How to Start my Blog?

2010

A couple weeks passed since the relaunch of www.benumea.com and the next step is to jump start my Blog. I thought it would be a nice touch to start it with tips on, precisely, how to start a blog.

Unfortunately, most of the guides you can find in Internet are about the concept of a blog and about the technical aspect of a blog, but not really about the essence of a blog. Let´s say it this way: Creating a blog is not the same as a blog worth creating.

Anyway, I looked around and compiled a list of the 7 tips that I personally found more important to apply to my blog.

1)Why are you blogging?
Why are you going to take all the trouble and effort to create a blog? The answer to this question is what will really define your blog, much more than the content, platform or frequency. So, even if you’re blogging for personal or professional reasons, for your family, blogging for money, friends, acknowledgement, or simply to kill some time, when you have defined why are you doing it, everything else will just come on its own.

Personally, I want to blog for 3 reasons:
- I want to leave some professional online track.
- I like to opine and listen to opinions.
- I’m a geek! I love Internet.
2)Define your topic
One that you defined that, the topic is simple. The best advice would be the same about choosing your career: Follow your passion.
That’s the only way you’ll keep your Blog updated, but more importantly, interesting, alive. With readers who will eventually become participants.

In my case, I am passionate about 3 things (professionally speaking, of course):
- IT consulting
- Training
- New technology usefulness.
3)Pick a platform.
That´s the next logical step, but not at all the most important. There is an humongous variety of alternatives to blog, with free blogs being the obvious highlights. Blogger and Wordpress rise above the others, but really, any is as good as the other one. Whatever fits your bubble.

For my blog, I decided Mac´s mobileme service, just because I could I use full iWeb´s functionality. And since my intention wasn’t to start a blog, but rather add a blog to my webpage... well, I wanted the same service to included both.
4)Write, write, write.
I’ve seen this advice several times: simply write. Whenever you have an idea, whenever you have no ideas. When you have the perfect post, when you have time. Stay within the limits, but feel free to drastically change your topic momentarily for one post.

I have several ideas to post, however my time is limited. I made a list for starters, but only God knows how long will be before I can actually write these posts:
- Consulting: Tips to be an effective consultant, the difference between a consultant and a contractor, how to transform an unhappy client into a convinced client, how to react to difficult situations at work...
- Training: The eternal discussion of online training vs Instructor Led training, tips to get better as an instructor. Neurolinguistic programming, learn to teach, teach to learn.
5)Market your blog
Some recommend to have an advertisement strategy that includes all social media (Facebook, Twitter, mySpace); sending emails with every new post; use viral content. Use your network (as in, the people you know... not talking about an ISP here). Maybe even pay for google Ad.
I believe the first point I mentioned comes into play here, once again. What is your objective? Anyway, don’t market your blog until it has matured into something that is worth promoting.

I’m just starting, so I’ll skip on this step for a while. I want to write several articles and improve the quality of my posts before thinking on this. Anyway I’d say that in Today’s age, google will find me faster than you can say Hypertext Transfer Protocol. And some readers will pop in. I’ll just let the content drive my audience. And maybe the only action I’ll take will be to leave the link to my blog in my username, when posting in someone else’s blog.

One additional point here: The name is kind of important... but I haven’t gotten one yet. I like “iMemo”, but the .com has been already taken... and I’m not sure about “AyMemo”. I’ll just put it in the back burner for now.
6)Patience and Persistence.
A blog gives you the ability to immediately interact with your readers. It doesn’t give you readers, though. When you have readers, they might not want to interact with you. Just go to Number 1 again. Why am I doing this? And think on a blog not as something you’ll have for 1 month or 1 year. Chances are it will outlive you. Remember, Internet forgets nothing. Which is good, maybe the post you write today about how you fix your macbook’s CD slot might come in handy for someone 4 years from now.
So, with that in mind, as yourself:
- Within 5 years, what I write today, will it help me or obstruct me on achieving my goal?
- Within 5 years, the frequency of my blog will get me the number of posts and readers I would want?

5 years might seem a long time. But time flies.
Besides, several readers and good content might be part in your blog not that far from now. Just keep your purpose in mind, and every post will be just a tad more interesting and fun.

I bought my domain about 10 years ago. And time just passed by, and didn’t invest the time I would’ve liked to in it. Today I feel in better shape, and I think this time will actually be more feasible. Not because I have more time, but actually I have a better view of what I want.

7) Enjoy!
I wrote it at the end, but this is the single most important thing. You need to enjoy what you are doing, otherwise it will be much more painful than beneficial.
- Do you like to write? (Even if you are not good at it)
- Do you like to share your knowledge, thoughts, actions? (Even if you have no audience)
- Do you like to talk about your hobbies and your life? (Even if you are giving up some privacy)
- Can you handle criticism? (some constructive, some very negative?)

Honestly, at first your posts will be boring, too long and too detailed. And then some will be short, useless and worthless.
At first nobody will read your blog. When someone reads it, they won’t comment. When they comment, it won’t be nice.
At first you’ll share more private information than most people believe it is safe. People will even advise you to stop blogging, because apart from you not being good at it, nobody reads it and now any one can find out what color is your house and what you feed your cat.
And, face it, you’ll receive negative comments (and this won’t be just when you start). There’s always someone out there that knows more about the subject than you do, and lets you know about how you are terrible wrong. And you’ll find out your spelling and grammar is nowhere as good as you thought they were.

But all of this will help you grow. If you are willing to take the challenge, just do it. And enjoy it.

For the time being, I’m just using a recent life philosophy courtesy of Toyota:

If something in your life is stopping you, imagine you are in a Prius, and you can’t help but accelerate.
Don’t yell, don’t panic. Simply, enjoy the ride.

Some links:

23 questions to find out if Blogging is right for you:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/14/is-a-blog-right-for-you/