7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Blog

I’ve seen a lot of blogs over the years, that have started and stopped in the first year. If blogging is a novelty to you, then once that interest is done, the blog is done. That’s why I decided to put together a list of questions to ask yourself before starting a blog.

I’m not discouraging anyone from blogging. I think it’s great that anyone would want to share what they know, or their experience. It’s a beautiful thing. However, it’s kind of disappointing to see when a good blog just fades away.

So, take these questions as more of how to plan for your blog.

1 Why do you want to blog?

If your goal is to make money or just tell your story, or share information that you think people will enjoy, that’s great! You’ve got a purpose. However, if you want to blog just because it’s cool, you’ll quickly find out how much work it takes to build a blog, gain traffic, and readers. You’ll end up facing this question and have to really answer it.

2 What do you want to blog about?

Do you have a specific interest or story to share with others. It’s okay to have a personal diary for a blog, or teach people, or sell stuff, or whatever, but you’ve got to be able to have a focus.

If you intend to become serious as a blogger, eventually you will need to have this down, as it will be part of the answer you’ll give to people when they ask what your blog is about.

If you are already blogging, and reading this, and you don’t know, sit down and get that straightened out.

3 Can you commit enough time to blog?

Blogging can be a commitment. Whether you want to be ambitious and blog frequently, or if you don’t want to blog a lot, you should set a schedule a time to sit down and blog.

If typing is not your thing, you can try podcasting sometimes, or get an app for your phone or computer that will translate your voice to text.

You will want to try to blog at least once a week to keep your readers coming back. If you can’t, they’ll lose interest.

4 Can you commit enough time to promote your blog posts?

Once you publish a post, you’re going to need to promote your blog content. I’m not just talking about once, but several times. And depending on your niche, you’re probably going to want to cross post it at some point. Then, you’re going to need to throw in creating an email newsletter for your blog’s subscribers (which you will want to set up an email list early on.)

Promoting takes time to master out a schedule that works right for your readers, especially for maximum reach.

5 Are you willing to research topics for articles that you don’t know everything about them?

You may or may be a real smart cookie, but you don’t know it all. And, depending on your niche, you may run into evolving and always changing information, which means, you need to research your topics. Let’s face it, you’re going to be reading other blogs, news resources, and more, so to aid your research, you’ll want to take URLs and refer to them so you those fact checking readers will know that you’re on top of it all.

6 Can you commit to engaging with readers and other bloggers?

As your blog grows, you will have people who will comment or engage with you on social media. You need to make some effort to acknowledge and respond. Sometimes, time can make it hard to interact with your readers and followers. That’s okay. Just try to make an effort.

7 Can you accept that building a decent blog will take time?

Building a decent blog or even a successful blog takes time. It’s not an overnight thing where you’ll get a ton of followers and make lots of money. It really is a commitment that you will have to designate a little time here and there for.

If you can answer these questions, and all signs point to blogging, then have fun, and good luck!

Originally published at blondish.net on September 27, 2016.