How to Start a Blog

Despite the millions of blogs in the blogosphere, it is still a fact that the percentage of small business bloggers in any industry other than technology is less than 10%, and probably much closer to 1%.

Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges, some solutions for overcoming or working around them, and then a step-by-step process for how to start a blog.

Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges, some solutions for overcoming or working around them, and then a step-by-step process for how to start a blog.

Common Blogging Challenges

While the percentage of bloggers is small, it is not for lack of desire.  What I hear most often is that “I know I should be doing this.”  So, let’s focus first on what is holding everyone back.

I have prioritized according to frequency, those challenges that I hear most often when I am speaking to small businesses associations.

1. I don’t have enough time
2. I’m not a very good writer
3. I don’t know what to blog about
4. How often should I blog?
5. How do I start a blog?

Every Challenge Has a Solution

There are solutions that will solve multiple challenges.  For example, instead of writing, just posting an image or a short video with a small caption solves the challenge of time and writing skill.  Because its simple, you can do it every day – which takes care of how often to blog.

The response I would like to give to how often you should blog is this: How good do you want to be? That said, just do what you can, but at least weekly.  Consistency is more important than frequency. Nothing turns readers off more quickly than a blog that has evidently been abandoned.  Use your mobile device to make updates on the fly if you have to.

What to blog about is not only a challenge for new bloggers, but for those of us that have been doing this for years.  You should never stop asking yourself how you can best help the community you serve. What is it that they most want to know? That’s what you should be blogging about.

In this regard, that list of 5 challenges above are included on my list of topics to blog about.  I have also blogged here about privacy issues and how to handle negative comments on the Web. Why? Because they are commons concerns small business owners have with social media marketing. There are basic needs with every community. The more you blog, the better you get at finding and addressing them from different perspectives – and thereby helping the largest possible audience.

Blogging takes patience.  It takes time to build up an audience, unless you are already well known in your industry. That’s OK – keep blogging.  Because Google and the other search engines are always “reading” your blog.   Don’t worry, as you accumulate relevant content that gets indexed, it will eventually get read, and your readership will naturally grow.

Steps for Successfully Starting Your Blog

Step One - Define the community you blogging for? — You need to clearly define your readers.  Have a mental picture of who they are, where they are located, how they will most likely prefer to consume your content (written, video, audio, etc.), and what they want to know.

These should ideally be your customers and clients, or those that associate with or influence them. “Anyone that is interested in my message” is not a valid answer.  It’s a cop-out. You have to be clear on this before proceeding any further.  The reason being that you cannot solve problems for your readers if you are not crystal clear about who they are.

Step Two – Know why are you blogging? — What action do you want your readers to take?  Do you want them to subscribe to your feed, leave a comment, share your post with their Facebook friends, join your Facebook Page, sign up for your newsletter, or call you up to hire you?

It is subtle, but the desired call-to-action will affect the character of your blog, such as where you locate key elements. For example, if your goal is to get a phone call, you want your phone number located high and displayed prominently.

Step Three – What do you most want to write about? — In my mind, blogging is a lot like exercise. You have to enjoy it and be willing to do it consistently – so that you can continue enjoying it.  So, notwithstanding what your readers want to know, you have to enjoy the process of delivering that content to them.

In other words – be passionate about your message and how you communicate it.  In this blog, I cover a mix of what I want to write about AND what I believe think they want.  Lists are not my favorite method for delivering content, but I know people love them – which is exactly why I’m delivering one right now!

Step Four – Determine what is not being done that is of value to your community — It helps to subscribe to other blogs and read the COMMENTS. That is where you will learn what is not being done. This can help you to develop a style that fills a need that isn’t being served by the established bloggers in your area of expertise.

Some ideas are to go narrower or deeper on a topic, present it in simpler language, distill it down to its key components, or just make it more interesting.  At the very least, reading those comments will give you some ideas for your next blog post.

Step Five – Choose a Descriptive Title for Your Blog — This is something that challenges quite a few people.  They wonder if the title should be more about them or the audience.  That’s a good question. I believe it should be about the audience you are serving. However, if you are trying to build a persona, you will want to build your identity in there too.

The trick with blog titles is to create one that you know will resonate with those that you are writing for.  You are taking a risk when you try to be cute, and also when you use “big” words that are not commonly searched for.  Strategic is a good example.  It’s a powerful word, but it’s not commonly used in searches.  Don’t impress yourself with your title –  use it to connect with your desired community.

Step Six – Write a compelling bio that captures your expertise and personality. — The first thing people do when they arrive at a blog is to che
ck out the credentials of the blogger.  This is how words like ninja, guru, and expert became so prevalent on the social Web.  Please don’t use them, just be mindful to communicate your special skill.

For example, my special skill is an ability for taking things that are complex or abstract and making them practical and useful.  That’s what I do with this blog.  I understand the needs of my readers, and so I sift through hundreds of other blogs to find the best ideas, which I then serve up in a simple and practical way – so that they can be readily applied to most small businesses.

Step Seven – Choose a blog platform that is right for you — Once you understand who you are writing for, what you are going to write about, a title for your blog (with a URL to match so you own your blog), a bio, and preferably your first blog idea – you are ready to build it.  Note:  The URL is not necessary to start your blog.

Blogs are either hosted by you on your servers, or by others.  For five years I blogged on TypePad for a number of other reasons, with the foremost being that they take care of everything in terms of support and technology.

However, over time I outgrew TypePad and moved to WordPress. Both platforms have their respective advantages.  This post on the pros and cons of TypePad and WordPress will help you to make the right decisions for your business.

Step Eight – Start Writing — It’s easy to start writing, but not quite as easy to keep writing.  It is important to have your personality embedded into your blog.  I find the easiest way to do that is to pay attention to what is going on in my life with my business and personal activities.  Usually, they are connected in some way.

For example, I am mentoring a young man in college with his social media and blogging.  Once he asked me … that question … what should I be blogging about? My suggestion was to tune into what his professors are really saying

If one of them has a challenge, than it is most likely a shared one.  This student blogger can share his perspectives in his blog, and with a little luck, his other professors will be impressed with his willingness to tackle what is evidently on the minds of the faculty.

What are the challenges of your customers?  You solve their problems every day.  That is excellent content to share because their story is one with some drama and a happy ending your future customers can relate to.  Here’s a post that will give you some ideas and resources for developing your storytelling skills.

For clarity, if you run out of ideas for your blogging, just ask yourself what happened in your life today.  There is a story in there somewhere.  Go for a walk, a run, or a bike ride (as I often do) – and work it out.

Step Nine – Blog consistently and never stop learning! — Just as with exercise, the most important time to stay with your blogging is when you least want to.  That’s when you will make the breakthrough that will carry you to the next level where everything is easier.

Some of the learning you will have to do will involve choosing and using keywords to be found more easily by your readers. Whatever you do, don’t spend any money on complicated systems.  The easiest way to choose the best keywords is to understand and listen to your prospects and customers.  When they find you, ask them which words they searched for.  It’s a process.

If you are looking for more tips, here are 27 of my favorite blogging tips.

One of the things I suggested above is to understand what you want your audience to do.  I have discovered the Facebook LIKE button to be an invaluable tool for increasing the traffic to my blog, which helps me help more small business owners.

Leave a comment below or share this with your community with any of the share buttons below – or with those on the little red bar at the bottom of this page.  

Until tomorrow,  Jeff