Considering setting up a blog? 
These days it seems every business and individual is blogging away. But before you jump in, consider the following…
Weigh up whether you really need a blog
Blogging on your website can increase content and therefore bring more visitors to you. But many businesses survive perfectly well without a blog. Not every business lends itself to a blog – and not everyone can be bothered to do one. If the thought of blogging doesn’t inspire you, think again.
Plan what you will write about
To be successful at blogging, you need a theme and you need to be focused. You then need to be able to come up with something to write about. If you find writing difficult, or struggle over what you will write about, having a blog probably isn’t for you.
Consider if you have the time to devote to blogging
Blogging is a commitment. Most people believe you should be posting a blog at least three times a week to gain visitors – and the very minimum is once a week. Will you be able to sustain writing pieces a this rate? Nothing looks worse on a website than an abandoned blog – if you’ve abandoned yours, it is probably best to get rid of it completely.
Think where your blog will be located
You can either blog on your website – or set up a separate blog, with a link to your site. Which you choose depends very much on what you want to blog about. A blog on your website might be your best bet if your articles are all going to be related to your business and you are writing them with a professional voice. But if for example, you decide to use your blog as a platform for strong views – that might not be the sort of thing you want clients to read – your best bet might be a separate blog.
Choose the blogging platform you will use
If you don’t put your blog on your website, then you can use free platforms such as wordpress.com or blogger.com. These are great because you just sign in and off you go. They also have a mechanism that can hide your blog from search engines at first – this can be a good idea while you experiment with your writing style and get into the swing of blogging. Once you’ve got some posts, you can lift the mechanism and let the world see!
Consider how your blog will be designed
WordPress.com has a host of themes, which you can customise to a degree. But if you want it to look the same as your company website for example, you will need to invest in a web designer. At the same time you need to consider what to call your blog. Your name or company name can be used within the wordpress theme – or you can opt to use a domain name you already have or buy another one altogether. For example, there is an option on WordPress.com that allows you to do this.
Decide if your blog will just be written by you
Many people now set up a blog between them. So several people might contribute to a company blog or a group of people might set one up together. This can be a great idea as the amount of work can be spread amongst you. But if your blogging partner doesn’t pull their weight and leaves all the work to you – or is a lazy blogger and lets things slide, it can be frustrating. Another option is to have contributors writing on your site too – this can work well as long as you like what they write…
Ask yourself if you’ll want to have advertising on your blog
For many people, a blog is a way of promoting their business, books or themselves in some way. However, actually monetising your blog with paid-for advertising such as Google Ads or even paid for posts is not permitted on a platform such wordpress.com and if you allow this, your blog can be taken down. So if you want to make money from your blog by allowing ads, you will need to invest in your own bespoke blog or website. Most experts also believe you need to have hundreds of posts on your site and to be getting at least 1000 daily views on a blog before you have enough visitors to make advertising worthwhile.
Think how you will promote your blog.
If your blog is on your own website, it will simply come under the umbrella of promotion you have do for your site. But if it is separate from your site, you need to think of ways to get it known. In this case, as with a website, you might want to get it linked to a Facebook or Twitter page or have it listed on blog websites so it gains visitors that way.
Consider paying a professional blogger to blog for you.
Finally, if you’re keen to have a blog but you’re not a professional writer or simply don’t have the time, you could think about paying someone to blog for you. Many marketing companies will, for a price, take care of all your blogging requirements and can write posts so they stand the maximum chance of being ranked well in Google. They will think of ideas and also be able to promote your blog. Bear in mind however, you will still need to regularly provide them with the basic information they need to write about.
Written by journalist, media agent and blogger, Alison Smith-Squire.
Very true. I wish I had this before I started blogging.