Planning a blog 9 guiding Questions and answers on how to plan a blog What is a blog? According to Wikipedia, a blog “is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video”. These regular entries can be done daily, weekly or monthly depending on the publishing schedule set by the owner of the blog. Blogs allow readers to leave comments about blog entries thus allowing feedback to the publisher of the blog. What blog types are in existence? There are several types of blogs and they include the following: Personal blogs. Corporate and organizational blogs Fashion blogs Travel blogs Art blogs Music blogs Photo blogs Where can I host my blogs? Blogger Wordpress Typepad Livejournal Do I need to pay for hosting? Blogs are essentially free though some hosts will often charge for certain features to be enabled on your blog. For example wordpress charges for premium features such as no ads on blogs, increased storage, increased users, full domain control, among others. What steps are involved in planning a blog? Establish requirements by knowing your audience and determining the purpose of your blog Choose a platform on which to host your blog. Very many exist including blogger and wordpress Determine the layout of your blog. Does the layout allow you to mix text and images and still provide a well designed informative blog? Determine a blogging schedule. This can be daily, weekly, monthly depending on the content you are pblishing. For example techcruch, the popular blog, publishes daily while other blogs may publish just monthly. Determi ne a content plan. Organise content before it is published so that it has a pattern.
Implementing your blog by writing regularly, sticking to your publishing calendar Regularly maintain your blog by adding new topics . Are there any best practices? Create conversations to engage the reader Invite guest writers and hire professional writers Use the right headers Use pictures and video Write great headlines Look for good and unique content angles Can I have more than one blog? Yes. Most blogging platforms allow you to create as many blogs as you wish. Blogger.com allows its users to create as many blogs as they wish. How can I monetize my blogs? Yes. Blogs can be monetized especially through advertising programs such as adsense Do I need to document my blog? Yes. Documentation helps to ease maintainance and in case anything goes wrong.