Newbie Blogstep One: Choosing to blog or not

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Photo by Cambodia4kidsorg

Welcome to the first in road2blogging.com’s series of newbie blog steps.  I’ve put together some of the resources I’ve learnt over the past 12 months, so that people who are new to blogging can find out some things that they might not have known.

My Experience

When I first thought about establishing myself online in 2004 I was non-tech guy (and still am to be honest) I hadn’t a clue about HTML, PHP, MYSQL databases or even what a blog was.  In short HTML is the code that makes up web pages that we surf, like google; PHP is code that helps us produce dynamic pages; and MYSQL databases allow web users (including bloggers) to keep massive amounts of data in one area until it is requested to be shown on the site or blog – these databases are also used in a lot more different scenarios, if you go to a restaurant and they have a touch screen till, then it’s most definitely using a mysql database.

I built a website and then decided that I wanted to find out what this blogging story was all about, so I used the ma-mouth google to have a look to see if anyone could tell me what it was.  I got bored quickly and didn’t find many answers, most blogs I came across where about collectables or techy stuff, that at the time was either boring for me or a little too complicated to get into.  So, I decided not to bother with a ‘weblog’ and carried on playing with html.

In January 2007 I began to look into the world of blogs again and I came across a couple of blogs explaining how they were making money by blogging, ‘yeah right!’ I thought.  Coming across Shoemoney.com, I quickly understood that some bloggers were earning quite a considerable amount from the internet – it wasn’t all from blogging, but many, like johnchow.com were portraying as it was.

Two blogs I’ve found to be jam packed full of information when I’ve been looking around have been Problogger (Darren Rowse) and Entrepreneurs-journey.com (Yaro Starak) – both of these have a wealth of resources available to newbie bloggers and people wanting to find out what blogging is all about – just check out the blogging tips for beginners posts for new bloggers over at problogger.

Starting a blog is really easy and doesn’t require any previous experience or technical expertise (well, that’s actually incorrect – you need to be able to use a computer, surf the internet and check your email – but most people can do that, right?).  There are many different places you can setup a blog from and use a whole amount of different programs and software, but that’s for a later step – let’s not get ahead of ourselves shall we?  Still stuck and don’t know what a blog is?  Then, take a look at this explanation of what a blog (web log) is. 

Some blogs RSS Feeds I read and why

Now, I might have just confused you as to what an RSS feed is, no worry, you can go over to this detailed page on what RSS (Really Simple Syndication) actually is and how it can help you.  Below are some RSS feeds (news updates) that I subscribe to – most of these are delivered every day.

Problogger – keeping up-to-date with what’s going on over at problogger and the B5 media group.  Darren tends to get information quickly from sources and publishes before everyone else does, and his blog does have some good posts that you can read.

Entrepreneurs-journey.com – I like the writing style of Yaro and his longer pillar posts are great for me as I like a longer more opinionated writer; his podcasts are worthwhile too.

JohnChow.com – I take everything from this man with a pinch of salt as you usually find him ‘playing about’ in a video. Truly not a follower, but just interested to see where he’ll be in a year or two.

Johncow.com – A funny guy that is honest and to the point; I like the blog and think he has some really good posts on his site.

Courtyneytuttle.com – A master of SEO; I’m reading this blog just because it’s got so much great information for newbies (and experienced bloggers). 

What to do now

You’ll probably want to venture over to some of the blogs above and take a look at their top posts.  DO NOT spend all day, afternoon or evening reading them – I’d say spend 15 minutes on each (just a little over an hour in total) – you’ll be surprised how much you’ll want to read and how you’ll keep clicking and reading, that can be done at a later stage, you haven’t got time now.  When you’re looking through the blogs above and you’re thinking about what you’re going to write on your very own blog (you may even know), see how much work that it takes and see how your writing could evolve.  In order get to a position like one of these guys is a huge way to go, and will take many years of hard work and determination, so don’t be too excited about earning ‘mega bucks’.

Once you’ve looked at these blogs, write down two points for each blog that you as a reader liked about their site.  It could be that they write well, you learnt something from their posts, they use photos and videos that they’ve created (hint: usually has them in), or are interacting with their commentors (people commenting on their posts) well.

Tomorrow we’re going to be looking at a topic or niche for your blog.  If you like this post, then don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed for newbie bloggers.

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