Blogging Step One; What To Write About
Posted by Mitch on May 7, 2008
Before even starting a blog, you should take some time to decide what you want to write about. Many people come up with a quick idea, think it’s cool, and decide that’s where they want to go. But if you’re going to blog a long time, or if you have a purpose other than just ranting, you shouldn’t skip this step.
At the same time you’re thinking about what you want to write about, you also have to decide if you’re going to try to make any money off it by adding things such as Google’s Adsense, Shopping Ads, or any other affiliate or PPC (pay per click) types of ads. It’s an important decision because it helps you to determine whether you’re looking to write a fun blog, a business blog of some type, or a personal blog. If you’re going to use a blog more as a diary and you’re hoping to make money off it, the ads that come up probably won’t help you much.
So, say you want to write a business blog, and you’re a financial counselor; I’m going to use this one because I’ve seen this topic fail a lot. Think about how much you could write on a consistent basis on just that topic if it’s your business. Think about who you might be aiming your posts at. If you’re only looking to talk to people who might use your services and you’re trying to highlight your expertise, you might find yourself starting to struggle for something new to say pretty quickly.
However, let’s say that you want to do that, and talk about financial matters in general. If you’re ready to give your opinion on the status of the stock market, the price of oil, the trading of commodities, CEO compensation, or whatever the latest bit of news is that’s out there, now you’ve given yourself a chance to succeed for a long time because every day there’s something going on that’s fodder for your commentary. Broadening the area of the topic you want to focus on is a key to longevity.
I met a guy a few weeks ago who said he wanted to write a blog, but didn’t want to give opinions because he didn’t want to lead people one way or another. Blogs are either for opinions or dissemination of news; everything else ends up as articles, white papers or tech manuals. If you want people to consistently come to your blog, you have to not only give them information, but there has to be a level of entertainment. You have to be interesting; think about which teachers were your favorite in school. In history class, did you want a teacher who just gave you what came straight out of the book, or the teacher who would intersperse stories that helped bring situations and people to life (having fun memories of one particular history teacher right now)?
So, in review, decide what you want to write about, pick a topic that’s broad enough to give you enough to talk about for a long time, and be interesting. Oh yeah, one more thing; have fun with it, and think of it as fun, because if you think of it as work or as a necessity, you’ll crash and burn quickly. Even with business blogs, you’re allowed to be irreverent every once in awhile; I know I certainly am.
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Great advice Mitch.
One more thing I’d recommend before starting is doing keyword research and developing an seo strategy.
I did that prior to starting my blog, and it’s paying off for me.
That’s a good point, Larry. The only reason I didn’t mention it is that many people who might be thinking about starting a blog won’t know what either of those terms means, and why confuse people before they’ve even decided to start the process, right?
I believe that this step is so important that either we teach them how to do it, do it for them, or refer them to somebody who will.
Organic search engine traffic is so important. It’s targeted, and it’s essentially free.
I personally find seo one of the most enjoyable aspects of blogging. However, if somebody else doesn’t, I totally understand.
BTW, from your blogroll I see that we have a friend in common, the talented Ivo Jackson.
Yes, Ivo is a good person, and she’s really been networking well.
Actually, I think it depends on what someone decides they want to blog on is way more important than the SEO. In your case, you knew up front that you wanted to make money with your blog. If that’s not someone’s interest, and all they want to do is express their thoughts, then SEO means nothing to them.
For a new person, the harder you make the early process, the more likely they will be to not even want to start. Let’s get people writing first, then teach them the rest of it. We wouldn’t teach people how to use Word before we taught them how to turn on the computer after all.
Mitch, thanks for commenting on my post on RYZE, your blog has addressed the key elements to building a foundation for getting started. It’s just like building a house, once you pick out the property you decide on the structure and then you pick out the accessores ( to me SEO-KEYWORDS are the accessories for the house). It is important to drive traffic to a site, but for me I’d like to make sure my content is strong enough to keep people coming back because of the quality of the content because I have other sites/blogs I want them to visit as well. That’s just what works for me and it give me an opportunity to prepare and familiarize myself with blogging tips/techniques.
Thanks for coming by and leaving a message, Lukeither. First, I hope you also saw the rest of the series. Second, your point about the content is spot on, though you can also have fun from time to time. Personality counts a lot.