Building a Blog

 

Whether you’re an author, business owner, speaker, singer, or anything in between, a blog can play an integral part of your brand.

You need a place to share new ideas with your clients and readers. You need a place to direct your social media accounts to and to offer a product or some sort of advice.

Before you dive in to the blogging world, there are some things you need to know.

 

Know Your Name.

The first thing you need for your blog is your name. This should be short, simple, and to the point. You want something that people will remember. This is what your whole brand will be built around. The easiest choice is your own name. This will eliminate any problems if, for some reason, your niche changes down the road.

 

Know Your Purpose.

Why are you blogging and who are you talking to? You need to know who your audience is and offer them something that no one else can. What is unique about you? What are you passionate about?

 

Know Your Competition.

A little competition can be helpful. Don’t look around at what other bloggers are doing to copy them. Watch what they’re doing to learn from them. What does their design look like and why does it work? What are they sharing on their Social Media platforms? What are they offering that keeps their readers coming back?

 

Know Your Commitment.

Take into account how much time you can invest into your blog. Have several posts ready to go before you launch to avoid writers block on day two. You’ll also want to stay consistent. If you know that you can’t offer more than 2 blog posts a week, then keep it that way. Your readers will get used to your routine and know what to expect from you.

Blogging is hard work. Not many bloggers become famous over night. It will take time, trials, errors, joy, and pain. Have patience. Keep going.

 

Know Who Owns You.

Before you launch, you need to know that you get what you pay for. There are some great free blogging sites that can help you get started. But, you need to remember that if you use free hosting, your blog is not your own. They can shut you down whenever they please. If you are considering keeping your blog around for the long haul, you will want to be self hosted. Starting out self hosted is much easier than transferring a blog down the road.

If you’re ready to launch your self hosted blog, you can see how to do it in less than 20 minutes over at TribeBloggers.com

 

What’s keeping you from starting your blog? If you already have one, what do you wish you knew before you started?

 

Corie is a wife and mom to 3 kiddos. She’s been blogging for 4 years and loves help people find their purpose and live it out. She blogs over at CorieClark.com and she helps bloggers build community at TribeBloggers.com