Once you've got your spot picked out to blog (hopefully it's a self hosted site you own and control) you may find yourself staring at a blank screening wondering what to do next.
Don't worry about it...
this happens to everyone.
You've got some ideas and a concept on what you want to blog about but what is the first step? How do you start? There are four basic points to cover on this one to make your life easier and your blogging better.
Have a goal Before you really get into the task of writing posts and gaining an audience I want you to clearly define, on paper, what your goal for your new blog is.
Write it down.
Chances are you've got a goal already somewhere in the back of your mind but if you don't actually and clearly define it you'll never be able to reach it.
An undefined goal is unattainable and that gets frustrating.
You can define success for your blog in many ways: a big following, make a certain amount of money per month, get national recognition, to get a book deal or just to see the story about your cat trending on Google...
whatever it is define it so you can meet it.
Have a topic What are you talking about? You can have one topic or several or many just make sure you know what the main focus of the site is about.
You can have a narrow focus or a wide one...
doesn't matter just know what it is.
This may change over time however there has to be at least a vague sense of structure when you get started.
Have a target audience Who, exactly, are you talking to? This is different than your topic...
this is about your readers.
Over 80% of the US population, and over 60% of Europe, is on the Internet at least once every single day.
That's hundreds of millions of English-speaking people daily.
You can very specifically define who your blog content is for.
Simply aiming for "moms" or "people that like dogs" is very, very broad and you'll get lost in the shuffle.
Now, aiming for "single moms that have two kids" is better while "single moms that have two kids and live in the South" is fantastic.
Have time The Internet world is the same as the real world in some respects.
You'll get out of it what you put into it.
There is no magic pill that will guarantee you a huge audience (although there are plenty of people out there willing to sell you one).
Dedicate time to your blog to allow yourself to produce good work.
Be a reliable writer for your blog readers.
It's better to have one great post a week for 50 weeks than 20 okay posts for 4 weeks.
Take away Define how you will measure success, define your topic and define your target readers.
Then take the time to make it happen.
It's a ton of fun when you go into it set up for success.