Starting a blog begins with a decision but after that decision comes a whole series of actions that require patience, guidance and strategy.
In the grand scheme of things, this is actually the easiest phase of the whole journey but if not passed right, can ultimately become the hardest part of it all because it will keep drawing you back and keeping you behind.
You need to ask yourself the following questions:
• Why do I want to start a blog
• What will it be about
• What will be the purpose
• Who will it cater to
• How will it function
These are literally the building blocks to your blogging success so take time out, have a notepad and pen, go to a place to think about it and then write out the answers.
The 5 Questions Beginner Bloggers Need To Ask & Answer
1. Why do I want to start a blog
I'm going to be using myself as an example most of the time.
So when I started my blog, I knew I wanted to teach regular women how to apply makeup and I knew the type of makeup I had in mind. At that time I didn't know anything about makeup and to teach people about it, I had to know about it myself so I started watching YouTube videos. You'll be surprised to know that when I learned more about makeup I knew my mission had to change and that's when the purpose of my blog changed again.
If I had taken time out to properly think about the purpose of my blog then I would have known that my first purpose was a boatload of crap. Hazardous, full of potholes and bound to fail because
- I didn’t know anything about makeup
- I'd have known better than to promote cheap makeup that literally has no source
- I'd have been promoting a mix of affordable Nigerian brands and other foreign drugstore brands which were available in the market but no one knew about.
= I'd have moved several steps at a time instead of one step at a time. Image having these 3 steps squashed together into a 6 months period as opposed to having to use about 3 years to learn them all.
The good thing is that I always wanted to teach so even when I finally came round to the true reason, it wasn't too hard to do a turnaround.
The same goes for you - ask yourself the truth about why you want to start a blog. Is it for fame? Free event invites? Free products? Exactly what?
2. What will it be about
For me, it was makeup. So what? The whole world is talking about makeup.
But what about me? What EXACTLY will the blog be about? Will it be general topics like Makeup reviews, looks, stores, High-end products, drugstore products, tips? And remember, a makeup blog is different from a beauty blog.
You have to decide which one you are.
Imagine you want to write about vintage clothes, your blog could focus on vintage clothes for professionals which can then branch to casual vintage clothes for the off-work period. If you want to write about interior design, why not focus on kitchen interior for large families and you can still do recipes or interior design for the pantry or even the dining room or the rest of the house. You have to pick a niche and won't box you in but still give you room to wiggle. It might help to consider something you love + a skill you have = your niche.
You just have to know what your site will be about. Write it down and make it plain.
I started off as a makeup blogger but when I became a makeup artist and began working on shoots, people would ask me about skin and fashion. I always replied with "makeup guys, makeup", but somehow people expected it so I went into other aspects of beauty and the my personal fashion style. I knew how I wanted to approach fashion and though I had a few faulty starts, I've been able to do it the way I want and I'm happy with it so far but my mainstay remains beauty.
3. What will be the blog's purpose?
I know you've already established what your blog will be about but to what end? What purpose will it serve? Will it just be there to flow with any whims that come upon you at any time? NO, that won't work you know.
You have to define the exact purpose. For me, the initial purpose of my beauty blog was to teach, when the direction changed, the purpose became to be a source of information, then it finally evolved to become a source of inspiration, information and education more than anything else.
So you have to find the purpose of your blog - teach like Neil Patel or Adam Enfroy, entertain like Buzzfeed, just be a go-to source of information like Beauty in Lagos for Lagos beauty businesses, or inspire.
4. Who will your blog cater to?
Who will you be writing for? Teenagers, the Working class, the general public, mums, mums with teenage kids, or mature mums. They are called your target audience.
You have to properly define your audience. Your audience might be fellow bloggers or some kind of professionals like amateur makeup artists or professional makeup artists whose Clients are regular women and they want to know what products these women like to buy so they can sell them too or working single men & women who want to learn quick 5-minute meals they can whip up in a sec.
One thing I've learned is that your direct primary audience who are your main focus are people who are just like you.
In my case, these will be females between the ages of 25 and 35, they either have jobs or work for themselves, they always like to look good but at the same time don't mind having off days, they want to be themselves while going with the trend, they love to hang out on social media, they like to meet others who are just like them, they are not afraid to ask questions but sometimes prefer to find out the answers for themselves. That's just a snippet of who my direct primary target is.
There is also a secondary audience who are fallouts of the primary and you also have to consider them sometimes because they may be entering the sphere of your primary audience or they may just be growing out of it.
5. How will it function
Do you have a demanding 9-5 that leaves you almost no time for yourself on weekdays? Or maybe you work remotely and can juggle one and off all day every day. Better still, you work better with a tight schedule so weekdays are for work and you prefer to devote the weekends to all your personal projects.
You get my drift though. How is your blog going to function? Will you work on it at night only or on weekends? Will you create a schedule for posting or you'll be random? Will you get other people to become active parts of it or will you work on it alone? These are important questions you need to answer.
Recap
The 4 questions that need clear cut, precise answers before starting your blog are
- Why do I want to start a blog - just an offhand decision or a genuine passion. Will it serve a worthy purpose?
- What will it be about - is it a topic I'm knowledgeable about or one I'm passionate about? Can I tear my clothes in support of it in an argument? (ok, that's extreme but to what length will you go for it?)
- Who will my blog cater to - my friends, my family, my colleagues, my little sister and her friends?
- How will it function - maybe I'll just hire someone to write about this topic cos I don't have the time for it but I'd like to have this little space on the internet anyways.
