What thing's are required to start a blog?

What thing's are required to start a blog?

Contrary to popular belief starting a blog is not easy. It really isn't.

Many people go to Blogger or Wordpress etc and create a free account, which is smart when just starting out, however they have no real agenda set in place.

So, whenever I am asked what thing's are required to start a blog I have quite a list to answer that question.

First and foremost you must have a theme or an idea set in place. You cannot simply create a blog put in a few posts and leave it alone and hope. Ain't gonna happen.

Once you have a theme or an idea the next thing to do is

Once you have a theme or an idea the next thing to do is write at least five good quality articles on your subject. Don't copy and paste other articles and throw up adsense or cpa's. That will get you de listed faster than you would care to imagine.

New blogs with good content have a better chance of being crawled by search engines because of the fresh and unique content they offer.

If you are serious about starting a blog and have read this far I bet, well actually I hope you noticed that I left out the single most important part of your blog.

Do you know what it is?

If you guessed the title or name of the blog, congratulation's. You must name the blog something that reflects what your site will be about. A no brainer but many people don't do this. I am guilty of this with two blogs I started and scrapped long ago. I named them about credit and put articles up about shopping. Why did I do that....blame the booze ;). I actually did that because at the time credit was so hard to list for I changed the post's not realizing that regardless of post's I had less of a chance to rank because the title, keywords and content didn't match.

Lesson learned.

So, we have a title, a theme and a few well written articles.

Now what you need to do is get involved in forums and other blogs. Leaving questions on forums is a great way to get help and answering questions is a great way to drive traffic. Keep in mind however that you should never join a forum and put up a question and then leave your sig file and never go back. A well moderated forum will remove you and your link very, very quickly...and yes that is another lesson I learned early on. I don't want you to go through the same harsh realities. :)

Now we will look at maintenance. Posting articles to your blog is up to you, I recommend at the very least 3 times a week. I usually post twice a day but I have the time. I blog from home. It is my primary source of income.

If you have a job then try to post at least three times a week.

Do not fill your blog up with ads and flash and colours etc. It is a dead give away that you are not really serious about your blog. Quite frankly you should not put ads of any kind up for at least your first month. Build up some credibility first, you will have follower's or reader's and they won't mind the ads. But if you look like a splog (spam blog) well you may like it but there is no point in having a blog if no one but you reads it.

Moving on.....

I have mentioned this before but another great thing to do is change your look every now and then. My good friend Kristi from Kikolani.com does this regularly. She provides excellent information and fun and because she changes the theme I go back often just to see how it looks and of course I enjoy being involved in her community.

Blogs offer a world wide audience and for a more in depth look at that I will give you a great post at the end of this to help you get much more detailed info.

Okay so quick recap:

We have a name. Check

We have a theme. Check

We have our articles. Check

We have joined forums/groups. Check

SO a few helpful hints. If you don't know what groups to join simply go to Google and type in your theme + forum. You will be amazed at how many show up. Check out a few posts and see if it is for you and if it is then join the group. Always obey the terms and conditions.

If you need help with articles, go to elance.com and put up a request for a ghost writer, affordable and fast. Plus it is fresh and unique content.

If you need traffic join communities like:

Entrecard.

Facebook.

There are countless articles to be found in this blog, just look through the history and you will find a lot of helpful tips.

The final thing that is required is drive.

You must be willing to update your blog, keep it fresh, maintain the look and feel of it and change with the times. Reader's will return as long as it is worthy.

I have a blog about twitter that sadly I have been neglecting and it is losing subscriber's because I started it as a blog for a few friends but it took on a life of it's own.

Always be willing to put in the work and you will find an audience and maybe even make some cash with ads etc.

Final tip and most important tip. If you place adsense or other revenue generating offer's on your blog that is fine but DO NOT ever join a clix exchange program.

DO NOT fall into the trap of I'll click your ads if you click mine. The big G will eventually find out and you lose.

Oh one last item, regardless of what you blog about make sure you get yourself a Google Webmaster's Tool account.

It will:

Track keywords.

Visitors.

Where your traffic comes from.

How certain words perform etc.

Never buy one of these programs, Google Webmaster Tools is free and a Helluva lot more effective.

Good luck.

P.S. If you ever need help shoot me an email, I'll do what I can.

Here's the article I mentioned about a world wide audience, care of Kristi from Kikolani. Shameless plug, look for my responses ;)