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Question 1. What will be the purpose of your Blog?
There are many reasons for Blogging, some serious, some frivolous. What you choose for your new blog will guide the (sub)topics you choose, affect your writing style, and will largely control how your Blog is received by readers.
Are you blogging for fun? Is this going to be a hobby, a way of letting off steam?
Many of the first Blogs were used to express feelings and observations. They were a vehicle for keeping wide-spread families up to date. Soon hobbyists caught the Blog bug and you found Blogs about model trains and Bonsai trees.
Do you have an axe to grind? Are you taking a stand? Teaching something?
More and more Blogs have become organs for social or political discussion, and no small number of them are philosophical and religious. This Blog, Uphill Writing, is what is known as a Meta-Blog, or writing about writing, and falls into multiple groups including philosophy, discussion and instruction.
A Blog is an excellent way to teach something you love or to shout out about something you believe in.
Are you increasing readership for your stories or novels?
Many writers are using their blogs to increase readership. Several big-name writers Blog on a regular basis, and so doing, keep their readers involved.
Are you selling something?
Aside from monetizing a Blog by inserting ads, some people are selling eBooks, both fiction and non-fiction, directly.
Is your plan for a Blog covered in the above categories? If you have another use for your Blog, we would love to hear it. Leave a comment.
Insisting on knowing the purpose of your Blog going in sounds like a no-brainer, but an amazing number of Blogs are created every day which have no purpose or direction at all. I’ll leave it to you to guess how long they stay active.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio... and isn't it time you experienced some of them?
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