Starting to blog

Starting to blog is one of the most fun things; I love setting up a new blog. I could lose a year tweaking a theme or playing with plugins but none of those are actually going to help me when it comes to writing the first post.

You may think, wrongly, like I did when I started blogging, that there is no room for what you have to say. Of course there is. You didn’t start your business or hobby by saying there are too many accountants… or too many quilters… or too many startups. You offer something unique in your business, it’s how you are known and now you are sharing that uniqueness in your blog.

A blog would need (in my experience) around 5 posts on it before it is launched to the world. So you can have 4 practice posts and one official post before you launch.

I would start with the 4 practise posts first. What are the four most common things when asked about your blog’s topic?

These posts are probably going to form the cornerstones of your blog, so start by explaining the problem. Assume nothing.

Example…

Writing those first few blog posts.

Writing the first few blog posts can be both challenging and exhilarating. Starting on the first post and choosing the title is one of the biggest steps you will take. The title could be a question, it could be a statement, it could be a teaser. The choice is yours, and it’s not set in stone. Unlike a book you can go back and edit the title after you have written the main content (in the body area of the blog post section).

I didn’t assume that the reader would know where the content actually goes and I explained that the title can be changed. Think of them as working titles, that they will be changed as you progress through writing your blog.

As I progress down the post I can give solutions to the problem that is described.

….One thing a lot of people worry about when blogging is that they are giving away their secrets and that they will not get any customers from their blog, as the customer will read that solution and do it themselves. Let me reassure you, the very few that take your advice and leave without a word… they are not your potential customers and never have been. You may know the theory of how your car’s engine works but when it breaks down you still call the AA.

Making your blog useful is a very rewarding part of blogging. I wrote a post a while back on Blogmistress about being useful in your blogging.

When you have finished your blog, you need to decide how to end it. Do you sign off? Put in a call to action?

I suspect for your first few blog posts you will just sign your name, as you build up your blogging you will slowly add your calls to action. Luckily blogs are editable after publishing and you can correct typos and add a call to action later.

Get writing! JDI

Sarah