Taking what’s in your head and creating a blog from it isn’t always easy. However, this can be something you can use to connect to the world, market a business, express your opinion or for many other things. Blogging is incredibly popular, but it’s also time consuming. There’s a good way to create and manage your blog and a bad way. Today, we will cover both.
The Bad Way to Blog
Creating a blog on a free platform isn’t exactly bad, but it can cause some time consuming issues in the future. If you start with a free platform, such as Blogger, Weebly or one of the many others, you may need to move from that platform to a self-hosted one later on. We recommend you start with a self-hosted option allowing you to use WordPress, such as any of the choices from our top ten hosting list.
A free platform does give you a place to get started, but your limited with the options you can use for design and functionality. With WordPress, you can add and subtract whatever you need and since it’s an open source program, you get to use it free of charge, provided you choose a hosting company offering WordPress.
Blogging Without a Purpose
Another very common thing seen with those creating a blog is doing so without a purpose. This fits under the bad way to blog because it’s blogging with the diary effect. You can keep your diary and put it under your mattress or lock it away in a drawer, but it doesn’t belong on a blog. Blogging without a purpose or a goal won’t help you find the success you’re looking for.
Blogging about a trip you take, landmarks you visit and things of that nature is a great purpose. However, turning it into an actual diary with your deep, dark secrets is a bad idea. There are things to share and things to keep private. Make sure you choose a purpose, whether it’s to market your business, share your thoughts about a sport, teach something or any other reason filled with direction.
The Good Way to Blog
Creating and managing your blog with purpose, on the right platform, is just the start to the good way to blog. Blogging requires a certain amount of dedication, whether it’s an hour a week or ten hours a week. Your purpose and goals will help to determine the amount of time you invest, but it needs to be consistent.
One of the major reasons blogs never gain traction is due to a lack of commitment. If you get started with your blog and you decide to take a month away, you could struggle to keep and find visitors. This doesn’t mean you can’t take a vacation, but part of managing a blog is scheduling posts to go live while you’re not blogging. You need regular content to be successful and this is part of managing your blog the right way.
Taking it a little further, you will need to invest money along the way. It starts with a hosting account allowing you to use WordPress and moves into paying for a custom theme and plugins. You might not invest much, at first, but as your blog begins to see some success, it will need you to water it, just like a plant. You may need to upgrade free plugins and your hosting to reach the next level.
Blogging with a Business Plan
Even those not looking to use their blog for any type of business, need a business plan. Putting together a full plan of how you want to release content, subject matter, marketing, connecting with social networking and the many other parts of blogging, will serve you well. Most successful blogs started with a plan and the owner followed that plan until they started to see success.
Of course, you can adjust your plan along the way, but you need to start with a plan. Once you have the plan in place, you need to follow it. Those failing with blogging typically don’t start with a plan or they stop using it after a few weeks. Design your plan, adjust it along the way, but continually follow the plan until you reach your goals.
Our Recommendations
Taking your blog to the next level or starting it for the first time, requires help. We are here to help with plenty of posts about blogging, which you can read later. Right now, just concentrate on our list of recommendations below:
- Choose a hosting company offering One-click WordPress (any of the top ten on our site will work)
- Buy a domain name or use the free one you get with your hosting
- Install WordPress on your domain name
- Find and purchase a premium WordPress theme you like
- Research different plugins to use for your blog
- Install all plugins and complete your blog design
- Create your content and marketing plan
- Start Blogging!
Tags: blogging, creating a blog, how to blog