If you’re hesitant about starting your blog – you tell yourself you’ll start a blog when you find the perfect topic, or the perfect WordPress theme – or (fill in your own excuse here) – this article will help you to get started.
Once you’ve been blogging for a month, you’ll be a much more confident blogger. So here are six tips for sailing through your first month of blogging:
1. Keep your blog’s focus in mind
It’s easy to lose focus on a blog. Perhaps your blog’s topic is “golf”. You write a couple of posts about golf, but then you write a post about a trip you took on the weekend, and don’t mention golf at all.
On an established blog that’s a year or two old, the occasional off-topic post doesn’t matter, because you’re established in the search engines, and you have readers. On a new blog however, stick to your topic: meet your readers’ expectations, so that they’ll subscribe to your RSS feed.
2. Write your first ten posts before you start marketing your blog
A new blog is like an empty house. There’s nothing to see or read. Write at least ten posts before you start promoting your blog.
3. Get your readers involved – write posts which invite comments
Write a post which asks your readers to leave comments – to share their story. This gets your readers involved.
4. Share yourself and your blogging inspiration
Your first few posts are “getting to know you” posts. You can leap right into your topic, or you can share some information about yourself, and why you’re blogging.
You still need an “About” page, however. Write your About page so that readers can orient themselves.
5. Write a series
Series of blog posts on a topic help you to write, because you know what you’re going to write about. Outline the series in a post first, then write each post in the series. Wrap up the series with a post which links to each individual post.
6. Get subscribers to your RSS feed
Encourage your readers to subscribe. The more subscribers you have the better. Since many of your readers won’t know how to subscribe, write a post showing them how to do it.
So there you have five tips for your first month of blogging. Since you now have no excuse, get started!
