How to start your own blog (what to write about) |

Before you make your blog public, it is very important you have written a few articles so that when people visit your blog they can have something to look at, read and comment on. I made this mistake because when I launched my blog, I had only a few articles on it about what my family and friends thought about my decision to go to South Korea to teach English. Another mistake I made also was not writing often. Now that I have read avidly on the topic I realized the importance of doing these two things. You do not have to write everyday but try to write at least two posts a week. But before you can write, you want to ask yourself, what is the purpose of my blog?

What is the purpose of your blog?

This is a very important question to ask yourself because you do not want to write on too many topics. If you do your readers might lose interest. For example, my blog is about traveling, writing, money and blogging; I should not be writing articles about car repair because that is not what I say my blog is about. The only way I can squeeze in an article about that topic is only if in the course of my travel, a car breaks down and I had to repair it, but even then I would have to carefully word the article to make it relevant to the theme of my blog. So, before you start writing, narrow down your niche as much as possible. There is no right or wrong answer to this question however because you make your blog what it is. You also want to think about the most important thing before blogging. So, what is the most important thing when blogging?

Know what you are writing about before you write

The three most important things about blogging are

Love

Love what you are writing about because if you don’t, you are going to hit some rough spots and you are eventually going to give up blogging because it can be frustrating in the beginning when you are writing and no one is reading.But if you love what you are writing about and it is enriching to you, then it is going to be that much easier to keep going. Even seasoned bloggers can get discouraged but if you have a strong passion about what you blog on, it is easier to snap out of it and jump back on the horse if you love riding than if you do not. But if you ever fall-off the horse, there is a great article by master blogger Yaro Starak how to remain productive when you feel like giving up.
To help you understand how much passion you have for your topic of choice ask yourself these questions. Do you find yourself smiling or happy when you write on your topic? Do you write on your topic with no intention to publish it? Can you talk about your topic for a long time without getting tired of it? Can you write a thesis on your topic (just kidding)? If you can answer yes to the first three questions then your journey will be long and successful.

Smarts

People come to your blog because they feel like they can learn something from it. Try not to let them down. Knowledge on the topic you have decided to write about is essential. If you cannot think of forty to fifty article topics in 10 minutes when you think about your topic, then you might want to consider writing on something you know more about. Do you read other blogs that write on your topic? Do you read books about your topic? You should be nodding your head yes to these questions.

Consistency

I have talked about consistency a bit but it is too important not to emphasize. Write as often as you can. If you can write every day do it. If you can only write two, three or four times a week that is fine too; the key is to just write. But just writing is not enough, write great content for your readers. Do as much research as possible on the article topic before you write, but try not to write too much on what others have written about unless you can provide fresh and unique insight on the topic.

So, how many topics can I write on?

Well, that depends on what your interests are. But ask yourself, can I write on these topics consistently and not put too much emphasis on one and neglect the others? Have you heard the saying, a slave cannot serve two masters, he will despise one and love the other? But I tell you this, when it comes to blogging, you can serve two masters. The key is how you relate those two, three, or even four masters/topics/themes your blog is about to each other. But try not to be a renaissance man/woman otherwise your readers will not know what to expect with each article you publish. Readers are more likely to return if they know what to expect. If you cannot narrow down on your topic because you are the ultimate renaissance man/woman, consider using sub-domains.

I recommend

The best thing you can do about narrowing down on a main topic for a blog is to brainstorm. Then start by writing about the topic that interests you the most. When you have passion, smarts and love for what you blog about then you start to get a regular readership. The regular readers will eventually bring other readers and your traffic will start to grow. Then you can start monetizing that traffic; I will cover monetizing your blog on a later article.