Starting a new blog

[ben502]

I am looking to start a new blog on my site here in the near future. My problem at this point is, as a new startup business i have no idea what to write about that people haven't already ready several hundred times...so why would people want to come to/ keep coming back to my internet ramblings?

My guess is i am thinking way too inside the box at this point.

Thanks Yall!

[Patrysha]

It's really a matter of putting your own personality into it. Just because people in the business might have read things a hundred times, most of your prospects will not have read a word of it. Now if it's for business, you wouldn't want them to be random internet ramblings, but thoughts and ideas that will position you as an expert in their minds...so not random but things that will be useful, interesting, entertaining or inspiring.

[KristineS]

I've been writing a blog for one of our companies for over 3 years now. You'd be surprised what you can find to talk about. Write about your products or services. Write about your business philosophy, how you feel about customer service, or why and how your business was founded. Talk about the day to day things that happen, the customer that said nice things, the tough job that you found a solution for, how someone brought you cookies just to say thanks. Give tips to your customers, talk about the unique aspects of your particular business, and talk about why your customers should work with you.

As Patrysha said, make sure your personality is part of the mix. You may talk about things that a lot of other business blogs have discussed, but no one else has your viewpoint and personality.

[ben502]

This is fantastic! Thank you guys.

[Harold Mansfield]

I have started a blog directed at existing or at gaining new clients at least 3 times. The one thing I finally figured out is that my clientele, doesn't care or read much about the technical inter-workings of the internet, design, or Wordpress. They are not gurus. I had to sit back and think what all of my clients and prospects had in common, and find things to write about that they care abut on a day to day basis.

It doesn't always have to be serious and it doesn't always have to be business related. Sometimes it's just helpful tips, talking bout new advances or products or anything.
The one thing all of my clients and prospected clients have in common is that they are all in business and are all running their own website and don't take, or have time to learn about every new thing. From that there's a million things to talk about that are helpful or interesting.

[vangogh]

Ben very few people are writing things that no one else is writing about. It's more writing about a topic from your own unique angle. A few thoughts

1. Subscribe to as many blogs in your industry as you can. See what others are writing about the topic. It'll help generate ideas and you'll get a feel for how others treat the topic. If you need some help finding blogs let me know. I'm subscribed to about 200 or so design related blogs.

2. Don't stress about how quickly your blog is growing early on. At first few people will be reading and commenting and you might feel like you're writing to no one, but yourself. Use that time to find your voice so when people are reading your blog will be that much better.

3. Be consistent. Be reasonable about how many posts you can write each week or month and stick with that. Even if all you can do is one post every other week. I now post twice a week, every Monday and Thursday. Every so often I may add a 3rd post on another day, but I make sure that every Monday and Thursday morning there's a new post.

4. Most importantly create a blog that you would want to read if it wasn't you writing. Don't write things because you think it's what you have to write. Write what genuinely interests you. Be yourself. This took me awhile to learn. Early on I wrote based more on the advice popular bloggers were offering. Their advice was good, but I was applying it to any old post idea. I wasn't very interested in my own blog which suffered as a result. I took some time away from the blog and came back writing the posts I wished others would have been writing. I don't have a degree in design and wanted to learn more. I bought books, found tutorials online, etc. Now my posts are often sharing what I'm teaching myself about how to design and develop better sites. My blog has grown about 600%-1000% since I started writing for me.

[954SEO]

Patrysha is very right. No matter what you're writing on, putting your own personality into something has a great effect on how it is perceived. I would say that in addition to providing something worthwhile and informative, presenting it in a new manner may induce more visitors and re-visitors. We could perhaps offer specific suggestions based on what kind of blog you feel you want to write?

Also, if the content is something you are passionate about, it will be much easier for you to write and much more enjoyable for your readers. Hope this helps.

[vangogh]

Looks like you did pretty well matching the theme to the rest of the site. For future reference you may want to let WordPress power the rest of the site as well. The same theme can be used for the look of the entire site. Pages that need to have a different format can be created via a custom page inside the theme. Ultimately this will help make the site easier to manage for you.

Nothing you have to rush out and do tomorrow of course, but something to look into. If you click through to my site the whole thing is powered by WordPress. Every page and post is using the same theme. For the most part pages and posts look the same. They have the same general layout. If you look a little closer you'll see I'm offering different things on some of those pages, for example what's in the sidebar. I barely scratched the surface too of what can be done as my site was one of the first times attempting this.

Just something to keep in mind in the future.

[kitty]

how often should you post new content to your blog? i have seen some blogs that are updated daily and they dont have very many views or hits on them but yet other blogs that where posted in 2009 with thousands of hits?

[Harold Mansfield]

how often should you post new content to your blog? i have seen some blogs that are updated daily and they dont have very many views or hits on them but yet other blogs that where posted in 2009 with thousands of hits?

There is no right or wrong answer. You update as much as you need to, to stay current with what ever your niche or platform is. Newspapers print everyday because there world and local news everyday (yet the entertainment section is only on Friday), yet magazines only print once a week or once a month because that's all that their unique position of niche warrants.