Is Blogging Something I’m Capable of Doing?

We all have something to say and a need to be heard. We all like discussing ideas and opinions with people. People in our immediate surroundings are probably a bit easier to read and you can usually predict what opinion someone from your hometown has about a certain subject. The reason for this is that you share the same environment; you are faced with more or less the same problems and needs.

The Internet has given us the ability to exchange opinions and ideas with people of different races, nationalities, religious standings and so on. If you are thinking about starting a blog and you intend to write in English, you should be aware that they may come a time when the majority of your readers will disagree with you.

Depending on the type of blogger you want to be, you will need to prepare for various things and be prepared to deal with various situations.

Do I have the time for this?

This is the first thing you need to ask yourself. Writing a blog can become a full-time occupation and that’s why it is very important that you are sure that you can fit it all into your schedule. A lot of people start a blog, gather some readers and then realize that the effort of writing a blog is too much for them. If you think this can happen to you, my advice is – don’t even start. If you are not going to do it right, it is a better idea to occupy your time by doing something else, without wasting your own and the time of your potential readers.

Blogs require new content weekly, communication with readers, blog maintenance and much more. The larger your fan base is, the more work you will have to put in. Be ready for this. Think ahead, prepare content in advance and do your work properly.

Is my idea good enough?

There are readers for every subject, the whole world is listening and no matter what your interests may be, there are bound to be a lot of people in the world who can relate. I’d like to change the question here a bit. It should go something like:”Is my idea good enough to inspire me?” and there is a reason for this. If you are truly passionate and informed about the things you intend to write about, you will not have difficulties being creative and having fun while writing.

One of the more common syndromes of new bloggers is the “I`ll write about a subject that is popular at the moment” syndrome. This is bad in so many ways. First of all, the popular subject you intend to write about might be a passing trend. This means you will lose your readers the moment the trend blows over. If you as a writer are not genuinely inspired by this subject, then you won’t be able to write quality content or write on a regular basis.

When picking out a subject, make sure you like it – not the entire world. Also, the subject needs to give you some breathing space. If it is a narrow topic, than you will quickly burn thorough it and end up with nothing to write about. You need to pick out something that can be related to things and discussed at length.

Do I need to invest money in order to start a blog?

If you intend to be a casual blogger, than the answer is no, you don’t. There are a lot of ways to share your ideas with a small group of readers and enjoy yourself without coughing out any cash for your blog. It is not unheard of though, that casual blogs get really popular and that these bloggers then take up blogging as their primary career. You can very well do something like that. Start small and cheap and build up and invest if you realize that this is something you want to do seriously.

If you have decided to take this endeavor very seriously than there are a couple of things you should prepare before hand:

Your own domain:

This will give your blog a unique name and make it easier for people to find. It is much harder for people to dig up your blog if you are using one of the free solutions.

Your own hosting:

Blogs these days require the use of multimedia. This means you will need to upload pictures, videos and even music from time to time, just to mix things up a bit. You will also need to keep your blog up 24/7. A crashed blog paints a picture of an unprofessional blogger who doesn’t invest into his work as much as he/she should. Getting good hosting is very important if you want to make it in this franchise.

Your own website:

Having a unique and stylish design for your blog will help people remember your blog with ease.  The thing you should remember when working on this is that you are trying to make a good environment for your readers to focus on the content. An overly flashy design might do you more harm than good.

Dealing with your readers

A blog is not your possession. If you want to keep your points of view intact then you shouldn’t even start a blog. Blogging is constant debating with people who have the same interest in the subject matter as you but might not share your points of view. You have to be prepared to answer all kind of questions and defend your standpoint.

Of course, you will have to deal with “trolls” from time to time and you will have to learn not to waste your time and energy on them. Don’t get into debating matches with people who are just there to yank your chain; you can’t win a battle of wits with somebody who doesn’t care about the subject at hand.

There is a lot more to talk about here but I believe that this is enough to answer your question. If you are prepared to deal with these things, do your research, start your blog and see you in the comment section.