So You Think You Can Blog?

Sometimes I like to think of myself as a carefree and adventurous person who loves living life on the edge. A girl can fantasize right? My life is pretty much the opposite. I am a creature of habit, a woman who secretly craves structure... I've never been one to embrace the "go with the flow" scheme. On that note, part of my daily routine is blogging... well it's actually reading other people's blogs as opposed to actually generating content for my own... don't worry, that's on my "To Do" list. I have a list of blogs that I MUST look at everyday in order to feel as though my life is complete.

My daily dose of celebrity gossip is brought to me by Necole Bitchie and YBF (Young, Black and Fabulous), I get my fitness nugget from the one and only Melavond, my vegan tidbit from vegansaurus.com, my mind and body sync from mindbodygreen and my natural hair updates from Black Girl Long Hair. However blogging has taken on another dimension; video blogging or vlogging and thanks to video hosting sites like YouTube, people are also letting their voices heard and well their faces seen on this platform.

But, what is a blog?

The word blog comes from the term web log which is a website that is arranged in a reversed chronological order so you see your most recent posts first and scroll down for the older ones. It's basically a diary/journal that you can share with your friends, family or the whole world if you so choose. 

People blog about everything! Cars, shoes, clothes, hair, parenting, relationships! You name it and there is probably a blog just designed specifically for it. 

Blogging is amazing! I mean of course if you're not careful you can get sued for defamation or plagiarism or something like that but it's a great way to express yourself and share your opinion! It's an even better way to build your brand if you have a business orrrrr even start a business! I mean, BEYONCE BLOGS. There are some people who quit their 9-5 jobs and blog for a living.

So, you think you can blog?

1. Pick a theme and work on developing your niche.

The blogs that I read have a particular focus and the bloggers develop their content around this focal point. If it's a natural hair blog, I expect to see product review, hair styles, hair care tips, style icons etc. Don't go drop a random food recipe in there along with a rant about your relationship, how to fix your lap top... no. According to sweet brown, "Ain't nobody gat time for that". Keep it focused baby. If of course you want to talk about these things, by all means, start another blog! We see it all the time. Naptural85 has her main channel hair channel and then she has her personal channel, dearnaptural85 where she talks about her life and raising her child and all that drama. Remember, always keep the purpose of your site and your target audience in mind.

2. Post Frequently!

One of my main problems with blogging is being inconsistent with my posting. When you stop posting, people stop coming to your site. Readers develop a bond with the bloggers and when they don't post... the readers get mad. Well, I do. I hate when Mela from melavond forgets to post... it annoys me. I get so frustrated!. I faithfully read her blog, I feel like I know her! Like I'm a part of her life. I feel like she is almost obligated to inspire me with her fit abs and legs. I know it sounds crazy but if you want people to keep coming back to your site and if you want there to more hits/visitors, you must let your readers know that they are important to you and part of doing this is fulfilling your duty to them and post! And hey, Keep it interesting, give us some videos, pictures, memes, links to interesting articles. 

3. Keep it conversational.

Don't go using a lot of big words and complicated jargon on your blog... you have to write so that your audience understands without the aid of a dictionary. Keep it simple. Keep it light, fun, humorous. You want to write as though you're talking to your readers. They want to hear your voice not read your dissertation.

4. Be Passionate and Confident

Blogging is serious business. It's more than just finding a topic that you want to explore, posting frequently and having a conversational tone. You must exude passion and confidence. Case in point, there is this Trinidadian youtube vlogger who makes videos about... you guessed it, natural hair. I reallllly want to like her. I do. Her videos are informative, she posts fairly regularly but gosh, she has no passion! She gives great hair advice but she seems bored even making the video and she just apologizes too much! It gets annoying after a while. So, be passionate! Fake it to make it baby! 

5. Keep it simple.

Did I say this already? Yes. I did and I will repeat it because it is soooooo important. I know this may been contradictory but... keep those posts short. When I see extremely long posts, sometimes I don't even bother to read them or watch the videos. For me, posts that are about 500 words and 5 minutes long are the best. Don't bore me before I begin. Another thing, don't distract me with a whole heap of colours and graphics and this and that moving... no. Keep it sleek, clean, classy but interesting. And, if you plan on having a vlog, can you please, please, please try to not film your entries on your blackberry? Poor video quality is not cute.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post where I talk a bit about making money from your blog!