So, You Wanna Start a Blog? First Step: Your Vision
As a mom-blogger, I often get questions and emails about how to start a blog. I am working on something special for my book reviews, so in the meantime I thought I would start a Friday series on MamaBloo that deals with just that. How to start a mom blog or, really, ANY blog!
The first step in creating your vision to have a niche. But I figure if you are considering starting a blog, you may already have a niche in mind. Here are a few to check out:
Photography: Christiana ChildersScrapbooking and Life: Ali Edwards
Life Coaching and Creativity: Christine Kane
Recipes: Ryn’s Recipes
Mom Blogs: Mama Om, Mom 101
And the BIGGIES… I mean the I-Feed-My-Family-With-My-Blog superstars: Dooce and Pioneer Woman. But if you are still wrestling with this, think about what you love — like crafts, cooking, photography, fixing things. Or what you are good at – like teaching, organization, gardening, decorating. Or what you are passionate about — like organic living, living green, a sports team. Or what your life looks like — living in a different country, being a mom, balancing work and home. I think there is an audience out there for anyone or anything. It is even better if you can narrow your niche down. Instead of gardening, perhaps blog about organic gardening, or landscaping. Instead of cooking, focus on baking, or entertaining. I really don’t think that a narrow focus is required to blog, but you may want to consider focusing. So, once you have your niche in mind and you are ready to move on, it is time to move to the next step, RESEARCH.
The next step in creating your vision is really to research and then go do some more research. Now, I know I am a bit of a research freak. I love it. I really do. But I do think this is really important to getting started with a blog. You should go visit as many blogs as you possibly can. Try and search blogs that are in the category you want to write about: food, photography, mommy, cocktails, decorating, humor, crafting. There are thousands of blogs out there to check out. See what other people are doing and what seems to work and what doesn’t. Usually one blog on recipes or photography will lead you to another and so on, so you don’t need to worry too much about finding blogs to check out.
You will want to get a visual in your head (or on paper) of what you want your blog to LOOK LIKE and even focus on what FEATURES you will want to include. Things to check out are:
Color schemes and designs you like. Bloggerss give credit to their designers or their templates. Make a list of the ones you like. Mine is Hanami for WordPress. Also, whether you use a service like blogger or you pay to have your blog hosted will change what design options are available.
Styles. Do you like simple? Whimsical? Sophisticated? Do you want your typeface to be in black or white? What logos work for you?
Features. Look at the sidebars and what people are including in their blogs. Most have a blogroll — or links to other blogs. Also, look at buttons, ad space, and subscription options. Also, do you want to include photographs? Blog Frog? Linked Within? The list is endless.
Sidebars. Do you want two or three? Where?
Content. Read a bunch of blogs in your niche. Notice how many people are commenting (which, by the way is only a small percentage of how many visitors are reading the article). Which articles jump out to you and why. Think about your content.
Audience. Who will you be talking to out there? Adults? Moms? Christians? Who? Think about who the readers are to the sites you like and how they match up with yours. Think about how you might want to reach them.
The list can go on and on. Work at formulating a vision of all the parts of your blog — design, features, and content. Set aside some TIME to do this. Try to articulate to yourself what you like and what you don’t. And most of all, STAY POSITIVE while you do this. The temptation will be to say…” I can’t do this! No one will read my blog! It is overwhelming!” But ignore this voice, because it isn’t the voice of truth. If you are interested in blogging, you should do it. Really.
Remember the above categories are for checking out. I will go into much more detail in later entries on how to deal with each of these ideas/categories when you actually begin to implement your vision. So, first step, come up with a vision!
Stay Tuned for Future Blogging Tips: ”Your Handle” and “To Host or Not to Host”
