July, 2003 was when I made my first leap into the unknown world of blogging. I had purchased my domain name in 2001, but never really got around to doing much with it until I started my blog. When I started I didn’t have a reason other than to “do something with my domain name”. Okay well I did have a few random thoughts on what I wanted to achieve:

  • Put up pictures of my up and coming family
  • Keep in touch with friends
  • Have an avenue to voice my opinion on any topic of my choosing.
  • Post code and other tech stuff (probably loosely related to having had shutdown my extremely unsuccessful site: techxcellence.net)

At this point in time blogging wasn’t a craze, but there were some respectable blogs out there that I enjoyed and I figured it was a start at getting a presence on the web. My good friends Aaron and Sol were contemplating blogs at the time and would eventually start their blogs a couple months later. (Aaron on the Way Back Machine | Sol on the Way Back Machine). All things considered it seemed like the best time to go for it, so I took the plunge with Movable Type. (Note: I will cover blog engines in a different post).

Since that time my blog has seen it’s flurry of posts and it’s lull in posts. — I think one time Sol even wrote me a web eulogy because he figured I had died and gone to webbed heaven. — Now looking back I realize that because I never really had a purpose for my blog. It was something that went with my moods, was cool at the time, and something I thought I could keep up with.

NOW FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS POST

Here’s what I would do different in getting started with a blog (these will be written in the second person):

  • Have a distinct purpose for your blog. Whether it’s for family and friends, pictures, advertise your work, rants, political opinions, jokes, etc. Know what you want to put out there and have some realistic topics in mind that you know you can keep up with. — Of course there are blogs that are potpourri of things and that’s all well and good.
  • Have a target audience. And let your readers know what audience you are targeting. This will not only help to qualify your posts, but also help you in blogging to know who you are trying to reach.
  • Be realistic in how often you can blog. Don’t have your readers expecting you to post everyday when you can really only post once a month.
  • Pace your posts. Outside of posting timely or current news/events, if you are writing columns, opinions or views - don’t post all your content in 5 days and then go quiet for a month. Stagger those posts to fill that time period.
  • Don’t feel pressured into posting content. You will go through dry spells when blogging. That’s a simple fact. However, don’t let your readers push you to blog about something when you just aren’t ready to. — You may end up blogging about something you never intended to.
  • License your material. — I’ll cover this more in depth in my next article.