Before getting started with blogging, you need to take a long look at your big plans for your Web site. A word of advice: Organize your plan of attack before you start. Have a good idea of what types of information you want to publish, how you want to present and organize that information, and what types of services and interaction you want to provide your audience.

It doesnt matter whether youre planning to start a personal blog as a diary of your daily life or a business blog to provide useful information to readers who are interested in your area of expertise. All potential bloggers have ideas about what type of information they want to present, and you wouldnt be considering starting a new blog if you didnt want to share that information (no matter what it is) with the rest of the world via the Internet. So having a plan of attack is helpful when you’re starting out.

Ask this question out loud: “What am I going to blog about? Go ahead - ask it. Do you have an answer? Maybe you do, and maybe not - either way, its all right. Theres no clear set of ground rules you must follow. Having an idea of what you’re planning to write about in your blog makes planning your attack a little easier. You may want to write about your personal life.

Maybe you plan to share only some of your photography and provide very little commentary to go along with it. Or maybe youre a business owner, and you want to blog about your services and current news within your industry.

Having an idea of your subject matter will help you determine how you want to deliver that information. My design blog, for example, is where I write about Web design projects, client case studies, and news related to design and blogging. You wont find pictures of my cats there, but you will find those pictures on my personal blog. I keep the two blogs separate, much in the same way that most of us like to keep a distinct line of separation between our personal and professional lives, no matter what industry we work in.

With your topic in mind, ask yourself these questions:
 

✓ How often will I update my blog with new posts? Daily? Weekly?

 ✓ Do I want to encourage discussion by letting my readers comment on my blog posts?

 ✓ Do I want to make every post available for public display? Am I okay with my boss or my family finding and reading my blog posts?

 ✓ How will I categorize my posts?

✓ Do I want to publish the full content of my posts in my RSS feed, or just excerpts?

 ✓ Do I want my blog posts to be easy for search engines to find?

When you have your topic and plan of delivery in mind, you can move forward and adjust your blog settings to work with your plan.

 

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