etc. You may want a combination. You may want to develop the content so that it can translate into a book or a personal or family historical record, or an adjunct to your business. You may decide that each blog you write does not have to have any relevance to any other blog in that site. Again, the choice is all yours.
Blogging is an interesting exercise in free expression. It permits the public exploration of ideas and thoughts and provides a brief glimpse into you as a person-what is important to you about that particular topic. Blogging gives you the opportunity to start a buzz and to be heard. If your heart is in it, you will be successful and it will not be a burden. Jump into it thoughtfully and enjoy the freedom that blogging affords.
What is your buzz about?
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