Starting a Blog

By Sushil Bhasin on November 19, 2012 9 Comments / 2719 views

I have been wanting to start blogging for a long time. had vague ideas but could not start it, as I didnt know where to start from.

Today I have taken a plunge and started. Looking for ideas on designing (look see ), contents and categorising it etc.

Looking for ideas and help

Comments

Sushil Bhasin

9 Comments

Dhaval Parikh November 20, 2012, 5:38 am

I posted my msg via fb but let me post it here too

I guess you should not much worry about the design. you may just start one by registering yourself on blogger.com or wordpress.com Just keep writing stuffs the way you feel like. Later if you want you may also buy a domain and point it to the same blog. Post category, tagging are all inbuilt features so there is nothing much to worry about. its all GUI based and no programming required. For eg:- I have one on https://blog.dhavalparikh.co.in/ which is based on wordpress but hosted on my server. For you you may just use wordpress without spending money on server.

I forgot to add that wordpress and blogger both have in-built FREE designs and themes available so you can choose from those as of now.
Karan Singh November 20, 2012, 9:03 am

Yes, I totally agreed with Mr. Dhaval.

First Start blogging on Blogger.com or WordPress.com, When you feel to explore your own blog Buy the domain & Hosting.

Then Hire the Developer Who will Develop your blog as per your requirement.

Please check the 1- http://www.blogger.com 2- http://www.wordpress.com for free use.
Nishchal Par November 20, 2012, 9:53 am

Hi Sushil,

Being an on and off blogger myself and someone who reads blogs + books like crazy, I would like to suggest only two things that I’ve understood from my experience.

1. A blog which is generic or tom-toming about a product/service or the writer gets no attention, no one cares. So speak about your ‘passion’, it somehow connects with people and you’ll always have something to say. Perhaps experiential learning in the outdoor environment is what you are passionate about. Blog about it. Those who care about the subject will read it.

2. The only person I care about most is ‘me’. So please keep the reader in mind while you are going on and on about your passion. You need to ask yourself ‘how does this blog post make a difference to my reader’s life?’ Thinking about your blog this way will change the way you approach your blog.

I’m a designer myself, but design can’t make poor content good. Ultimately a blog is about a person, it is about you. And I believe you have a lot to share.

Happy blogging.

Nishchal

PS: the on and (now) off blogs that I was talking about – running & creativity.

PPS: I have uploaded a short guide from Seth Godin about blogging, hope it helps.
asha chaudhry November 20, 2012, 10:06 am

wow nishchal… thanks for sharing your blogs!

i love the name ‘the more i run’ – just read “when you have no one to blame” – you aren’t just a designer… you’re a wonderful writer as well 🙂

i bow thee. pls feel free to share some of your blog posts with us for the rest of the 3800+ members to read…

p.s: you wrote this after attending your first rodinhoods open house, right…?!
Nishchal Par November 20, 2012, 11:08 am

Thanks Asha, like always you are kind with your compliments. I’ll blog soon I promise. Looking forward to Sushil’s blog at the moment 🙂
Sushil Bhasin November 20, 2012, 3:18 pm

Dear Dhaval,

Thanks. I am grateful to you.

Your tips are very useful.

Out of Word Press or Blogger, which one do u suggest as a preferred option.

Sushil
Dhaval Parikh November 21, 2012, 3:06 pm

I would go for wordpress
Mandar Joshi November 22, 2012, 4:48 am
I was in the same frame of mind in April 2012 when I took the plunge 🙂 and started blogging and believe me its an amazing experience. We have so much to tell people and when you write it down and publish and when people read it and comment, argue, debate its an amazing experience. So cognratulations on your decision and welcome to the world of self expression. I am not a very experienced blogger per say as I have written only few posts but following are the unwritten rules I have been following
- As mentioned by Nischal readers don’t give a damn to self proclaiming and product or services touting blogs 🙂 so write about your passions, experiences, learnings, insights. you will find more readers who resonate with your philosophy, ideologies if you express them nicely.
- Always give a nice and attractive title to your blog. remember most of the people will decide to read your blog based on the title you have selected for the blog as well for each post therein.
- Try to limit your blog to 1000 to 1500 words as anything more than this becomes boring and lengthy.
- Add pictures, images, cartoons wherever possible as it captures the imaginations of your readers. Only text seems a bit too dray to read 🙂 images definitely add colour to your post.
- Format your post carefully, good selection of font, its size and pleasant colour, justified paragraph formatting gives a neat look to your blog. WordPress offers so many free tools to decorate your blog aesthetically however I suggest to keep it as clean as possible.
- With respect to the content of your blog. I suggest stay constantly aware for the ideas, concepts, thoughts those are ‘bloggable’ 🙂 Many a times your own tweet or Facebook status update or someone else’s tweet may provide you a seed for your next blog post. Sometimes a news article, story on media sows the seed for a good write up so constantly stay aware of this inspirations and give credit to the source of you are using somebody else’s idea to blog.
- Try to be regular, post at least one blog post every month so that your readers start liking your blog.
- Use social networks to publish your blog. Once you write a new post share it to all your friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. This can really become viral if your friends like your blog post they may share with their friends initiating the chain reaction.
- If and when someone comments on your blog promptly appreciate and respond the concern mentioned in the post. I suggest you moderate every blog however don’t be biased when approving it. You need to approve such comments having conflicting view points to yours as well. You can rebut if needed. It will show that you are open to criticism and you can win over your critic as well.
I guess enough of gyan now an I am really not that experienced blogger to do this but I am implementing all the above mentioned guidelines so I thought they may be useful to you as well 🙂 Please visit my personal blog at http://www.mandarjoshi.com/blog or mandysgroove.blogspot.in
Harkirat singh November 22, 2012, 9:55 pm

I have recently started blogging and content is the most important thing,quality post is what drives traffic to your site,design is the 2nd priority and i dont know anything about either designing or coding but trust me it’s really easy with a template “premiumbloggertemplates” .Visit this you will get a lot of free templates and some are paid :(.

Visit mine to see how i had designed my blog Hackinthus