My first post in this series covered Why we blog. This post I want to talk about What you need to know once you have decided to start blogging.
1. Ask yourself What is my goal?
– If your goal is to earn money, or to have control over the look of your blog. You need to self host with WordPress or Joomla. Both of these add permanence and both have lots of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Why should you care about SEO? SEO will allow others to find your content easier.
– If your goals for blogging are more along the lines of personal discipline or you are not sure you want to stick with blogging than a web hosted solution is best for you. WordPress.com and Blogger are two great options. They are web based and easy to set up and don’t cost you any money.
2. What do I wish I knew when I started?
– No matter what you do Web hosted (free) or Self hosted (paid) you need to buy a url that describes your blog. I chose Samluce.com because I want to blog no matter what I do in ministry. I enjoy it. My friend Kenny has a great blog his is Childrensministryonline.com very kids specific. No matter what you do take my word for it buy your own url.
– I wished I would have decided what my ultimate goal of blogging would be and changed my blog address and platform three times and it made the growth of my blog slow at the start.
– I wish I would have know how facebook and twitter are the best ways to promote your blog to the people who are most likely to benefit from what you write.
– I wish someone would have told me blogging is about what you can give to the community you are trying to reach not about trying to get people to come to your site. When someone leaves a comment or asks a question respond. Get outside your own blog and leave comments on other peoples blogs.
– Write down blog ideas especially in the beginning. One of the hardest things about blogging is finding your voice (what are you an expert about), finding your rhythm how often should you blog, speaking to your audience sometimes will make you rethink if what you are going to post is helpful.
Excellent tips Sam.
Great stuff Sam. I just recently rebranded and retooled my blog a bit. I like the look of it now a lot better but not sure about the new url <a href="http://(http://kidsministryblog.com)” target=”_blank”> <a href="http://(http://kidsministryblog.com)” target=”_blank”>(http://kidsministryblog.com). I like your idea of just using your name so that I can keep it up no matter what I do in ministry/life over the long haul. Wish I had these posts to help me last year before I started.
Excellent tips Sam.
Great stuff Sam. I just recently rebranded and retooled my blog a bit. I like the look of it now a lot better but not sure about the new url <a href="http://(http://kidsministryblog.com)” target=”_blank”>(http://kidsministryblog.com). I like your idea of just using your name so that I can keep it up no matter what I do in ministry/life over the long haul. Wish I had these posts to help me last year before I started.
Thanks for the help Sam. Started with the growing your blog section now backtracking through the rest. Good info.
P.S. Go Sox! Now that's a shot John…
boo redsoxs
Thanks for the help Sam. Started with the growing your blog section now backtracking through the rest. Good info.
P.S. Go Sox! Now that's a shot John…
boo redsoxs