4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Start A Blog

This is a guest post compiled by +Shamsudeen Adeshokan  for OgbongeBlog

Most bloggers fail in their first attempt in creating a blog due to lack of clear concise plan on how to start and run a successful blog. This is one of the reasons why most of such bloggers abandon their first blogs to start new ones.

I also failed in my first attempt to start a blog. Everything was done zig-zag. Too many task to  complete, I didn't even know where to get started. Fast forward to date, I looked back at my beginning, and wish I had known most of what I knew today before I ever start a blog.

If you are interested in starting a new blog and won't want it to be abandoned in the long run, there are some questions you will have to ask yourself. Questioning yourself will help you determine which direction to go.

To save you a lot of time and hard work I went through trying to figure out blogging, I want you to ask yourself these questions below, and take time to consider your answers before you get started with your new blog.

#1. Why am I starting this blog?  

This should be the starting point to why you're creating a blog. Without defining your purpose from the get-go, you’ll have no clear direction. You need to ask yourself the reason why you wanting to start a blog. Is it for money, fame, to build your writing skills or just for fun?

Your definite answer will determine your approach and aggressiveness toward your blog task and marketing. With this question, you will easily keep your blog on track.


#2. Who Are My Targeted Audience? 

Right before anything else, I mean even before registering a domain name and hosting, you need to decide very quickly who your intended audience is.

You need to determine who will be reading your articles. The clearer you can define them, the easier it will be for you to plan content for them.

Knowing your targeted audience will help you decide how you'll set up your blog from scratch. Type of content to create, how to drive traffic to it and many more.

#3. Where and how to get traffic?

Few weeks or months after you might have started your blog, you’re going to have to turn your attention to promoting your blog so as to get new readers apart from your family and friends.

There are free ways you can market your blog eg social media and there are some other ways that will cost you some money eg Google or Facebook ads.

The earlier you decide how you're going to be driving traffic to your blog, the better for you. If you're starting a content marketing blog, is much easier to learn with it but if you're running a business blog, you better buckle up in time. Every cents you spent either makes you happy or frustrated.

#4. How Often Will I Post?

Creating and maintaining a blog involves a lot of work and you need to put effort into it. If you want to attract readers to your blog and keep them coming back, you have to be updating your blog frequently.

You can post everyday, weekly or on weekends. It's better to decide in advance how often you will be posting to your blog. Whatever rate of posting you decide, you have to stick with it, if you don't want to lose readers.


Conclusion.......

Starting and maintaining a blog can be difficult, but if you ask yourself these questions and consider the answers before you start your blog, you will have a much easier task ahead of you.

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This post was written by +Shamsudeen Adeshokan  . He is a passionate blogger who writes about blogging tips and tutorials at CyberNaira.com. If he is not working on his computer, then he is in the field playing football.