Staying within your budget, which is vital to everyone.

Which blog host or web platform we should choose.

I am having a very difficult time in deciding which should be the next step. I hate it when my poor befuddled pea brain argues with it's self. Leaves me in a bit of dilemma.

Give me a second. Don't be getting upset and frustrated now, I will be back, just going to check something. It's not like you are going to notice anyway. You will be able to continue reading, honest you will.

See I told you I would be back. No please don't start your blog yet! We have a lot of ground to cover yet.

The next step would be to choose a “Topic”. This step requires some time and thought.

You have to decide what you are going to blog about. Not an easy task to do.

“Probably the best place to start thinking about what your blog should be about is to consider what YOU are about.”

You will need to sit down, with paper and pen (pencil will work to) and start jotting things down.

Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

1. Whom do you want to reach with your blog?
2. What do you want to achieve with your blog?
3. What are my end goals with the project?
4. What is your blog about?
5. Do you have time to blog?
6. Do you need to select a Niche?

I probably have you totally flabbergasted by now but don't panic. It isn't that difficult. When I started my blog I ignored everything stated above, now I am attempting to reorganize and make sense out of what I am doing.

Now, I guess we should dive in and explain a few of things listed.

Do You Need to Select a Niche?

This term had been tossed around for years. So what the heck is a “ Niche ”. A Niche is simply a group of people with similar interests and needs.

There are numerous things to consider before choosing a ” Niche ”

Is the market easily defined and reachable? Do you know where they hangout? What kind of trade journals or publications do they read? Do they have clubs or are members of particular organizations?

Is the market small enough that you will not have tons of competitors, but still large enough for you to make a good profit?

Does the market have the money to spend?

Does the group have an insane passion for their hobby or topic of interest? Do they eat, sleep, and breathe their hobby? Are they constantly seeking more information related to their subject?!

”Niche” simply means individual or distinct.

Do You Have Time to Blog?

This is the easy part. Really! It takes time to write “Quality” content. Do you need to blog everyday? The answer is ”NO”. Ensuring you update regularly is important though.

It does take dedication and time though. Hence the reason for finding a “ Niche ”

What is Your Blog About?

Your choices are endless. So dream big.

What are My End Goals With the Project?

Setting goals is a way to look to the future of your Blog.

Do not set goals that you know will take forever to get to. Sure, you can, but keep in mind that setting short term goals will take you towards achieving your long term goal.

Oh gosh, I sure that made sense to you. I think I just confused myself. ( as I reread it)

So set goals to help your blog grow. Work toward them. But, as in motherhood, work toward balance, too-don't work so hard on them that you don't enjoy blogging anymore!

What do You Want to Achieve With Your Blog?

This is like asking yourself “What do you want from your blog?”

Do you want to make from your blog? ( I know the answer to that one)

Do you want to create more exposure for your business?

Do you want readership?

Once you figure out what it is you want the rest should fall into place.

Whom do You Want to Reach With Your Blog?

This is the most difficult of the questions you need to address - difficult because you've to possibly identify the gender, age profile, profession, likely preference, demography, and so on of the target group.

The first factor to be considered is the age group.

Other factors include the gender, marital status, occupation, ethnic background, health status, income status, education, and hobbies.

I once again apologize for the length of this post. I hope it clarified a few things for you and gave some insight as to what you are able to do with a Blog.

So happy thinking and have a great time blogging.

Please return for my next step in creating your very first blog.

Do we really understand what the first step is? I am going to simplify it for you, I hope.

Some say the very first step is to decide what you, the writer, want to blog about. Determining the purpose of your blog. Will you be promoting your products and services? . I don't believe that is the very first step by any means.

Others believe that the first step is finding an appropriate topic or theme for your blogging overall efforts. Choosing a topic or theme comes in a bit later, not what I consider to be the first step.

Yet again it is stated that the first step in creating your own blog is determining whether or not you want to incorporate your blog into a preexisting website for your business, whether you want to use your blog for your business website or whether you want to establish a freestanding blog independent of your business website. This is also important yet again not the first step.

The list goes on , like setting up an account first. We will all have to so that but not right now.

All of the above are important, which will be covered in a later post. Right at this very moment that is not what I think is the very first step to creating a blog.

I have put some thought into what I think the first step should be. So I guess we should dive right in and get started. Don't you think so? Isn't that what you have been waiting for?

Ok the first step is to consider.. Oh if I tell you now I will be done writing. Right on with it then, before you quit reading.

Budget. There I said it.

Yes budget is the very first step one should consider before you even decide . We need to figure out the best route for us as individuals whether or not we can afford blog hosting or if perhaps Free hosting would be the feasible route to take.

Why pay for a blog host if we can't afford it. I don't. I use blog hosting and for now it is working just fine form me. That is until I can make the switch over.

One must realize that paid web hosting charges a monthly rate. You must calculate how much per year that is going to cost and how you are going to pay for it.

It can cost any where from $4.86 per month and up for Web hosting. It doesn't sound like a lot at the moment but when it isn't in our budget it can break you before you even get started