Image by sean dreilinger via Flickr

Before you start to blog, you need to plan out what are your goals for you blog and how are you going to ensure that it meets your target audience (or you marketing plan).

You also need to consider how often you plan to blog and may find it useful to compose a rough outlines of your first 10 or so posts. Here is a rough outline of what your plan may contain and what you need to consider:

• What will be the topic of your blog?
• The purpose of your blog. eg: to share information, make money or keep in contact with friends.
• The name of your blog – will you call it something easy to remember, or a brand name or use your name (there are many options?
• Are you going to register a domain name to host your blog or use a free blogging site?
• How often do you want to post to your blog?
• What are the goals of your blog?
• How will you measure the success of your blog?
• What skills do you need to gain to improve your blog?
• What type of design or look do you want your blog to have?
• What blog software or site are you going to use?
• How are you going to ensure that your blog reaches your target audience?
• How often will you evaluate your blog and readjust its direction if necessary?

To use this blog as an example: This blog uses wordpress but is self-hosted on an external domain server. I chose this option as I wanted to experiment with affiliate programs and see if it was possible to make an income from a blog. My purpose of this blog is to share information gained from the blogging process and for people to learn form this information. I choose my domain name because it is easy to remember and relates to the topic of the blog.

I am going to attempt to reach my target audience through search engine optimisation, writing relevant posts and possibly through an advertisement campaign.

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Here is a slideshare presentation on search engine optimisation by one of my class mates – it gives a good overview of the topic.

I have been given the task to put a blog together for an electronic marketing assignment. In my efforts to put my blog together I have found a wealth of information about writing blogs, making money on the Internet and various techniques for increasing the readership of your page. Rather than all this information just being absorbed into my mind I though I would share my journey to becoming a blogger with whoever may be interested.