Nowadays, don’t you feel that everyone seems to be blogging? Yet, you feel bad for nothing having started your own blog…right?
Before you do, consider doing the following things just like how I did when I decided to launch my personal blog passionTribe.com.
Trust me, it will save you time!
1. Choose a Blog Topic That Excites You
People believe that creating a blog is difficult. Honestly, it’s not. Technology made things much easier. The challenge is finding a topic to blog about consistently
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Before venturing into this world, you must select a topic you plan on writing about.
How do you come up with a topic? Well, I’m planning on writing about this subject soon but for now, you can consider your interests, experience, passions or skills. Write about something you actually enjoy doing because you don’t want to end up in a situation where the topic is no longer exciting to write about.
In my first blog, I decided to write about my daily life experiences, almost like a digital journal. What’s nice about having a journal is the fact that you can write about anything that comes to your mind. This allowed me to get some ideas out of my brain and be able to plan for my future topics.
For example, you can choose a topic to blog about such “Cats as Pets”. Let’s assume you plan on blogging about everything related to owning a cat.
2. Do Some Online Research About Your Topic
Since now you know what you’re going to blog about, you need to visit the most popular website on earth: Google.com and search for blogs about the same topic.
Visit each blog to see the look and feel. While you’re there, browse through their blog posts to learn more about what they’re writing about and the amount of engagement they’re getting from readers such as social shares or blog comments.
The goal here is for you to see if there’s interest about this topic. If no one is writing about it, then you need to ask yourself why? Could it be because there’s no interest about it (which is a bad thing) or no one has capitalized on this opportunity yet (which is a good thing).
If you simply want to blog about random stuff like a journal, then there’s really no need to search online for anything since your blog is going to be unique about you and your life.
Since we chose the topic of “Cats as pets”, do search on Google for other cat blogs. Here’s are some keywords you can search for:
- “cat blog”
- “cat lovers blog”
- “cat pet owners blog”
3. Analyze The Top 5 Blogs Within Your Topic / Industry
Select 5 of the top blogs you discovered after doing a search on Google by choosing the ones that seem to be the most active. Here are 4 things you can consider when choosing them without being too technical.
- How many posts are published weekly? The more the better.
- How many comments from readers do they get on their posts?
- Evaluate their social media presence. For example, see how active they are on Facebook.
- Find out when was the blog created. The longer, the better.
4. How Will You Benefit From Blogging?
Now that you know what you’re going to blog about and who’s already blogging about this topic, you need to ask yourself how will you benefit from your writing efforts.
- Are you doing it for fun?
- Are you trying to promote yourself as an expert?
- Do you want people to hire you as a speaker?
- Do you want to promote your book?
- Are you trying to get customers to hire your services?
- Is it part of a movement or cause?
- (Business) Are you trying to get other companies to purchase your products or services?
You really need to know how you’re going to benefit from all of this or else, you will need some sort of motivation to keep you going. Keep in mind that results from your blogging efforts will take time and you shouldn’t expect them to appear right away unless you already have an established network of your target audience (Facebook fans, email list).
Back to our cat blog, the benefit could be simply to sell your cat supplies, books, videos or promote a local directory for cat related services. Let’s say you offer cat services for pet owners, you can use your blog to drive customers to your cat business.
5. What Is it About Your Topic That Makes You Passionate
What makes you so unique that people will benefit more from your blog than any other? Being passionate about your topic is key for long-term blogging success.
Ask yourself, why should people read your content?
- You have years of experience?
- You already teach/train people about that topic?
- You have a diploma or certified?
- You sell products or services within this industry?
For example, people will want to read your blog about owning a cat since you state that you’re a veterinarian and you’ve owned 15 cats so far. You have the experience in dealing with all the challenges that come with owning a cat. You have the credibility and experience and that will help you differentiate yourself from other bloggers within your space.
6. Evaluate Your Commitment to Blogging (VERY IMPORTANT)
Finally, you need to ask yourself this important question: Are you will to commit to your blog?
It’s great that you want to have a personal blog but are you willing to put the time in writing posts, promoting your content & engaging with readers?
I spend around 5-8 hours a week on my own blogs. Everyone is different especially when you consider the type of content we write about and the length of our blog posts.
If you simply want to launch a simple journal style of a personal blog, consider putting it 2-3 hours a week at least.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, I’m not a good writer but using my blogging journey as a way for me to improve on it. Blogging allows me to relax and unload my brain. I love the fact that I’m able to help others with my content and that really makes me feel good.
