4 Essentials to Consider Before Starting Your Next Blog

This guest post is by Nivin of SecretMarketingPlaybook.com.

So, you’ve decided to start a blog?

By now I’m sure you would’ve noticed that every man, woman, and their dogs seems to have their very own blog.That leaves you with the unenviable task of answering the ultimate question for any blogger:

Why should your audience care?

How well you answer the question will be a strong determinant on how successful your blog turns out. And to help you do that, consider these four points carefully.

The first thing you need to understand about a blog is that it’s a continuous conversation about a certain topic. People visit your blog because they have a need your blog satisfies. So, before contemplating starting a blog, you need to clarify what purpose your blog is filling. What needs is it meeting?

One of the best ways to do this is via a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Now, it’s highly unlikely you will be completely unique from everyone out there, but finding a different angle will help define your blog further in the eyes of your audience.

For example, although Copyblogger.com and problogger.net both cater to pretty much the same niche, they have slight differences. ProBlogger focuses specifically on blogging, while Copyblogger targets content creation and effective copywriting. It’s the same niche (online business), but the slight variation is enough for the audience to make the distinction.

The most difficult part about creating content consistently is not knowing who you’re writing for. So, before you begin your blog, you need to be specific about the type of audience you want your blog to attract. The more specific you can be, the better.

As I’m writing this post, I imagine the main reader is a 29-year old male named Bob, married with one child who is starting out in online marketing with limited tech experience because he wants more freedom from his job to spend time with his child. Now, I am sure that not all of my readers will fit the description, but having such a clear example enables me to better understand the motivations of my demographic.

His motivations are:

He has a job, he’d like to leave—I help him believe it’s possible to leave and make a living online, because it is.He’s new to online marketing, with limited tech experience—I go easy on the tech jargon and spend more time explaining the more technical content.He wants freedom—I show him that by implementing simple (not necessarily easy) steps consistently, he will be able to achieve that freedom.

If you are starting out, I can guarantee you there is almost always someone who’s doing it better than you right now. The key is to learn from those who have gone before you. Look at their blogs, see what they write and how they add value to their visitors. Learn how they engage with their audience.

I am not implying that you should copy what they do, but spend some time understanding how they’re practicing their craft. I strongly recommend you take that extra step and introduce yourself. I have personally done that myself, and was actually quite surprised to see the amount of responses I received from the big players. Your worst-case scenario is that no one responds and you end up exactly where you are right now—no loss, really. So, go ahead: reach out, and surprise yourself.

Your blog is only as good as your content, and the more quality content you have, the better. But in order to have quality content you are going to need to consistently publish new, cutting-edge information for your industry, so you’re going to need to come up with a blogging schedule. I’ve found the best way to blog is to break up your post into three main categories:

Cutting-edge: This usually involves commenting about recent/cutting-edge developments in your industry(i.e. news, product launches, new fads). These posts have a diminishing impact on your readers over time.Evergreens: These are self-contained posts, which focus more on principles and concepts that tend to stay true over a longer period of time (this post is an evergreen post).Series: These posts usually involve topics which are so dense that a single post will not be enough to provide the reader with adequate information (i.e. Starting Your Pet Business from Scratch, or a Weight Loss After Child Birth series).

Now, I hope this post hasn’t scared you off from trying to create a new blog. All I’m trying to do here is help you get more clarity on how you should start your blogging adventure. I hope this advice will help you minimize the bumps along the way—and, more importantly, to help get your message out to a very grateful audience.

Nivin is the owner SecretMarketingPlaybook.com and is currently giving away his latest ebook – “7 Critical Things To Outsource To Make Money Online”. Get Your Copy Here.

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To life before you start to Blog are

This guest post is by MotivationalMemo.comPeter g. James Sinclair of.

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not risen to live."-Henry David Thoreau

I often think about the life of the experiences I've tasted since landing on the planet Earth to find myself in the arms of my mother.

These experiences are, in fact, the fuel that has the written word that flows out of my pen to the page, and from there through the Office of my blog motivational Memo in the hearts of men and women from 155 Nations so far inflamed.

For unless I have lived, there is no way that I have any authority to write it.

My, when for a particular challenge in my life has always responded, "well, at least the given me another story that I can write about it."

When I write I never want to be a of the man who "ex" "or a" outdated "who is going to usher in a" spurt "again. Not a moving picture is it?

If I'm going to write something, or in fact do everything in my life, I would like to position and prepare yourself a guru, a leader, or an expert in that field to be elected.

How is this about?

I'm sitting at the feet of the first experts who have gone before me and be their student. I become who I associate with.

At first I can rough as the next guy, but in time, through constant study and practice I will find my voice and then begin to be recognized as an authority in my own right.

And if I have something to "Sprint" I trust that it brings life and refreshment to those who choose to partake of what I've learned.

We all have a story to tell and the blog medium is a wonderful place to express this. So go live first, and then to return, even the same day if you wish, and tell what you've learned.

Talk about it and put it in audio format.Communicating through the use of video. Parts of the written word with me, because then we more of the lessons you learn, the principles applied, and the experience gained.

Writing your experiences, not from the experiences of others. Certainly, their experience or their wisdom to use as your springboard, but spring weather fearless with your own fresh voice and interpretation.

I want to not only hear the musty votes of ages past — as good as they are. I want to hear your spin. I want to think about your yarn. For here is the new insights and the sparkling discovery that adds value to our lives as we feast of this wondrous.

So I want to shout loud and clear, "long live your wonderful life!"

May your life be recorded in a flourish of words — deposited to your unique blog — that in the coming years will provide the springboard for yet another Virgin writer handle of understand and jump back on their own adventure of intellectual and spiritual discovery.

Share with us a recent experience you have, and are just bursting to share with the world through your blog.

Peter g. James Sinclair is in the business "hart to hart" CPR and inspires, motivates and rest of others as that all they have to be created. Get your free copy of his latest eBook http://www.motivationalmemo.com personal success blueprint on and add him on Twitter @ PeterGJSinclair today!

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