How to blog? Blogging isn’t rocket science. However, it does require a methodical approach right from the moment when you decide to setup a blog. In this post, I explain the key factors that would help you overcome the newbie blues and find a comprehensive answer to the “How to blog” question.
Do you need a blog?
Before you learn how to blog, the first step is to determine if you really need a blog. Whether you are an individual or a business, a blog must have a purpose. There’s no point in maintaining a blog just for the sake of it. In fact, dormant and stale blogs are worse than not having a blog.
Where do you host it?
The second important question to ask – where do you host your blog? In case, you are stuck in this dilemma, make sure you read this post: where to blog, which highlights the pros and cons of all major blogging platforms.
How do you blog?
There are a number of desktop blogging tools available. Alternatively, you can directly blog on the chosen platform using a browser.
How often should you blog?
There is no one size fits all approach which would define the optimal blogging frequency. It all depends on the context of your blog, the amount of information that you want to pass on to your readers and the number of authors participating on your blog.
How long should be your blog posts?
Like blog frequency, there’s no golden size for blog posts. Rather than a word count, you should focus on the overall flow and impact of your blog posts. As a thumb rule, blog posts below 300 word posts should be avoided – a lot of search engines don’t index them and it’s too restricted a limit to express anything meaningful.
What not to blog about?
I generally discourage people from blogging about personal grudges, bias without reason and negative reviews without any rhyme and reason. Of course, blogs are a means to express your opinion but it should not be used as a channel to launch a personal attack on individuals or organizations for no good reason.
How to promote your blog?
This is where the magic of social media and SEO comes in. Make sure you choose the right keywords from SEO perspective. Further, promote your blog actively via your social media presence – Facebook, Twitter and other leading social networks.
How to let users subscribe to your blog?
I strongly recommend publishing an RSS feed. The other alternative is to allow users to sign up for email blog posts but that approach has several limitations – not all email clients support HTML, email servers can blacklist your mails and classify it as junk etc. In contrast, RSS is proven to be an effective solution. With that said, if you are not encouraging your readers to subscribe to your blog and other resources via email already, start now!
Do you have a blog? If so, do you want to share any tips on how to blog? Please share your tips/ opinion by leaving a comment.
