love writing. It is a hobby for me. I fell in love with pen and paper a long time ago. In fact I am so passionate about writing that I almost find it hard to comprehend anything I read if I don’t write something as I read. I used to have a boss who complained I wrote too many memos to him. He nicknamed me ‘Mr. Put It In Writing’. I wore the name like a badge. I just couldn’t stop writing. I was discussing with my Professor when I heard the word ‘blog’ for the first time. She was teaching me something in Food Microbiology which she said she read from a blog. I asked her what that was and she told me. I kinda liked it.
Without waiting to learn the intricacies of blogging, I launched my first blog. I registered a blog on www.blogger.com but just after a month I ran out of steam. I can’t remember if I ever managed to make an single post on that blog. I had the enthusiasm and passion to blog but I didn’t have the skills I needed to blog with. I just didn’t know the rudiments of blogging. Blogging is a skill and like every other skill must be learned with patience. My first blog was a Fail (First attempt In Learning). I really learnt a lot in that first attempt.
Sometime in 2013 I launched a news blog where I managed to make about 194 posts. Huraaaaaaay! Well, this was huge but not inspiring especially if I tell you how I got content. I used a method popularly called COPY AND PASTE. You can laugh. I am laughing too. I went to news sites, copied all sorts of things and pasted on my blog. Initially I was happy but as time passed I felt unfulfilled. I knew my blog content was not original. I knew that for me to be called a blogger I couldn’t rely on the lazy approach of copy and paste. To be called a blogger I knew I had to actually write. Because of this, I ran out of steam a second time. I failed again. This time it was a SAIL (Second Attempt In Learning) for me.
Honestly, I wasn’t happy. I had failed. I had sailed. I knew I had to do something otherwise I wouldn’t ever be called a blogger. At this point I had to sit down to count the wares in my basket having failed twice in a venture. I didn’t W to become a failed serial blogger so it was time to study the reasons I failed twice and then draw a fresh strategy. I could not be doing things the same way and expecting different results. It wasn’t easy ọ. It was herculean for me especially because I had no one to mentor me. Most of the blogs I visited were guilty of copy and paste. I was disappointed but I didn’t give up. The student was ready and willing to learn but there was no teacher. Right? Wrong! Whenever the student is willing and ready the teacher must appear except the student is looking for the teacher in the wrong place. Change of perspective turns a stumbling block to a stepping stone.
My teacher was with me all along but I was applying it wrongly. I was using this teacher to do copy and paste instead of asking it to teach me how to blog. She was tight in front of me but I couldn’t recognize her. You know this teacher too. Her name is Google. She taught me that to run a blog successfully I must do the following:
1. Create/Find a NICHE
For the purpose of this blog post I will define a NICHE as any position of opportunity for which one is well-suited, such as a particular market in business or a particular topic or a particular location. To find a NICHE for a blog you need to discover what you are truly good at. What you do as a job may not be what you are truly good at. Aside from have the writing skills, you also need to know what to write and write it continuously. I ran out of steam twice not because I didn’t know how to write but because I didn’t have a NICHE and so I didn’t know what to write about. To go further, you can choose something unique as a niche. I have chosen a niche that is very technical and difficult to write about but it’s very unique and not very popular
2. Develop CONTENT
Blogging requires discipline. Before you launch a blog you must determine how often you want to post articles and stick to it. I have decided to post content on my third blog once every week. Before you launch a blog, after you have found a niche, the next step is to start developing content. Develop content for at least 10 posts before you launch the blog. This will help you a lot. As soon as you launch the blog you must keep developing content. My tactics is that I post an article every week but I write two articles in replacement. Most times peeps launch a blog, post content for a while, generate traffic of readers and then content dries up. This is called burn out. To guard against this you must endeavour to replace every article you post with two articles. A time will come when you can’t write but you will still have content to fall back on while you make time to write.
3. Be PASSIONATE
Talent will get you to a bus stop but it is PASSION that will get you to your destination. When talent gets you to a bus stop and the bus fails to show up it is PASSION that says you either wait for the bus or trek to your destination. So you wanna blog? Without passion you can’t do much. Most people launch blogs using what they are passionate about as their NICHE. I am passionate about my profession (Quality Assurance) so I have chosen this as my NICHE. I have chosen this niche knowing it’s difficult but because I am passionate about it I will succeed. Passion gives you the zeal to continue in the face of challenges. If you are passionate about blogging you will blog. I failed twice but here I am with the third one.
4. Have Reliable INTERNET and COMPUTER
You cannot depend on mobile phone and poor Internet connection if you are serious about blogging. You must not own a computer but at least you must have free access to one. Without a reliable Internet connection you cannot carry out basic research let alone posting content. I do not have to stress this.
5. Direct TRAFFIC
A blog will be effort in futility if people don’t visit to read the content. The point is that if you do not tell people about your blog they will not know it exists. After you have launched a blog you need to make deliberate attempts to invite people to visit, read and drop comments. You can reach out to your connections on Social Media and invite them to your blog. You have to see your blog as a new product that requires all the publicity it can get. If you cannot market your blog please don’t bother launching it.
Even though I failed in my first two attempts, today I have another blog (www.qmsnnaemeka.blogspot.com). This one is less than a week old but it already has over 10 articles on it. Not just that. I also have content that can last me 3 months and I am still writing. My joy today is that I don’t do copy and paste. All the articles on my blog are original. I wrote them. This blog will do so much better than its predecessors. I know this because I have religiously followed the five steps stated above. So you wanna blog? Follow the five steps above and learn from my experience. While I was failing I was also learning so I can say I failed successfully. Fools learn from their own mistakes but wise people learn from the mistakes of others.
If this article has been relevant to you kindly drop a comment. I will be glad.
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