So You Want to Write a Blog Part 1 (Personal Development)

Writing a blog is an admirable pursuit. It's also a lot of fun. But randomly throwing blog posts into the ether is not rewarding, and the thrill will be gone soon.

Over the next couple days, I want to explore the things you need to do to start a rewarding blog.

First, find a reason/theme/audience. These options have similar aims: to focus your writing. This gives your writing a particular "brand" for people to follow. For this blog, my theme is writing, and my audience is writers and potential readers. (This latter purpose will step up when I get published). Despite this theme and audience, however, I estimate 50% of my readers right now are not writers, but may be potential readers.

Commit to writing. Continuity is one reason that people come back to a blog. Many writers commit to weekly blogging; that's a reasonable amount. For some reason, I write daily. I'm not sure this is a good thing, but one of my reasons for writing this blog (other than what's given above) is to warm up and sharpen my writing skills. 

Find a platform. Commonly used platforms are Blogger (where this blog is), WordPress, Tumblr, and Wix. Each has advantages and disadvantages; some have access to more options in the paid version.  I have used Blogger and Wix; I use Blogger because of its simplicity and because, when I tried to migrate to Wix, my readers didn't migrate with me even though Wix has a superior visual interface. But which one you choose is up to personal preference.

I will explore further blog-writing ideas and tips in the next installment and would welcome your ideas and tips in the comments or by email: lleachie@gmail.com