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When embarking on a new blogging project there are a few things that you’ll need to think about early on. What are you going to name your blog? What topics will you blog about? How often will you publish posts? What kind of writing style will you use? In the remainder of this article I’ll look at these questions more fully.

What Will Your Blog Be Called

The first decision to be made is of course the name (and domain) of your blog. There are general two choices – using your own name or using a name related to the primary topic of the blog.

Your choice here will depend on the aims of your blog. If you intend to use it to promote some kind of personal service then using your name can be a good idea because it will always remain relevant even if your services differ over time. If you’re blogging about a specifc topic and you intend to monetize it via external methods then it can be better to use a name that is related to the topic.

What Topics Will You Blog About?

Many people start their first blog in a rather broad way – blogging about anything and everything that comes to their mind and as such they cover lots of topics. This is not necessarily a good idea as the majority of your readers will only be interested in a small portion of your topics.

It is much better to spend some time outlining a small group of related topics to cover. You can then categorise your posts which makes it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for.

Setting a Schedule for Blog Posts

Many people advise you to blog every day when launching a new blog with the theory being that the more you post the more people will come to your blog. However many blog readers find that blogs that post every day or even multiple times a day are simply too much and they can’t keep up with them.

In my experience it doesn’t really matter how often you post or on what days of the week etc. The most important factor is that whatever schedule you set for yourself, you try to stick to it and remain consistent. There are very successful bloggers that only post once per week and their readers look forward to reading their weekly post.

Another danger with trying to post too much, especially in the beginning, is that you may not be able to maintain your pace. You may run out of ideas, find the time committment to be too much or simply burn out and if you start posting less and less, this looks bad and it looks as though the blog is dying. Many readers will unsubscribe when this begins to happen.

Personally, I would suggest the opposite approach – start off slowly with a nice gentle schedule that you know you can stick to. Over time if you feel you wish to do more then slowly increase it but don’t do it the other way around!

Do You Have a Particular Writing Style?

Some people suggest that you alter your blogging style to fit your target audience but in my experience I find that it never works to try to blog in a style that is not uniquely you. Your blog is a reflection of you – your thoughts, your findings, your interests and passions.

As for the style of the content itself, again this is highly personal. Each of us is different and you should write in your own style and not how you think your readers want you to write. Some people like to use humor, others prefer to stick to dry facts, some people like to rustle up some controversy and so on. Do what works for you.

Another consideration is post length. The only real factor that should have any influence would be your posting frequency. If you post multiple times a day you would expect your post length to be on average shorter than a blogger who just posts once per week. But other than that, simply post whatever feels right to you. Trying to expand on a short post or cut down on a long one can seriously stifle your creativity.

You can never please all the people all the time anyway so trying to change your posting style to suit one particular group is futile. The people who like your style will hang around and those who don’t will go elsewhere. This is the simple truth and it’s not something to worry about at all!