Blogging For Beginners: A How To

Guest post by Blog Manager, Robbi Hess

As the New Year looms, let's get your year of blog success off to a fantastic start, shall we? You love pets -- yours and others -- you have something to say, you're a good writer (and yes, you need to be a good writer or have access to a good editor) and feel you're ready to say it on the Internet, right? 

Here are five questions to ask yourself to see if you and your love of pets will be a good fit for blogging: 

1. The biggest question you need to answer is, do you like writing? If putting pen to paper (virtual or otherwise) something you enjoy, then blogging may be for you. If, however, the idea of having to sit down and write on a semi-regular basis gives you a headache, you may need to find another platform to build your pet-centric platform. Consider Twitter rather than a blog and you can micro-blog your way to success. 

Do you have something to say? Wanting to blog and enjoying writing is one thing, having something to actually say is something else entirely. What do you want to say? Will you blog from the POV of your pet? Do you have an area of expertise or a product you want to talk about? Will you write about animal rescue? Humor? Slice of life? 

Do you have the discipline to follow through? If the idea of "having" to find time to write is going to turn you off from blogging, then it's best to not start. You won't have a boss standing behind you waiting for you to finish. You will be your own boss and to succeed you need to be disciplined. 

Do you enjoy reading? To be a good writer you need to be a good and avid reader. You will want to keep up on trends. 

How social are you? Your blog won't thrive in a vacuum. You will want to spread the word through your social media platforms. You will also want to interact on other blogs, comment, ask for comments, etc. 

Answer these questions and you will be on your way to kicking off your new blogging "career" in the new year!  

Comments

[Caren Gittleman]

fabulous advice and you brought back memories of when I first discovered BlogPaws online.

I was BRAND NEW to the world of blogging back in 2009 and needless to say I was LOST. I had NO CLUE.

I literally stumbled upon BlogPaws after conducting a Google search and it was "love at first sight".

Your post reminds me of my "first meeting" and I am sure that those who are entering the world of blogging for the first time (as well as those of us who are veteran bloggers) will find this post to be enormously helpful!

Here's to another great year! Bring on 2012!

[Carol Bryant]

Happy 2012 and thanks for the post, Robbi!

[Angela@Cat Scratchers]

Hi Robbi! This post reminded me on my first blogging activity. well, here it is, well it's around 2009 when my older sister introduced me about this blogging thing, at first it's kinda boring for me, but when the time that other blogger post a comment then there's a unique feeling that you're interacting to other people in the way of blogging. Also I prefer storing my personal memories like pictures, movie clips, stories, etc online so that I can access it when ever where ever, as long as there's an Internet connection, also my friends and family can visit it. About the Article, Thanks for the info's I enjoyed reading it. Happy New Year!

[Karo Itoje]

Hi Robbi,

Good points you made in your post. I think everyone can write as long as they can speak. And everyone has one thing or the other they are good at that they can covert to money online. These are not the issues, the issue is not everyone has what it takes to succeed on the Internet.

Writing blog posts is just one thing, building backlinks is another really tedious and tiring work, in fact marketing in general, getting your blog out there is one huge task especially for very competitive niches. One has to really be passionate about working or earning from home to be able to put in everything that online business demands to succeed. So it actually goes beyond just wanting to blog. You must really want the life of working from home in other to be able to keep pushing yourself to succeed.

But if you do, there are many benefits that will come with it. And blogging is surely a quick and cheap way to start working from home.