Welcome to Part 2 of my series, where I’m exploring the important questions to ask before starting a blog. These questions will help you get a better idea of what you are trying to achieve with your business and audience. By creating an outline of your objective, you will have clear focus and this will help guide your content writing. I believe a successful business has everything to do with the ability for you to resonate with your readers. If this is clear, then you will have no problems achieving your bottom line. In part 1, we discussed the following:
- Importance of audience
- The purpose
- Why You’re Unique
- Different Content Types
Let’s jump into Part 2 and look at some other important questions to ask before getting started.
What are My Deadlines?
Blogging is very time consuming and requires enormous dedication. That’s why, before you start, it’s important to find out the type of deadlines you are working with so you can organize accordingly. From my experience, here are a few things to consider:
- How often you have to write content
- How often you should be publishing content
- How often you should research
Having a solid posting schedule and focused deadlines will ensure you keep a consistent flow of content, which is important to build momentum and brand awareness.
Do I Need to Hire Anyone?
Depending on the type of niche you are involved with, it’s important to explore your options. For example, you might be in a niche that you’re passionate about, but need to explore topics that require professional feedback. If you are writing about nutrition and dieting, then you might need to hire someone with a Ph.D. in nutrition to write content. I usually recommend people get involved in a niche they have experience, but it’s not uncommon for you to hire someone to write based on previous case studies, etc.
Whatever avenue you take, it’s important you do two things:
First, budget yourself so you’ll know exactly how much you’ll be spending on hiring people. By doing this, you are making sure you have a dedicated budget for your writing. Secondly, you can do research, making sure you hire the right people for the job. The most important thing is to find people who are experienced and actually provide value so your readers can pull substance out of your content. Once you have a handful of people right for the job, then you can continue to pay them to write content, but the hardest part is pretty much out of the way.
How Will I Market My Blog?
Before you start blogging, it’s important to explore ways to market your blog going forward. These days, you have so many options available to you so you need to find what works the best and will drive relevant traffic to your blog. For example, here are some options you might want to consider going forward:
- Social media
- PPC
- Forums
- Relevant blogs
- Banner ads
- Email marketing
Some methods will work better than others so it’s important to split test until you find the ones that work best. The methods you choose will also depend on your budget but the good news is you have free methods available like social media, forums, and blogs. Here’s the point I’m trying to make:
Before you start your blog, become familiar with as many marketing strategies so you can start implementing them right away. The more you know about them and their interface, the better you can apply them to your blog. Don’t forget to have a system in place to track results so you can optimize at a later time going forward.
Let Me Help You Start Your Blog Today!