Blogging tip #2: 7 important questions you should ask yourself before you start blogging

bysmartketeer

6.8K followers

Updated 6 years ago

In my first blogging tip I've debunked the most common blogging myths ...

Now I'm going to dhare with you ...

7 important questions you should ask yourself before you start blogging

So, what’s the point of all these questions? It’s all about analyzing your goals, needs, experiences and personality to find out how blogging may – or may not – fit your style and your purposes.

Fact is, nowadays (too) many people are rushing into blogging expecting the world, just to realize that blogging doesn’t suits their hopes. Obviously, you’ll have to decide for yourself, but it’s important to know what kind of skills you might need to develop, so I am going to share with you 7 questions that will help you to perform an objective self-evaluation before leaping into blogging.

• Do I enjoy writing?

I admit, the written form is not the only content type that can be used on a blog. Still, blogs are predominantly a written medium, so if you don’t really enjoy writing then you might not enjoy blogging.

Of course, you will always have the possibility to use some outsourcing platforms or content writing services to keep your blog running.

• Do I enjoy reading?

The very first step in any content creation process is a thorough and extensive research. In order to create an interesting, value-packed blog post you’ll have to perform continuous in-depth researches reading dozens of articles every week. In fact, you will probably spend more time with reading than writing. If you don’t enjoy reading it could be hard and exhausting to perform efficient researches …

• Do I have enough time?

Blogging is very time-intensive. The continuous research, content creation and blog management requires a LOT of time. To put it bluntly: running a business blog is a full-time job and cannot be taken lightly. Period.

And of course, no matter how much time do you have, the productivity will always be an essential factor ...

• Do I enjoy virtual relationships?

Being social in the real offline world with your friends or relatives and being social online with people you have never meet before, are two very different things. Being comfortable with sustaining virtual conversations and relationships is an essential requirement for a blogger. You’ll have to communicate via email, to develop and to maintain a solid presence on various social media platforms, to efficiently handle the commenting system of your blog, etc.

Though many experts won’t agree, in my opinion this is something deeply rooted in our individual nature and as a result is not a skill that can be successfully learned or developed. If this is a sensible area for you, than you will have to find a reliable blog management service that can help you to run and manage your blog without getting stressed and frustrated by your virtual relationships.

• Do I have the proper creative skills?

I admit, this is not a must … it’s more like an advantage. Having an eye-catchy, visually enhanced and appealing blog is extremely important in these days. A nice, mobile friendly WordPress theme is a good starting point, but still, you’ll have to create promotional materials, beautiful images for your blog posts, infographics, branding materials, etc. To put it simply: having certain creative skills and being familiar with various graphic editors (for example, Photoshop) can be a big plus …

Of course, you can always choose to outsource these tasks. And if you are ready to invest some time and effort to learn a few things, there are many awesome services or easy-to-use graphic tools and resources that can help you to create outstanding visuals for your blog.

• Do I have the necessary technical abilities?

If you are planning to run a blog, most likely you are going to use a content management system like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal and it’s a well-known fact that the usage of these very simple and user-friendly platforms doesn’t require to many technical skills.

However, having a solid – or at least a basic – understanding on how HTML and CSS works will always help you to create a better content and a better user experience. Also, tweaking your blog is a continuous, never ending process and knowing how to do it yourself can be very useful. If you are serious about blogging, but you are not familiar with HTML and CSS, I strongly recommend you to find a way to acquire a basic knowledge about these important topics. Believe me, your efforts will be rewarded on long term …

• What is my reason for blogging?

Evidently, this is the most important question … It can be a very tough questions especially if you’ll – and you should! – try to go further than to “make some nice money”. Yes, I know, eventually is always about money, but what about other motivations? Think it over carefully, because a blog that generates a revenue is a business, and there is no business success without specific goals and clear objectives!

Wrapping it up

As you may have already figure it out, with all those outsourcing opportunities, content creation and blog management services basically it’s possible to run your own blog without doing anything, but obviously this is not a very healthy approach.

So, ask yourself the above 7 questions and give yourself an honest, well-thought-out answer to objectively evaluate your potential weaknesses. Once you know them, will be much more easier for you to outline an achievable and sustainable blogging strategy. And of course, these are just the most important examples and requirements … There are many other skills and characteristics that can help you in becoming a successful, appreciated blogger, such as:

• Willingness to learn; blogging is like an endless journey where everyone knows something but nobody will ever know everything. You’ll face new challenges almost every single day and you must be ready to embrace them.

• Discipline; blogs require regular attention over time. Will you be able to motivate yourself on long-term?

• Consistency; changing your topic, your style, your voice or your basic approach will get you in serious troubles with your target audience.

• Self-criticism; the blogosphere has a culture of people keeping on eye upon each other and digging everywhere where you don’t want them to dig. Being in the public spotlight can be quite uncomfortable especially when the inevitable will happen and you’ll be – fairly or not – criticized. Do you have the ability to take criticism well or you are expressly thin-skinned?

• Orderliness; you are going to have a lots of regular, ongoing daily tasks such as content creation, promotion, comment management, social media, mailing, analytics, etc. If you are not well organized you can lose the track in a heartbeat.

• Patience; most blogs are not overnight successes. The long-term approach is one of the basic pieces of advice that I’d give you.

Needless to say, the above list is idealistic and if you don’t have some of these qualities it’s not the end of your blogging dreams or career. Still, it’s important to enter into blogging with open eyes, knowing both your strengths and potential weak points …