Blogging Basics: How To Begin Your Blog

The world isn't ready for you yet...or is it?

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging, a practical tool for understanding e-Commerce!

Here's your chance to share your experiences, research, opinions, and general insights with the world. 

This is your chance to connect with your community, your content community, those who share your interests, passions, skill sets, and other relevant gifts.

But where to begin?

Here’s how to get started:

1) Identify your passion!

What is that you thing that you can talk about for hours?

What do you read or listen to all night without getting exhausted?

What is the topic that zaps your out of the dull moments of the day or that you're absolutely obsessed with? Is it family? Food? Relationships? Technology?

Ask yourself this, what type of media are you constantly consuming?

What types of articles or images hold your attention the most when online or on social media?

The news? Comedy skits? Music videos? Games and trivia?

There’s no real science to picking out a blog topic. You simply have to think about what you love to do, what you dream about doing, what you do well that others are constantly asking you to help them with. Maybe even consider what you and your friends are constantly talking about.

There's so many things to blog about.

Here's your chance to begin your own.

Don't just be about it. BLOG about it!

Here are some ideas for topics...

• Art
• Beauty
• Business
• Crafts
• DIY
• Education
• Entertainment
• Entrepreneurship
• Family
• Fashion
• Film, Music & Books
• Finance
• Fitness
• Food & Drink
• Gaming
• Home Décor
• Humor
• Local
• Men’s Fashion
• Outdoors
• Photography
• Politics
• Pop Culture
• Self-help
• Sports
• Technology
• Travel
• Wedding

Pick one and let the fun begin!

2) What is your niche?

Hard to discover what is your niche if you’re wondering what is a niche?

No, it is not a cute furry animal that hibernates during the winter.

A niche has to do with your point of view on a specific topic that reaches a small market segment who can identify with your work in a way that the larger populace hasn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t.

So, say you choose to blog about travelling.

What specific topic in travelling will you write about? Your experience in different destinations in South America? How about the cultures of the places you visit? Maybe the horrors of airport security.

Perhaps, you're doing a cooking blog. Will you focus on foods for a specific diet, say keto or paleo?

Maybe you just really like bacon, so you find all the bacon recipes that you can, cook and eat them, and share your experience with your audience.

Take a moment to consider what your niche, the specific topic you’re going to blog about. Topics that would not just make for a good headline, but also for a good blog in general.

Once you’ve thought it through, you are ready for step #3.

3. The Blogging Business

Just as every business has a mission statement and objectives, every blog should have the same.

What would you like to do with this blog?

I know, I know. This is simply a course project. You’re probably thinking you just want to make the C and move on in life.

But before you begin, I want you to consider the possibilities of this blog.

Are you just doing it for this class or would you like to make money off of it in a couple of months as an e-Commerce venture?

Will you use these posts as writing samples for a future employer or to market yourself in your industry for better paying jobs after you graduate?

Need something to do when you get bored or looking for a way to showcase your current side hustles?

You can do all of the above by blogging!

So when you determine your topic and your niche, be sure to consider your information to match 

your blogging business goal or objective.

Here are some of the types of blogs, choose the one that best suits your blogging preferences:

• Niche Blogs are about marginal topics in broad categories ie. unrequited love, all things Kim Kardashian, food blogging etc.
• Professional Blogs are those created specifically for monetization purposes. These blog cover topics based on audience interest. Investments into advertising and marketing tools are used to generate traffic and profit.
• Business blogs are an extension of content marketing. They are created by and for the purposes of promoting the business and gaining exposure for the business (and often the industry).
•  Affiliate blogs typically include reviews of products used and promote products for a commission.
• Media blogs break down into different categories, which are as follows:

o   Vlogs-video blogs

o   linklogs-curating content from other sites

o   photoblogs-photos

o   art blogs-display art sketches and graphic designs

For the purposes of this course, I highly encourage a niche, affiliate, or a media blog.

However, you’re free to choose whichever one you like.

4. Pick Your Platform

There are many platforms you can use for blogging. The most common are blogger and WordPress; however, Wix and Weebly are also on the rise.

There are pros and cons to both.

For this course, you will use blogger. This will make it easier for you to connect to Google platforms to analyze your performance.

However, I will provide an article later in the semester about the pros and cons of each platform.

At this point, you should have goal for your blog, a topic, a platform to start on, and a specific niche you will focus on - all the first steps to creating a successful blog.  

I believe you are ready to begin.

Have fun!

-Professor Lawanda Maxwell, MBA

Next up: Brainstorming your first posts