Blogging is a commitment.

Many people embarking on writing a blog underestimate how much of commitment it actually is. I will cover a few of the issues you will need to think about when you are writing or considering to write a blog.

• What’s the purpose of the blog? – A pretty obvious question but most people don’t clarify this. Essentially in my opinion it should be to encourage building a relationship with your readers and eventually doing business with them.
• What do I write about? – First you have to decide what you want to be known for. There will be a number of areas that you will want to be known for? What are they? Then write about them and become known as the expert over time.
• Original vs. reblogged or curated – I have read many opinions about this and have my own views. I try to work to the formula that at least 60% should be original content. That is 60% of articles should be original and at least 60% of an article should be original. However if you read a really good article and have intelligent commentary on that article there is nothing wrong in my opinion in debating the topic, agreeing with the topic and giving your opinion or viewpoint. Genuine discussion is what people like. I have often seen that the biggest threads on social media are where intelligent discussion has been made about a particular article. LinkedIn is a great example of this. NB: This article is 100% original.
• Quality vs. Quantity – In my opinion Quality should be the driver for how often you write. If you have to search high and low for content to publish 4 to 5 times a day then you will simply go mad in my opinion. Unless you are a professional blogger then focus on quality and less often.
• How often? – The blogs that I like the most write quality content and as a result in most cases don’t write more than 10 to 12 articles a month. If you were starting off I would recommend 1 to 2 articles per week.
• How long? – It does depend on the topic as per length and depth of the topic. I try to aim for approximately 200 to 400 words. I am a wordy guy so I don’t think I can make it less than that.
• Consistency – Unfortunately like anything consistency builds readership and search engines like this.
• Should I pay someone to blog for me? – I am sitting on the fence on this one. However I do believe that the topics you want to be known for should be written by you. Complimentary, or fringe areas relating to your topics can be contracted out.

I hope this has given some help to people looking to write a blog. I am always learning and would love to hear your opinions and thoughts.