How to Start a Professional Blog: Plan for Success, Find a Niche, Define your Style, and More!

Amy Thompson of Progressive Pioneer spoke recently at the Startup Princess SLC Chapter. Here’s her amazing presentation, solid unique content about how to prepare and succeed as a blogger. This post is a treasure! Enjoy.

The first thing a would-be blogger probably wonders is, “How do I start the actual blog?” I’m going to take a step back though. I’m a firm believer in the notion that preparation and planning will always give you a better end result. So before you log onto Blogger or Typepad, I would recommend sitting down with pencil and paper and having yourself a little brainstorm session. Get all your ideas down on paper and then you can start sifting.

Some things you might want to ask yourself are:
• Why do I want to blog? List all the reasons, because this is only for you. Maybe you want a voice within the larger community, maybe you want money, maybe you have a cause you want to spread or maybe you love attention. List it all, because it’s all important.
• Ask yourself about logistics. How will you make time for a blog? Will you pay for a hosting service? Where will you get ideas to write about? Will you invite others to write on your blog?
• Ask yourself who you’re writing for. Who is your audience? How much will your readership determine how and what you write? How will you reach your audience?
• Ask yourself what you’re going to write about. Will you have regular weekly features? Are there certain topics that will be of-limits on your blog?

One of the most important questions you can ask yourself is “Where do I fit into the blogosphere?” There are a lot of blogs out there, a lot of great blogs. What do you have to contribute? As part of your preparation, do a lot of blog skimming. See what’s already out there that’s similar to what you want to do. Consider where there are holes that you can fill and where the market is oversaturated and it might be harder to get your foot in the door.

In my case, I was already writing a personal blog to keep the grandparents on opposite sides of the country in the loop. I also wrote a lot about our natural living lifestyle, but not from the perspective that I wanted to take as a woman of faith.  In my time blogging I also noticed that there aren’t a whole lot of pretty blogs about urban homesteading, so I try to fill that space as best as I can too. So, spend some time getting to know your area. If anyone wants to get really advanced I can show you afterwards how to create a market map to analyze where the empty niches are. But really, all you need to do is get a feel for what’s out there and how you can fit in.

Once you’ve gotten as much as you possibly can down on paper, write a mission statement. That may seem like overkill, but trust me, it will really help focus you. Having the idea in the back of your head about what your purpose and goals are will help keep your blog coherent and make into something rather than everything. If your blog is about how to be the fiercest coupon shopper in a suburban, a post about your sister’s new cute baby is perhaps not a good fit. If your blog is a humorous glimpse into the day to day life of a stay-at-home mom then perhaps the pictures of your sister’s kid and post wondering why she always gets the cutest stuff is perfectly appropriate. Your readers will come to expect a certain style, content and voice from you, that is in fact what they are reading your blog for. And if they don’t find what they’re coming for more often than not, they may not stick around. So, write that mission statement and reread as often as is necessary to make sure your blog stays just that, your blog with your voice and your style.

I would recommend giving yourself not necessarily a schedule, but perhaps a few points to hit on weekly, or however you want to think about it. Because, trust me, coming up with fresh content every day isn’t always easy. I do a book review every Friday. I read a lot and I have have a good book or two to share. Sometimes I’ll write an additional post about my normal topics on Fridays, sometimes I don’t. But I always know I can put up that book review and at least have something. And it becomes something that my readers know they can look forward to as well. In addition I do a weekly interview series and a weekly giveaway. In a less structured way I also try to vary my posts and make sure I’m hitting on gardening, attachment parenting, cooking and crafts pretty regularly because I know that some readers love the gardening posts and others love the sewing posts. You’ll figure out what works for you, but having some sort of structure helps you not to all of a sudden panic when you have one of those, “Oh my word, just how much can one person say about the joys of thrift store hunting?!”

I’m not going to talk about the technical aspects of starting a blog, they’re all pretty user friendly and pretty much everyone has a friendly neighborhood computer geek to call in a pinch. I use Typepad and pay a small monthly fee, which in my opinion is totally worth it. And their tech support is great, which is crucial for me.

Instead, let’s talk a little about blog design and brand identity. We’ll just call it brand identity because you are, in a sense, creating a brand, the brand of you. And you want that brand to be recognizable and consistent. So, when you’re placing art, text, a banner, advertisements, photos, links etc. on your blog, make sure they fit ideologically as well as aesthetically. I’m lucky to have my own live-in illustrator. My husband illustrates a new header for me each season and designed the Progressive Pioneer button. There are also a few t-shirts and other top-secret projects in the works.

When I accept an advertiser it’s always only if they meet certain criteria that fall within the values of my site. It wouldn’t make sense for me to advertise formula when I’m always posting about the virtues of breastfeeding, for example. And don’t think that would escape the watchful eyes of the readers either, they would be all over it if I gave a spot to an advertiser that didn’t fit within the identity of Progressive Pioneer.

A good way to keep the disparate elements of your blog cohesive is to simply pick a color that is your signature color. You can change the color that links and titles appear on your blog. So, if you have a pink-heavy header, why not make your links, post titles, blog rolls etc. the same shade of pink? It will give it a cleaner, more professional, more recognizable look.

Another thing that helps solidify your identity is a link list, or blog roll. To help your readers, especially in the early days, understand just who you are and where you’re coming from, give them some examples of blogs, companies and people who also espouse similar ideas.

You may want to come up with a tagline or a phrase or some such thing that gets repeated on your blog and becomes associated with you. On your all-pink product testing blog perhaps products get ratings with the highest compliment being that it’s “pinkeriffic!” Just an example! A real life example is that we often refer to my husband on the blog as “The Beard.” He occasionally guest posts and I always preface the title with that nickname. It’s just a simple thing that provides a little continuity.

So, now you’ve got this lovely blog with a mission statement to give it some structure, your brand identity is solid and recognizable, you know exactly what witty things you’re going to be writing Monday through Friday. But how do you let people know about this little internet gem? How do you get the word out? Luckily there are plenty of ways!
Jot these down: facebook, stumbleupon, kirtsy, HARO, twitter, linkedin, blogher, and mommy blogs. That last one is just in general, not one specific place. But it’s probably the most important one. I’ll let you guys google the others and figure how they work and how to use them. It’s worth getting to know the various social media outlets; almost on a daily basis I get emails from people saying they found my blog via a friend who’s a fan on facebook or on their friend’s blogroll and I get steady traffic from stumbleupon. But the best traffic sources are from blogs similar to mine.

The first step in getting your blog out there is to be a good blog reader yourself. Comment regularly on blogs with reader demographics similar to yours. In other words, don’t waste your time commenting on auto repair blogs if your blog is about finding the ultimate cupcake recipe. But do comment on baking blogs, party blogs, and similarly-themed sites.

It’s generally considered poor taste to include a link back to your site within your comment. Though you might mention that you just posted a great recipe on your site. Eventually you might want to email people with similar blogs and let them know if you’ve added them to your blogroll. People will do link swaps, but I’m not into it; it seems disingenuous. But if people genuinely like your blog, they will link back to it. Start building connections. Maybe on that cupcake blog you can feature a recipe froma new chef each week. They will quite likely be flattered and mention the mention on their blog. Maybe award a bakery a “goody of the week” award and if the bakery has a shop, they will likely mention the accolade on their blog.

Now that you’re out making all sorts of e-connections, it would be a good time for a little safety check. I follow two basic rules. I don’t post any identifying information that might lead someone to discover my address. And I never post about vacations or times that I’m away from the house when I’m actually away. So, the cat is out of the bag; if you read about me being at the cabin on my blog, I was actually there last week. I got smart about that after reading about a family who was tweeting about their long car ride home while burglars were emptying their house feeling relaxed knowing the owners wouldn’t be home for X hours. In terms of how personal to be, that’s an individual decision I’d say. Take the blog, Dooce, for example. Hers is probably one of the most read blogs and she gets way personal, like icky pregnancy details. I prefer my blog a little cleaner, but clearly her readers love the nitty-gritty, up close and personal aspect of her blog. So, figure out where you want to draw the line and set some guidelines for yourself.

I worked for a company called Ziba Design and they used to say, “80% of new products fail, the remaining 20% have soul.” I’d wager that the failure rate is even higher for blogs. So, how do you write a blog with soul? I think the trick is in writing about something you’re passionate about and remaining authentic. If you try to ride whatever wave is surfing through the blogosphere you won’t develop a loyal following and you won’t develop your own unique voice either. There will be people with whom your original thoughts resonate. So, create your blog, share your thoughts, find those people and keep cultivating that relationship, because it is a relationship. You will come to know certain readers and regular commenters and you will look forward to their feedback as much as they look forward to your posts.