By John Talty: Subscribe to John's RSS feed
August 17, 2011 3:28 PM EDT
Over the last decade blogging has been one of the hottest phenomenons of the Internet world, so we went to one of the hottest bloggers for how-to advice -- The Bargain Babe.
There are now millions of blogs covering a wide array of subjects out there, and it's likely you've either thought about blogging or currently are blogging. But there is more to it than just starting a blog and plopping down at your desk to write.
IBTimes consulted blogging expert Julia Scott, aka The Bargain Babe, at bargainbabe.com, to give us five key steps in starting a successful blog.
1. Pick a Topic
The first step, says Scott, is picking out a topic and overall goals for the blog. The blogger should pick a topic that is familiar and important to them and plan out how the blog will work. Figuring out the overall goals, such who will be the audience, is a good way to figure out how to frame the content.
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But the main key has to be passion for the subject.
"If you are not truly passionate about your topic it won't work," Scott said. "If it's just to make money or impress a girl it's not going to work. Passion will be the only thing that will carry you when you're not making money, or getting comments."
The subject could be anything from college basketball to lawn mowing, but the only way to have a shot at success is passion for the topic.
2. Figure Out Your Content System
After picking a topic that is of interest to you, you then have to figure out how to deliver quality content and lots of it. Scott says the phrase "content is king" is a bit misleading, but no blog will be successful without great content.
One of the important things to figure out is, what type of posts do you plan on making? Will it be 20 posts per day, but each post is only about 50 words? Or one really great 1,000-word piece?
Scott says both can be successful, but the key is to establish a rhythm for readers to grow accustomed to. Bloggers should be updating at least once a week, but after that it's up to the person on what he/she can sustain.
"If you are only posting once a week and its 100 words, there's not a whole lot for readers to grab on to," she said.
Scott doesn't advocate one way or the other, but says more posts allow for more misses.
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