Talking about Starting a Blog,
I'd put you through the basics and hopefully arm you for a future in blogging.
To begin, what exactly is blogging?
Blogging is the art of putting out write ups, photos, videos and other related media in a self-published manner on the internet. Blogging started as an opportunity for individuals to express themselves on the internet and today, we have audio blogs, video blogs (vlogs), basic writing and content blogs among others.
Now that we know what blogging is, what is a blog?
A blog is a regularly updated website or web page, run by an individual, company or group as the case may be. Now, I put the words "regularly updated" in bold because many people tend to say a blog is also a website. This is a big NO! Just like no two words in English means the same thing (only close synonyms), a blog can be synonymous to a website, but is actually not one. This distinctive feature of a blog from a website is the regular and styled update in content.
That said, we can proceed into the basics for starting a blog. To start a blog here are the basic things to consider.
1. Select your Niche
Your niche is a specific field of interest and that is exactly what you'd be blogging about. For example, I run multiple blogs and there is a specific niche for each. www.thenewman.org.ng is one of those blogs and it specifically focuses on Christian Lifestyle content as its niche. Your niche determines the kind of content you have to create and it can vary from business, law, technology, fashion, lifestyle, literature, family, relationships, parenting... mention anything.
Your niche is attached to the purpose of your blog and if you must make any sense out of blogging, you must settle scores rightly by choosing a good niche.
2. Find your audience
For an illustration, if you have beans and Mr A doesn't have (but needs it), it is only wise to offer him the beans (for a price or for free - as you choose). In the same way, if you create a blog
with the aim to *help people in relationships*, you have to look for your audience who will love what you blog about. You have to draw an audience target plan and see how you can make sure they visit your blog.
Also about this, I like to define Blogging as the art of creating content based on what you love in such a way that someone else (the blog reader) will fall in love with what you have put out. This can only work out fine if you work on your audience. You are not writing your blog for writing sake. Someone from somewhere definitely needs exactly what you are putting out. That person is your audience.
3. Identify your Platform
There are different blogging platforms that help people start out with their blogging career. They include Blogger, Wordpress, and wix.com among others. Now, the recommendation for me is based on many factors.
- Price - Blogger is less expensive than Wordpress. If you are considering money, use Blogger as you only get to pay a yearly renewal fee for as low as the initial purchasing cost of your domain name, that is, blog link e.g www.thenewman.org.ng
- Aesthetics - If you want beautiful designs and awesome, appealing themes, go premium for Wordpress
- Security - each platform has security in its own way. Google's Blogger is just fine for basic blogs. However, you can decide to use Wordpress too.
- Your Consistency
There are many other factors to consider when selecting a blogging platform, but these few are very constant in most cases. This leads to the final point for tonight as we round up.
Build Consistency
I want to believe that you have learnt many things about consistency at some point. You need this again here. As a blogger, you must determine to always show up in your blog posts, writing style and delivery. Your passion and consistency will also drive you to do much more at times.
If as a blogger, you make one post today and then go missing only to show up ten weeks later, you really are not taking blogging seriously. At the same time, you will lose your audience because people who want to read your blog will always visit and they will turn back when they find no new content. This is how far consistency can work.
These are just major basics to consider while taking steps to building a blog.
This article is a compilation of Nelson Vincent Ayomitunde's session at The Growth Network's Whatsapp Community. Nelson Vincent is a content creator and blogger at The New Man, a Christian blog
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