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This week i want to tackle the topic about blogging for my readers. The reason i write this post is because i have now received emails from at least 10 of my reader buddies asking me various questions on the blogging topic. I have answered these questions via email but last night when archiving my emails i realized that i could have a post series tackling the basics steps within the blogging world. Please note there are bloggers out there who are extremely gifted and have learnt the ins and outs of blogging. They are masters in their own right and some leading bloggers teach you how to blog step by step. I read some of their advise and improve myself when i run into problems as well. So don’t read this post thinking you have a long way ahead, if you want to blog you can too. It depends on your motivation factor, we all have to start somewhere. It’s a good start to analyze whether blogging is the way to go for you and your business. I feel who ever questions this and does some research is on the right path. There have been tons of articles that write and speak about blogging ,but as i write this blog i am sure somewhere in the world someone is still trying to figure out if blogging is the right step for their business. Without wasting any more time i shall attempt to answer this question in my own humble way.

Is a Blog right for you and your business?

Let’s both walk through some of the questions you need to ask yourself before spending your money, time and effort on this track. I love blogging as its an awesome way to create fresh online content and connect with your audience. Search engines love fresh content and hence blogs work on this front as well. While blogs are a great way to keep the momentum going, i would like to iterate the fact that blogs are not for everyone.

It depends on the purpose of what you want to achieve online. Before you go ahead and create a full fledged blog lets ask ourselves a few basic questions. Ready, grab a coffee and relax.

Firstly let’s understand what is a blog?

Here is a quick introduction video that you can watch to gain an understanding:

Time factor:

time

Image Credits: shiyazuni

Do you have at least 1.5 hrs a day to spare for this aspect of your business? If not, do you have a resource who can dedicate 1.5 hrs a day to create fresh, vibrant and informative content? If you need to create time for this task in your business, do you feel you can free up 1.5 hrs of your day?

Do you enjoy reading, writing or speaking:

Image Credits: John-Morgan

Fora blog to have momentum, you need to add value to your readers. This involves reading up on what’s happening in your industry, along with creating content that your audience would want to know about. Blogs involve a lot of writing or speaking. You need to ask yourself if you have the drive to do this, or would you be forcing yourself to do it? if you would be forcing yourself to write or speak to create content on your blog then don’t go ahead with the blog idea. instead wait and find a resource who loves researching, writing or speaking. Your blog depends on this question. Blogs can either be text based or they can be audio based such as podcast blogs or video blogs.

Information:

Image Credits: zerojay

Do you know what message you want your audience to learn about you. It’s no point setting up a blog and then realizing that you don’t have enough data to continue the momentum. So if you are a hair dresser, or a writer or a manufacturer, you need to plan at least 3 months in advance what topics you plan covering and whether you are comfortable to write about your niche. When i say information, this does not necessarily have to be educative information, it could be what’s the latest trends, or videos that you feel are great to share with your audience.

Being the voice of your brand:

This is a very tricky question, you could start a blog where you are solely the voice, or it could be your team contributing information on your blog. Your target audience will be connecting to a specific voice that they like. That’s the nature of blogging, you connect to the author. So if you start a blog where you are the voice, do you think you would have the momentum to keep your audience wanting for more? I have lost some of my readers in the past as i would constantly change focus, you will lose some of your readers as well, are you ok with this?, or is it going to pull you down? What if someone within your team stops wanting to write on the blog? how do you plan handling this issue? or would you feel comfortable to blog as a brand rather than an individual where the voice and style is a mix?

Structure and discipline:

Image Credits: Tom Coates

If you are not an organised person, then you can be sure that you are not magically going to be organised for this part of your business. That said and done how are you planning on creating a structure for your blog. Planning is important, if you fail here then it’s best not to venture into this space just yet.

Are you comfortable to voice out your views in the open:

Image Credits: inkshots

As humans we have been taught to have conversations with friends, one on one, a small group of people. Very few of us have moved to the next level where we speak to an audience. Are you willing to voice your opinion in your niche. it’s important to note that people will read through your blogs and get to know a part of you. So if you are planning on faking a personality, it may work for a short time but sooner or later it will flash out in the open. So be sure to ask yourself if you are willing to do the right thing for your niche.

Willingness to learn some technical aspects:

Image Credits: Tela Chhe

If you hate computers and working with web applications then you have a rough road against you. I would recommend that you clear this block as your blog is a web based application. here you will need to know how to add images, resize images for your blog, how to research keywords, how to add pages, these are simple tasks that can be learnt but you need to take that step. o take that step you need to be open to blocking out time to learn these tasks. if you have an issue you need to be able to search for answers.

Are you the serious types with no social skills:

Image Credits: Hassan & Mariko

Blogging can get to be stress full if your personality is the serious types. You need to be able to relax and take each day with a pinch of salt. On your blog people may comment bad things or good things. You need to be able to deal with this. Also you need to have some kind of humor within your blog posts. Imagine if all your writing is like a PHD student, how many people would enjoy reading or listening to you daily or weekly. Think about this,so you can judge what will and will not work.

Perseverance:

Image Credit: toffehoff

If you are hoping that with 1 or 2 months of blogging you are going to capture your market and have millions of fans then you are in for a shock. Some blogger’s make it in 3 months but that’s a few number, some take atleast about a year to gain some traction on their blog. So now the big question here is whether you are willing to dedicate 1.5 hrs a day to getting your brand through blogging successfull? There is nothing wrong if you decide not to go down this path but you need to ask the question if you are willing to keep your blog live and consistent for 12 months to see the ROI.

Tweaking and learning:

Image Credits: wbaiv

Finally are you willing to consistently learn new technique to improve your blog or do you prefer to have a website with some information and hope that people will connect with your brand through different marketing ways. If you do go down the blogging path you need to accept that there is a learning curve of atleast a month to get the basics right and then you will need to consistently keep updating yourself as and when technology or new technique come up with in this space. The timeline for this again is blocking atleast 2 to 5 hrs a month for learning.

Minimum number of hours: So in summary ask yourself if you have

• 1 month – to learn the basics of blogging
• 2 hrs a day – to read and create useful content for your target audience
• 5 hrs a month – to study and learn the trends required to blog online
• 10 hrs a month at the minimum – to market your blog through social media efforts
• A monthly budget put aside of approx a min of $1000 – for search engine optimisation, paid advertising efforts to get the targeted traffic for your blogging efforts.

Please note the figures i have listed above are very rough, this is taking into mind that you are on a shoe string budget and not a medium sized company. Once you start making a bit of revenue, i recommend that you increase the hours and budgets by outsourcing some of your blogging efforts.

I hope this post will give you some reference on how to go about your blogging phase and whether blogging is indeed your cup of tea. Take care and all the best.

If you have decided to go down the blogging path then you could read my previous post
How to write a blog post that helps your readers

I wish you all the best and do let me know if you went the blogging track or no. if you find any additional useful resources that you think people would benefit with then please do share this via the comments area.

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