Are You a Writer Starting a Blog?

Starting a blog can be easy

If you are a writer with a goal of becoming published, you would be well-advised to start a blog. If you don’t have a goal to be published, writing for a blog can be a rewarding experience.

Without a blog, you’re missing out on the opportunity to build a network; to share your writing and receive feedback from readers. Writing a blog has a way of keeping you accountable to your writing habit too.

It takes just a few minutes to create a free WordPress blog. After you’ve decided on a name for your blog, choose a theme.

I started blogging three years ago, was eager to get started and didn’t do any research. I wrote the first post and couldn’t hit the publish button fast enough! Knowing the following would have been helpful:

8 tips for writers starting a new blog

Many writers are not familiar with how to use blogging to support their writing endeavors. Writing a blog is about more than simply writing fiction, prose or poetry, and then hitting the publish button. If you are serious about promoting yourself as a writer, it should be about more than that.

1. Write an About Page so that people who find your blog can learn about you as a writer. When I land on a new blog, the first place I visit is the About Page.

2. Decide what you will write about and choose at least five different categories. This will help you to not become bored, writing for just one category. If you are a fiction writer, you might write about 1) Writing challenges 2) Creating characters 3) Personal musings 4) Favourite fiction 5) My writing.

3. Write at least 10 posts to save as drafts and if possible, write two per category. Resist the temptation to publish the first draft before you have accumulated a good number of them. This will lessen the pressure you might feel to write another post after you’ve published your first one.

4. Carry a notepad. If you are a serious writer, you probably already do this. After you start blogging, ideas for blog posts will occur to you throughout the day. You will want to make note of them as they’re easily forgotten if you wait until you’re at your computer again.

5. Decide how often you will publish a post. Many new bloggers begin eagerly, posting numerous times a week. After many months, their posting slows down to perhaps once or twice a week and they may even lose interest or become discouraged. Keeping a regular schedule will help you fit in the time you will need to blog. That brings us to the next item on the list.

6. Decide how much time you will spend blogging. When I first started I had no idea how much time was involved. Besides writing and editing posts, there are bloggers’ comments to reply to and other bloggers’ posts to read and comment on.

You would be wise to schedule at least one hour a day. Try to balance commenting on other blogs with writing and commenting on your blog. It is easy to get carried away with either one of these tasks.

7. This is important: Visit other writers’ blogs. Network, comment, support their blogs and make friends. Build a community and subscribe to your favourite blogs so you can stay current with their posting. Usually there is an option to subscribe though an email subscription, or you can set yourself up with Google Reader.

8. While you are planning your new blog and writing your drafts, you can still visit other blogs. That way you will begin meeting new people and generating ideas. By the time you launch your blog you will already have potential readers.

Note that if you plan to monetize your blog, perhaps to sell and promote affiliate products or add Google ads, you would need to set up a self-hosted WordPress blog.

In my next post I will share tips for writers to show them how they can build their readership on their new blog.

A few resources & blogging friends I recommend to help get you started:

WordPress and Facebook Consultant – Kim Woodbridge

The Blog Boutique (for free blog headers) or Blogging Without A Blog (for blogging tips) — Barbara Swafford

WP Blog Host (for self-hosted blog services) — John Hoff

Confident Writing (a writer and coach) — Joanna Paterson

Shades of Crimson (that’s me; editor and copywriting consultant) — Davina Haisell

Are you a writer who is considering starting a blog and if so, do you have any questions?

If you’re a writer who has been blogging for a while, have you found you are writing more often because of your blog?

If you are a seasoned blogger, what advice would you like to share? 

Photo credit: Kristina B

Tagged as: social networking, starting a blog, writers and blogging