Starting a blog is as simple as finding a space online to write – and the time to write.
To start though, you'll need to work through a brief list of steps to create your space.
Before you even consider your blog though, you have to think about WHAT you're going to blog about. It’s important to stop and think about your blog, before starting it because, to be quite honest, without purpose, blogs are pointless. And this pointlessness will dilute your message considerably.
So, you need to think about what you're writing and why. Consider your theme – and then build some keywords around it, because for the first little while, you should try to include at least some of them in every post. You'll get archived in all of the right places that way, which will lead valuable NON COMMENT generated traffic to your blog. You'll also be commenting on blogs similar to yours and hopefully, generating more traffic based on the links you leave.
You can choose your topic, keyword, and theme simply by considering what, in connection to your business you're an expert in. Once you've looked at that, you can decide whether it’s profitable, or viable to pursue it. If not, look at a related area that you can cover – your blog should always relate to your business choices, and give you interested traffic. Having said that, your blog isn't a free advertising system and nothing more – you've got to remember that people will be turned off by blatant advertising.
Choosing your keywords
Keyword Research
Keyword research is relatively simple – you can undertake basic research at
http://www.thetoolman.net/keywordtool/research.php
You can use this to research your general keywords – and check on their general profitability, if you're using CPM advertising. You might not be – but most blogs make a residual income from Adsense or similar, and it’s not something you should overlook, for your long term stratagem. Niche blogs can earn well.
Once you've found a profitable overall keyword, you'll need to check out your competition -
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Though considered less effective now – it’s still a good tool for finding your competition levels. You'll be able to assess your competition – basically, you're looking for a niche that's either tiny, if it’s narrow, or large, if it’s broader. Your narrower niches can only support a tiny amount of blogs – whereas the broader your definition, the more your niche will support – but the flip side to that, is that you've got more competition.
Once you've worked out your profitability, and competition, you can also use the keyword search at Overture to evaluate your other keywords (and get an idea on where to start blogging from).
You can place that information in a spreadsheet for reference – or use programs like article architect to extend on your research (affiliate link for article architect)
Once you've made a list of your keywords – and paced them into a spread sheet, you can take your research a step further. Article architect does it for you, but if you've not got that piece of software, or a similar one that researches keywords, you can do it manually.
Open up both Google and Yahoo, and start plugging your keywords into it – at the top you'll see a listing 1 of (a number) – you can then divide your 'competition' number by the total of your searches (a number) – that will give you a rating for that keyword – and the keyword with the 'best' ratings are the ones you'll probably want to focus on.
Article architect does this automatically – highlighting the 'optimum' keywords – and there are other pieces of software will do the same.
The reason you're doing this is to see where your keywords will have the best chance of ranking – you'll be able to find the best place to 'position yourself' this way.
Keep those keywords handy – you'll need them when you start writing content.
Got your keywords? What do you want to blog about?
Once you've got your keywords, you'll have an idea, at least, of the profitable areas of your niche that you can take advantage of. You'll be able to choose an interesting niche – for both you to write in, and your prospective readers.
You'll find that you can narrow it down pretty easily based on what you've got on your keyword lists – and what YOU feel like you want to write.
While its important to work out what you want to do with your blog, based on your view of profitability, it’s also important to remember that working based on keywords alone is a sure fire way to build an impersonal, and possibly unmotivated blog for your readers.
