5 Things You Should do Before Launching Your Own Blog

I am well aware that there are probably hundreds of posts about starting a blog published every year, but still I feel there is room for (at least one) more. Everyone seems to have a slightly different view on things even if many revolve around the same themes. This one is written not only to help those who are contemplating starting a blog, but also to serve as a reflection of the process for my own use as well as a starting point for this blogs community building. It thus serves two purposes: reflection and communication. Both of which, as you will see, are also essential in the process of getting started blogging and thus makes the topic complete the circle.

1. Carefully consider your decision

To be honest I cannot exactly remember when I decided to start blogging, but it was not an overnight decision. Hence is my first recommendation: Don’t make the decision to blog an easy one. There is way too much work involved if you want to do everything, or at least most things, right from the start. If in serious doubt don’t even start, but find yourself something else to do or another role to fulfill. If you like the blogosphere, but don’t want the responsibilities of running your own blog there are plenty of other opportunities. You can be the much appreciated visitor, the knowledgeable commentator or perhaps even the guest blogger filling in to name a few.

If you even after careful consideration still aren’t sure then test the waters by starting a blog just for yourself and your friends or family to see if it feels right. Based on your experience and the feedback you get you will soon realize if blogging is you. If not you can always consider participating without actually blogging and since you tried it yourself you will also be able to appreciate it a whole lot more. If you do decide that blogging yourself is what you want or if you from the start is completely sure that this is something that simply must be done then you should indeed go ahead.

2. Study the blogosphere

You need to know what you get into, you need to know what’s there and what’s missing, you need to get educated in other words. I guess you could ignore everything already there and just start blogging, but it probably wouldn’t get you very far. Excellent starting points are Technorati and Google Blog Search, but also a network like 9Rules can serve you well as it serves as a filter serving up only a fraction of the blogs out there. Personally I bookmarked these sites, found a blog I liked, read enough of it to evaluate it then and travelled through the links it presented to other blogs, picked the next blog and so on. I found a lot of my favorite blogs on this journey, which also helped carve out the niche I felt at home in. Based on this experience of finding out where you belong will help you define your purpose, name your blog and ease yourself into the community.

Finding inspiring blogs with great content and getting focused is itself progress, but why not take advantage of the opportunities it presents and start collecting information, commenting and thinking about possible topics. On my early explorations and on my almost daily tour through my news feeds I make sure to bookmark the really good posts, while making short notes on those who were onto something, but in my opinion didn’t quite make it, just as I leave comments where I feel that I have something to add. If the articles leave no room for improvement you can use them to make a post presenting them with comments so that others can also enjoy them. Some look down on such posts, but I believe they are valuable in more ways. Firstly can they serve as practice for more independent posting, secondly can they help promote the worthwhile and make it easier for quality to shine through and thirdly do they help including you in the community and knit this community closer together.

Part of your study should also be getting to know the basics and the terminology of blogging. Again you do not necessarily need to know in detail what “track back” and “ping back”" is to start blogging, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. In fact it will help you a whole lot when you get beyond the first couple of posts and would like to grow, expand and add depth. Related to this is off course that you take care when designing your blog. If you plan on going places you need to design everything with the future in mind, which is easier said than done considering that no one knows what tomorrow brings. You are probably going to make some mistakes regardless of how well you prepare, but it doesn’t absolutely have to be the blogging killing type. In fact making mistakes is not that bad if you at least learn from them.

3. Take care of the practical stuff

Practical issues involve selecting platform, domain name and hosting service if you choose the ambitious route and choosing blog host if you choose the less ambitious, but also less complicated route. Since I have prior experience with setting up web sites from scratch I wanted to do everything myself at least to begin with. If you have no such experience would I recommend finding a good blog host and only after educating yourself or finding someone to help you move to your own domain etc. There are some limitations when choosing a free blog host, but at least one of my favorite blogs host there and is doing very well so it is indeed possible.

My Choice of blogging platform was cut short by simply looking at what my favorite blogs used. The majority used Wordpress and what it good enough for them certainly will do for me as well. In fact this is an incredibly well crafted and almost completely customizable platform that can be used well beyond blogging. However taste and preferences differ so the choice of platform is really one you have to make for yourself.

The world of web hosting have changed a lot since I last used one so I scrapped everything I thought I knew and started from scratch. Using various rating and review sites as well as looking at who my favorite sites used I got a list of a handful host put together. In the end it was the fact that I stumbled over a coupon that would ensure practically free hosting for a year that made me choose Dreamhost.

Initial setup of WordPress is so easy that anyone can do it, but if you want to add features and customize it things gets more complicated. There are lots of themes, which will make the design change, and plugins, which will alter or add functionalities to your blog, freely available and new ones are added daily. Since I wanted to go further than simply picking a theme and sticking with it I looked for one which basically was what I would like, but also was simple enough for me to figure out what to change to customize it. In fact I haven’t customized it as much as I would have liked to, but my abilities to make meaningful changes are gradually improving and so will the theme hopefully. As far as plugins go are there some you simply have to use to make sure you get a functional blog, those you can pick to make it an even better experience and finally those that are most relevant for specific types of blogs. I suggest concentrating on the first two categories and in that process not to overdo the second one as you risk simply complicating and cluttering your blog with functions and options that your visitors don’t need or aren’t ready for.

To complete the picture I installed Google stats to make sure that I would be able to track everything relevant from day one. It is easy to become obsessed with stats, which obviously neither makes sense nor is productive, but doing without them would be somewhat like flying blindfolded, which isn’t recommendable either. Since Google Stats gives you the basics, is free to use and doesn’t slow your site down this is my recommendation to begin with.

4. Prepare yourself mentally

Realistically you should not only prepare mentality for your undertaking, but indeed prepare yourself mentally for the long haul. I don’t remember who said it, but there is a saying about hoping for the best, expecting the worst and taking what comes, which describes the start of a blog pretty good if you want to be able to live with it regardless of how it goes.

At the beginning you will be blogging for yourself and perhaps a few friends and relatives if you are lucky, then you might be talking to strangers who stumbled in by accident and only then may you be lucky enough to start actually communicating with someone, which will get the ball rolling if done properly. Since I am still talking to myself, or at least I was until I posted this, I am certainly no expert in getting blogs skyrocketing. I am however an expert in preparing for the worst so at least I have that covered…

5. Get started writing

There is no such thing as a perfect plan and if you don’t stop preparing you will never get anywhere. I know from my own experience that it was hard letting go of the tweaking of the site, writing lists about possible topics, checking the news reader to see if something substantial have happened in the last five minutes that would change everything (not to mention preparing for the worst), but you have to let go. At some point you have done what you can reasonably do to be prepared and have to actually start blogging.

A good starting point is making a welcome post where you for example outline who you are, what your blogs is about, why you start blogging etc. This will not only help readers finding your blog early deciding if your blog is one to visit again, but also help you clarify your starting point and where you want to go from there. You already thought about these things as you moved through the previous steps, but putting it in writing will help you moving from reflection to actually communicating, which is the point to begin with.

P.S. : Thanks to Darren from Problogger who with his Top 5 - Group Writing Project helped me finally get this topic posted. Problogger is one of the best resources a blogger can come across so do make sure you check it out!

Recommended further reading supplementing and expanding on my thoughts about starting a blog: Why You Should Blog, Getting Started Reading Feeds, Posting to Greatness, 8 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging, The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before You Blog, How Do You Choose What You Blog About?, Blogging in an Oversaturated Market is Usually a Poor Decision, Blogging Mistakes: Final List, Blogging is harder than you think, 5 Tips on How to Manage Change in Your Life, Five steps to starting a successful blog, HOW TO: Start Blogging, and finally on the lighter side: How To Start Your Very Own Blog In Fifty-One Easy Steps!.

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