This past weekend, I had an opportunity to speak on “Building an Online Community” at WordCamp Columbus / PodCamp Ohio along with Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology and my husband Tom Streeter who co-owns Hoperatives.com and Tag Team Tech with me. Being in that environment got me thinking about a question we sometimes get: “I’m thinking about starting a blog. Can you give me any tips?” Luckily, there are two podcast episodes that I think should be required reading for all new bloggers.
At 2009′s SXSW, Merlin Mann and Jon Gruber gave a talk called “149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog with Credibility!” You can find more information about the session at http://www.43folders.com/2009/03/25/blogs-turbocharged. In this presentation, Gruber and Mann talk about “building a blog you can be proud of, trying to improve the quality of your work, reaching the people you admire, and maybe even making a buck (in a way that doesn’t blow your deal).”
The thing that really resonated with me from that talk was that a successful blog must have three things: “obsession + topic + voice”. If you have those three things, you can “become the go-to person for whatever your topic is.” Consider this: “How do you know it’s time to start a blog? Because people keep telling you to shut up.” And finally: “When CPM [cost per thousand] becomes more important than making readers happy, you’ve lost it.”
For me, this talk was an “A-ha!” moment. It crystalizes exactly why my first two blogs never really took off and why Hoperatives and now Tag Team Tech have. You have to have the obsession, the topic and the voice. If you are missing any one of those three, you’re doomed.
The second podcast episode I would recommend is this week’s special episode from Grammar Girl on “How to Get Started Blogging“. If you go to the link, you can both listen to the podcast or read the transcript. Mignon Fogarty’s tips are the perfect next step since she talks about defining your audience, finding good information that is credible, and building confidence as a blog writer. The whole podcast episode is only just over seven minutes long so you can easily listen to it one time, spend some time thinking about it and listen to it again. By the way, if you want to brush up your English and grammar skills, I highly recommend listening to Grammar Girl on a regular basis.
So when you are thinking about starting a new blog, think about “obsession + topic + voice” and think about defining your audience, finding good information that is credible, and building confidence as a blog writer. And then let us know what you’re blogging!
– Carla
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