Social Media is sprinkled with blogging tips and advice. Experts would have us believe that it’s never too late to start a blog and despite the hundreds of thousands that are launched every day of the year, apparently there is still room for YOURS!
You may have had the idea for a blog lurking in your head for far too long, and so, inspired by this call for action, you decide now is the time. You take a leap of faith and begin to create your blog. And that is often where it all starts to go wrong.
Having an idea for a blog is one thing, actually creating it, writing your posts, getting people to read it, and making a cent from it, is quite another. If you intend to make your blog a money making venture, you may want to employ the services of a marketing and advertising agency.
What are you going to write about?
Most people start a blog because they have something to say, and want to be heard. They may be experts in a particular field, or simply have an opinion on something and want to share their thoughts.
But all of a sudden, your simple idea becomes a ‘niche’. Apparently you must have a niche. It could be knitting, it could be how to save money, or make money, it could be how to start a snail farm.
The good news is virtually anything goes, but your anything should solve your readers problems, and ease their pain by addressing pressing issues that they may have, and the reason they are reading your blog in the first place.
Bang goes your idea of simply writing about your life. Will anyone really be interested, UNLESS you have a niche and feel their pain and ease it.
During every waking hour you will try to dream up the perfect name for your blog. Something that reflects what it’s all about. You suddenly get inspiration in the middle of the night and absolutely know you’ve found the ideal title, only to forget it as soon as you wake up in the morning.
Then there’s the design of your proposed blog. You will spend days trawling through themes, to make your blog look appealing, will you want 2 columns, or 3 columns. Will it be ‘magazine style’ or just a plain but easy to read (but possibly boring) style. The choice is endless.
What colourways do you want. There will be choices for the background, the header, the footer, the side bars, the icons. And this is all before you’ve written one single word.
Eventually, your blog dashboard is there in front of you, ready and waiting for you to write your first post. You feel a mild sense of achievement at getting this far, and are like a coiled spring, ready to get all your thoughts down on your virtual piece of paper for the world to read.
And that’s when it hits you. What exactly are you going to write about? Inspiration seems to have deserted you. Surely you can’t fall at the final hurdle.
In this situation, as every blogger knows, the only solution to this problem is to advance to the kitchen, grab a coffee, stare out of the window for some considerable time, and wait for a lightbulb moment!
