By Elmer on July 20, 2009

During the past few days, I wrote about importance of developing blogs, tips on how to write them and why updating them makes sense. Now if you have chosen to write one and an arsenal of topics to write about, you’re almost there. But it’s not enough that we pick one platform, install it and publish our first official blog entry. Obviously, we’d like to setup a blog that actually works the way it should be: search engine friendly, conveniently allows visitors to subscribe, flights unwanted spam comments and so on. So here’s a little checklist when starting a new blog.

Selecting Blog Platform
There are many blogging platforms available out there. However, I was able to try WordPress and Blogger so far. Between the two, I prefer Wordpress (your hosted version) because it allows more flexibility and control. Installation is also pretty straightforward.

Introduce Yourself
Create a separate page (WordPress calls it a Page) instead of a blog entry to introduce yourself or your organization, what your (or it does), business, interests and an idea of target audience. This helps set expectations and a better understanding of what’s in store for them.

Install Web Analytics Tool
It is good to know the behavior of visitors on many fronts: how did they reach the blog, which keywords did they use, which blog entries appeal to them the most, which ones made them leave the site immediately, and so on. Getting this information helps establish visitor profile and therefore, decide better on what types of blog entries to publish.

Write Top Notch Entries
If there is any indicator whether a visitor will come back again on your blog or not, it is the first few posts. Good posts generate interest and almost guarantees return visits. On the other hand, lame posts will generate negative impressions and it will be harder to convince visitors to return to the blog, let alone subscribe to its feeds. Outstanding entries don’t only mean great content, but also great presentation. So please spend time reviewing content for spelling and grammar issues.

Enable RSS Feeds and Email Subscriptions
This is very basic to every blog platform but I can’t overemphasize its importance. With every interested visitor finding means to connect to your blog, you should facilitate this connection with them through RSS feed buttons or email subscription forms. Place these buttons and forms on the top right section of every page and make sure they’re prominent enough. This is important because the more subscribers you have, the wider your audience becomes. Each of these subscribers has the capability to share your blog, enabling a viral effect for every outstanding post you make. Additional buttons for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn should also be a good idea.

Check Blog Appearance Across Various Browsers
There are many browsers out there, and chances are we don’t use three at the same time. If blog appearance looks normal to us, it’s not necessarily the same for those who use other browsers. Our themes might have CSS issues specific to certain browsers, or forms don’t work for some reasons. So it’s good to check your blog pages on different browsers. Begin at least on those popular ones.

Submit to Blog Directories
This isn’t the same as pages that need to be submitted to thousands of directories. Good ones to start submitting to include BlogCatalog, Technorati, Best of the Web, Blogging Fusion, Blog Hints and Bloggapedia. It just doesn’t allow blogs to get links, but also a chance to mingle with other blog owners who may be interested in what we write.

Promote Blog In Various Ways
We can include blog URL in the letterhead of our official communications, add it on our email signature, or use it as URL on our Twitter profile. I don’t think these channels translate to more referrers but at least it’s good to get these things covered.

Encourage Comments
Assuming you posted a killer post in your maiden blog entry, it should generate buzz and comments. But if it doesn’t pan out the way we wanted it to be, you can approach a close associate and seek his opinion through posting a comment. As people start seeing comments, they start to participate in the discussion as well. What’s important is that you convinced someone to break the ice and start the ball rolling.

Continue Updating Regularly
Subscribers will start to devote their time reading your updates so it’s important to set their expectations through regular blog updates. It doesn’t matter if it’s once a day or once a week. As long as you are consistent, your visitors will not be out of track. Otherwise, letting them know of your pressing schedules via blog’s post script section will be good enough.

Photo credit: DeclanTM

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