What is worth doing at all is worth doing well, so the adage goes. If you want to set up a blog and be successful at blogging, there are a couple of things you need to consider. These are what will guide you to the resources you need to have for the blog, the blogging platform or template you should use, and so on. Discussed below are five basic things (I called it ‘blogging strategy’) you may need to consider before setting up your blog—if you want to do it right.
The purpose
Before you go about creating a blog, it’s important you identify the reason why you need a blog. Understanding the purpose will guide you in so many aspects of blogging you need to understand, e.g. the niche (the area of interest you want to blog about). Do you want the blog to be just a personal diary? A public/political opinion platform? A platform to showcase your skills/expertise? Do you want to make money from your blog? And so on. These and other relevant questions are what you need to ask yourself before setting up a blog. If for instance, one of your basic reasons to set up a blog is to make money, you will understand right from the onset that Blogger.com and WordPress.com are the best blogging platforms you may need to consider.
Content
By content, I refer to your blog entries. You have to know the type of content you want to be publishing on your weblog. For instance, is it written articles, photos, videos, or audios? By identifying the type of content you want to be featured on the blog right from the beginning, you will be able to choose the right blogging platforms that can accommodate appropriately your preferred type of content. If your type of content is multimedia, you may prefer Blogger or WordPress.
Target audience
Identifying your target audience is important, particularly for your content. If your blog’s target audience is children, you will understand that you need to make your content less wordy, exciting, and full of pictures.
Blogging platform
There are so many blogging platforms out there: Blogger, WordPress.com, WordPress.Org, Tumblr, Medium.Com, Typepad.Com, and so on. Thus, you have to identify and go for the one that suits your interest best. Read this article that explains each of the platforms in details.
Publicity
A beautiful blog without readers is an attractive but unread book—useless. So, you must also have a plan on how to publicize your blog contents, e.g. through social media sharing, paid adverts, SEO, etc. Having this planned beforehand will enable you to make an informed decision on the type of blogging platform, design templates, and plugins to use.
