I was just thinking about the various things that are required if you are going to blog regularly. Basically if you want to be a successful blogger you have to have some priorities, otherwise it'll be difficult in the long run. Many people are there among you who start blogging without having any goals. Eventually what happens is that you just leave the blog and after sometime it is gone and you don't even think about it.
Well, I don't want such a thing to happen with my blog so I am proceeding with a fair bit of caution. Here is a small list that I have brainstormed which will give a good momentum to continue blogging.
1)Blog post Ideas
This is the single most important thing you need while blogging. You are not going to leave the
blog after making 20 to 30 posts, definitely not. You will want to continue to some 200, 300 and more posts. So basically you need some 300 and more ideas for interesting posts.
The good news is that there are infinite new ideas out there. The only thing you need to do is jot those down as they strike. One thing you can do is keep a small book with you, so that whenever you get any idea, it can be noted. Remember the saying
The palest ink is better than the sharpest mind
Another idea is to keep sometime everyday for brainstorming new ideas. You can probably sit in a quiet room for half an hour and try to get as many ideas as possible.
2) Knowledge
The second thing is what you know and how much. Frankly speaking you can only write about
something when you have knowledge about it. If somebody asked questions on a topic you never heard about, you cannot tell anything about it and you'll be clueless.
It is very important for you to have the latest and workable knowledge about the topics you blog about. One thing you can do is keep the feeds of the topics in a feedreader and read the latest feeds regularly.
3) Time management
This is another factor which will help to blog regularly. Decide clearly before hand, when you will be blogging, how many times a week you will update your blog, how much time you can spend on it etc. This will definitely be a plus point. You can take half an hour every week or month to decide and stick to it.
4) Read some great blogs regularly
You can find some really great stuff from top bloggers like stevepavlina, problogger, johnchow
etc. These people started blogging just like you and me but they have been here for more time
which obviously implies that they understand the world of blogging far better than you and me.
Observing how they post, how they generate revenue, what they post etc, will help us to go
forward and after one or two years we may be just like them.( Just imagine making so much
money by blogging after some time)
5) Concentrate on real work
One of the biggest hurdles for people like you and me, when we start something on our own is
that we worry about the results even before completing(wait a sec) even before starting the work. I have this thing in me for sure. Whenever I think of doing something online, even before starting to work on it I start thinking things like how will I be able to complete it, even if I completed what if it is not good and blah blah stuff. You can definitely progress if you just stop thinking about the result and concentrate on the work.
This will make it alot easier for you to do the real work
Take a piece of paper before starting something and write clearly what you are going to do and for how much time you will be in it before you go for other works. For example if you are writing for a blog make a note like
The next 30 minutes you are writing a blog post, nothing else....
Just use your imagination and write what works for you.
6) Build a community
The last point for this post but equally important as the other 5 is to make a community of readers by giving some quality information. Mind it that the community will grow slowly and you have to work on various methods to get your blog known to people out there. Make contacts with similar bloggers and exchange links, go to forums and increase contacts, make quality comments on popular blogs and link back to your blog, address specific issues which others have missed or clarify posts which are difficult to understand. All these things will increase the traffic to your blog.
The above 6 are what I think the most important things for a blogger who wants to continue
blogging. If you have some other things do share them in the comments section.
