Getting Started With A Blog

This post was written for Brazen Careerist's bi-weekly Community Newsletter, Mid-September Edition. If you would like to be a featured contributor in one of our upcoming newsletters let us know by contacting our Community Manager through a Private Message. If you would like to receive our next issue, join the Community and it will be automatically delivered to your inbox.

It seems like everywhere you go these days, whether on the web or in your local grocer, you hear about blogs. It is true that there are many of them out there, about 112.8 million according to Technorati and more starting up every day. So what is the deal with blogging anyway, and how do you go about starting one?

First of all, do not reinvent the wheel. There are so many resources out there that beginning a blog as become as easy as typing the word blog into a Google search. When you do that you are immediately overwhelmed by the massive number of responses. So to make things easier, let’s take a step back.

First, what is a blog? A blog is short for web log and is a type of web page that operates by pushing the mist current content or posts to the top, what we call sticky posting. Although blogs began as mostly online journals and topic specific forums for groups of users, they have expanded to be so much more. Now a blog can be just about whatever you want it to be. There are people who blog just blog because they enjoy writing. There are those who cover a specific niche or topic. There are journalists and celebrity personalities that help the rest of us keep up to date depending on what you consider “news”. There are others who use them to keep up with family, friends and peers within their profession. Then there are bloggers such as Penelope Trunk or Darren Rowse who are in business for themselves and even make a substantial living off their blogs. But let’s hold off on that for now.

The first thing to do is to choose a blog host. I began on Blogger, which is a free service and was fine for all intents and purposes. It is a good place to cut your teeth if you are just getting started since it is pretty intuitive and has one-click capabilities for adding on extras. As I grew and began to come into my own as a blogger (after about three years) I began the process that I am in now of migrating to Wordpress, which also allows free hosting but has a few more features than blogger and allows the user a little more freedom over customization. There are others out there but it has been my experience that these are two of the easiest to get started with.

So you log on to a host, create an account and you are ready to blog. If you can set up an email account you can set up a blogger account. So think you are ready? At this point you may wonder what you should write about. And the answer is ANYTHING. A blog is your creative outlet. Your purpose for blogging is completely up to you so if you are passionate about say, songbirds and backyard wildlife, write about that. If you are one of those fashionistas who scour fashion mags from cover to cover, then you may want to write about where you can dress like a New York City model, but for half the price. Your content is up to you. What is important is that you choose a topic or group of topics that you won’t run out of ideas about within a month. Second, think quality over quantity. You don’t have to write every day, but you do want to post with enough frequency and on a regular schedule so that your readers will come to expect your posts as part of their daily or weekly routine. Consistency is extremely important in developing readership.

Ok, so you have a blog, a great idea and even a post or two under your belt. Now what? It is time to promote and network. Add a link to your email signature, talk it up on Facebook and MySpace and always add a post on Twitter when you have a new blog post. Start searching around either through friends and family or through your online networks and professional peers to see if there are those who may have a similar mindset and may want to help you promote your blog. The worst anyone can do is say no. Hook into online networks such as Brazen Careerist and see who may be talking about your subject matter. Engage in conversations and follow their blogs. You’d be amazed at what a little interaction can do for your traffic.

The primary thing to remember about blogging is that it should not be a chore. If you wake up groaning about having to post or stress constantly about what to post, then blogging may not be for you, and that is alright. Do what you love, what you are passionate about, and remember that the online world is a lot more helpful then you may think. There are always people willing to help and give feedback if you only ask.