Taiwan

Four solid reasons to start a blog: audience, content, skill and a feel for business

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A couple of months ago I got together with Steve Sutherland, one of my friends in Taipei, who was wondering if he should start a blog or not. If you remember from earlier posts, he runs the Education Agents website, AgentsChat dot com. He was thinking about installing the WordPress software on a separate domain, and starting a blog about the World of Education Services. So should he run a blog? That got me to thinking: should he?

I can outline four reasons (and two caveats) why I think he should consider starting blogging:

1. He has an audience: His community already has 1500 members and it is growing constantly. In the forum, there are ample opportunities for writing post like articles, and in fact, Steve has already done some writing in the forums. It’s quite clear that while forums are good for chatting, longer articles are often the backbone of a good community as they allow writers the space to expand their ideas, develop their content, and write top quality articles. With an audience already present, he’s got an easy start, and by integrating SMF with WordPress, he’d be able to take advantage of the strengths of both applications.

2. He has something to say: As you’ve seen, Steve is already well capable of writing good pieces that his audience would enjoy reading. I’ve spoken to Steve on many occasions, and I think he has a lot of incredible ideas about his industry that would easily find an very specific niche. In fact, I have a strong sense that with his insight into his industry, his blog would quickly establish itself as a top blog because of its first-mover chance. I amn’t aware of any blogs that would be competing for his space.

3. He has the technical skill to manage a blog: Learning WordPress can be a little daunting at times for new users, but in general the principles of managing a blog are similar to, and easier than, managing an online forum. By fine tuning the operation of the blog, you can be left with the primary task of just focusing on writing. He’s also familiar with many of the Internet resources that he would need to develop a blog properly.

4. He has the business skill to run it well: Many bloggers (myself included) started blogging without much concern for the business side of it. For the most successful ones, monetization almost came as an afterthought to the blog itself. This isn’t necessarily the best way to build a business. Steve’s got a rich experience, and knowledge of, running businesses, advertising, marketing, etc., all of which would serve him well to get started. Combined with an established audience, advertisers, and networks, he’d likely have a solid foundation for the blog to be successful in the long term.

So I believe that these four “Winds of Blogging” are all blowing now and it could be the perfect opportunity for him to start. But I also know he has reservations about blogging, especially on the commitment side; and the confidence side.

So, let’s deal with the confidence issue first. Most people, when confronted with the idea of ‘having’ to write, react in a similar way – with HORROR! And, rightly so.

Your words, ideas and organization are all going to be read by dozens, possibly hundreds of readers, are you good enough? Is your writing good enough? Do you really have something to say? To which I have only one thing to say: blogging is pretty much an adventure… as such, you’re allowed the space to develop as a writer (hey, look at my posts a year ago, and you’ll see what I mean!).

Too often to new writers, the goal is to write the perfect piece of writing with the best organization and best content. Well, it isn’t going to happen any time soon. So quit worrying! Once you quite worrying about your writing, you’ll really begin to enjoy the process, the adventure of blogging.

To progress as a writer, and as a blogger, you DO have to make a commitment: with yourself, with your blog, and with your audience. What the nature of that commitment is can be totally up to you! If you want to post daily, then you can. If you want to post weekly, or even monthly, then you can. Obviously, you’ll experience different results whichever method you choose. But there’s no obligation to post on a daily basis. But like most skills, the more you practice, the better you will become.

So, in short, to people who are considering blogging, and can’t decide. Perhaps this post will help to clarify what it is that is holding you back. For me, though, it was a nexus of different things that helped to get me posting regularly: I already had a blog and a hankering to write something, I also had a strong motivation in my content area, then I discovered BlogDesk, and later Payperpost. Somehow all of this coalesced last year, when my daily posting schedule came about.

What helped you to get started blogging? When did it happen? Share with us in our comments section below.

Monday News: Winners, Downloads, Carnivals and my new project

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It’s Monday, the first day of a new week, and lots of things are happening! So keep reading…

And my favorite post in the last few weeks:

In Competition News

We’ve had two competitions recently: one of which was a rip-roaring success with lots of submissions, and one of which wasn’t.

The winner of the “Guess the Floor” height was in fact Michael Turton who won that week’s prize: a free blog review. It was interesting to read his blog, and interesting to write the review. I did receive some follow up on my comments about Blogger vs. WP. Seems Michael is getting ready to move to WordPress soon. Looking forward to that.

The other competition only generated one response: of course, it was correct. Skeet’s blog is well known as a blog, and has a great design. In fact, I buzzed her blog last year ! So, she’ll shortly be winning a keyboard! Do drop me a line, Skeet, with your snail mail address!

The New Download

I’ve created a new download for my favorite feeds, I’ve called it my Top Ten Twelve (ed. plus five more!), but then I realized that I’ve omitted some great feeds, so I will be revising it shortly. Can you guess who’s in the feeds currently? I wonder who is missing! If you can’t stand the wait, just download it NOW!

New Blog Carnival

I have launched a new carnival for the website coming shortly, it’s called “dot com carnival“. Do check it out and submit any good articles! Submissions policy is on the linked page. We’re definitely taking submissions NOW!

Making REAL Money Carnival

There’s the 13th edition of this carnival available now, with some good stuff, do take the time to read it over!

My New Project

Having been asked to help consult on a blogging project, I’ll be revealing soon what I’m working on. It’s quite interesting but it’s going to be a lot of work to bring the project upto speed for my client! Still, we’ve made a good start with the install, plugins and base theme. We’ve just down the first post or two. I’ll let it mature a little before I say more here.

Consulting and Advising – Combining Blogging and your Career

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Teaching: It isn’t all about grammar and vocabulary!

I’ve been a teacher of ESL (if you’re American) or EFL (if you’re not) for more than years now than I have fingers and toes, and in that capacity, I’ve been privileged to teach people in Taipei City and Taipei County from all walks of life: business men and women, clerks, company workers, pc engineers, sales staff, students of all ages, bankers, doctors, nurses, etc. Despite teaching English, I often find myself advising and consulting with my clients on learning English rather than just simply teaching vocabulary and grammar (or other prescriptions of language learning).

New Vistas: New Paths

It was still a surprise when I found myself in the role of consultant for someone I’d never met, and in a field that I was less familiar with: blogging. Recently, I’ve been involved with setting up, administering and writing for a blog as a supplement to a static website. Naturally, this is a market that is going to grow leaps and bounds in the coming few years, until Web3.0 takes over. Since I’ve been involved in computers for many years, and been working in blogging on and off since 2004 pretty much as my passion, I found that I’ve come to learn and know a little in a wider range of areas: blogging, marketing online, online tools, wordpress software, writing, etc.

Consulting: Opportunities in All Areas

I’ll be revealing more about the project as I work away on it, and as it’s going to be a challenge coming up with refreshing and interesting posts. Something I’m looking forward to doing. For those of you looking into creating online income, consulting is an option that is open to many bloggers though it may not be easy to go head to head with the big guys out there. If you have experience in a professional or business field that is much more specific, you could still find many opportunities to put your blogging skills to good use online and offline in the field of consulting, but particular to your specialty whatever that may be.

Did this happen to you, too?

But it isn’t the first time I’ve found that people are interested in what I have to say about a range of subjects; nor is it the first time someone has suggested directly or indirectly that consulting may be a career choice for me? In fact, one of the reasons I started InvestorBlogger dot com was because I found that many people were struggling with the same financial problems I was. While I hadn’t found the ANSWERS per se, I had found some ways that worked for some situations, and I was eager to share those successes.

Blogging: Opening New Paths?

It was only when I started blogging that I began to discover the core of my interests, and for me, blogging became not a didactic process (me telling you WHAT to do) but a dynamic and very personal process that helped me to further my interests in a number of areas, as well as help my readers. Too often when I read other blogs in the field of money & finance I hear the voice of the blogger shouting: “Do this” or “Don’t do that!” … as if it were the 10 Commandments… and I am repelled because I KNOW it isn’t like that.

There are more ways to peel a potato or cook an egg than one. It’s only by accepting and understanding that that we can begin to see alternatives: new ways to write, new ways to learn, new ways to share, and new ways to make money. It’s not a cookbook or a book of instructions, rather it’s a pantry with ingredients, some raw, some part-cooked, some chilled… We’re the chef whose job it is to combine, create and re-create what is there.

(ed. Post backdated to fill space in yesterday’s calendar!)