All this week I'll be writing a series on how to start your own blog. But before I get started with any how-tos, I'm going to pose a few questions you should be asking yourself before you begin to write that first post.

Why do you want to blog?

Note that there's no one "right" answer to this, but it's a good idea to know what YOUR answer is before getting started so you can create the type of blog that will work for you. Here are just a few possible reasons you might want to do this:

• To promote your expertise in an area for professional purposes.
• To advocate for a cause that is very important to you. These blogs tend to work best when you have personal experience with the issue, such as living with a medical condition or volunteering with a related nonprofit organization.
• To connect with others who share a particular passion or hobby. This was my goal with my first blog, Embrace Adventure.
• To share info with friends about something going on in your life and it's easier (and less intrusive) than sending out individual e-mails. My second blog, Life In Squirreldom falls into this category.
• To help others. (I hope Tech for Luddites falls into this category!)

I'm sure there are many more good reasons, including simply that you want to. :) However, there are also two very BAD reasons for starting a blog:

• To get a book/movie/talk show deal.
• To make tons of money from online advertising.

Yes, these things have happened to some bloggers, but they're definitely rare. I have some Google ads on my Embrace Adventure blog and, in my first year, I think I earned approximately $3.85 total from them... As for the fame and glory aspect, it's very hard to predict what's going to grab the imagination of the masses at any given time.

What are you comfortable making public?

Once you actually start blogging, it can be easy to forget that the information is out there for the whole world to see. Some people couldn't care less who knows what about them, their families, their foibles, etc. I think most of us, however, prefer that some info stays private. So this is something you should definitely think about before you start writing. You may think your mother will never read your blog and therefore will never discover your talent for swearing like a sailor when she's not in the room, but I wouldn't bet any money on it...

How much time do you have?

There aren't a lot of rules about blogging but one of them is that if you're writing your blog with a goal of actually building some kind of loyal audience, you do need to post entries on a fairly regular basis. Depending on the topic and the type of interest it may generate, that could be once a day or once a week, but not likely much longer than that. (Yes, I know I've had a couple of two-week periods of non-posting but my blog is less dependent on timeliness than some, i.e. the fact that my post on Twitter hash tags is several months old doesn't make it any less valuable to someone who is trying to figure out what they are right now.)

If after answering the above questions you still want to make the leap into the blogosphere, check back tomorrow. I'll be discussing the pros and cons of the three most popular blogging platforms to help you pick the one that's best for you.

If you have any specific questions about starting/running a blog, feel free to send them along and I'll do my best to address them.

Next post in this series: Picking a Platform for Your Blog

Posted in Blogging, My Two Cents, Series, Social Media