3 Tips for Starting a New Blog
October 13, 2011
Blogging is a powerful tool for marketing a small business. It’s a great way to get your name out online, and make connections with both potential customers and other business owners. With a little bit of Google keyword research, it can be a pivotal part of your SEO strategy as well. Unfortunately, the idea also seems to make a lot of people very uncomfortable. We talk to people all the time who know they need to start a blog for their business, but who tell us they are nervous about it, or that they just don’t know where to start. With that in mind, I’ve put together this list of tips to help get you get past your writer’s block and get started.
1. Turn FAQs into blog topics. As Douglas Adams, one of my favorite authors, once said “Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds.” Coming up with topics to blog about is a frequent challenge for many bloggers. One of the best places to start is to list the most common questions people have about your business and the products or services you offer. You now have a list of excellent blog post topics that you know people are interested in. Just write down the answers you already give people and expand on them.
2. Write in your own voice. Does your blog post look like an instruction manual? It’s great to give your readers useful and accurate information, but it’s also good to let your readers get to know a bit about you. Visitors are far more likely to connect with your writing and feel welcome to comment on your blog if they have some sense of who you are. Also, don’t be afraid to give your opinion on currently debated topics in your industry. After all, you are an expert in your field.
3. Don’t worry too much. Are you having trouble finishing your first post because you’re agonizing over every word or punctuation mark? It may sound silly, but one of the most common reasons why many new bloggers just stop writing altogether is because they worry too much about whether or not their writing is good enough, or they want it to be perfect. This is one I have a hard time with personally, but if you can worry less about being perfect and just write what you have to say, your writing will sound more natural and you’ll have more fun with blogging. You can always have someone else proofread it for you later if grammar isn’t your strong suit.
These are just a few of tips I’ve found that can help you get started, and that still help me when I get stuck. Once you start blogging regularly, you’ll find it gets much easier to keep going. If you already have an active blog, do you have a tip that worked well you? I’d love to hear about it!
