There’s a ton of reasons to have a blog. Whether you’re using it as a promotional tool for your business, to connect with people in a community or just as a creative outlet, it’s probably important that you post to it if you want your blog to be useful. No matter what your reason for starting a blog is, it can be difficult to get it going. You might have a lot of ideas for your blog but where do you start? Writing your first blog post is your first step towards becoming the operator of a wildly successful and popular blog. Let’s talk about some tips for writing your first blog post.

 

Establish your blog’s style

So, there’s every chance that the regular readers your blog has a year from now will never see your first post. Your first post is largely for you, the author. Your first post is your chance to figure out a few things including your blog’s style and tone.

Unless you have some really incredible content or the ability to leverage an audience you have on another platform (like Twitter or Facebook), your first blog post is really just your chance to start finding your voice. Think about the relationship you want to have with your readers. Are you writing on behalf of a company? If so, your article probably won’t feel as casual as this one. Are you looking to gain prominence in some community? What kind of style do other bloggers in your community employ? Regardless of your answers to these questions, it’s important to start how you intend to continue. Don’t make some formal, official introductory post if you intend to enjoy a casual relationship with your readers. You only stand to alienate the people who enjoy your blog from the start and discourage your true target audience from being readers and supporters from the beginning.

Keep it on topic

Similar to tone and style consistency, it’s in your interest to make your inaugural blog post about the same topic(s) as you intend the rest of your blog to be about. “How am I supposed to introduce myself to my audience?” you might ask. For many blogs, it’s important for the audience to get to know the blogger behind the posts but unless your blog is really just about you, find another way to share details about your life.

An about page with information about the regular authors on your blog is a good starting point. You can make it the same as the content in the “About the Author” section (see below this post) or you can write a small novel about yourself.

Allow your readers to get to know you as you share information about yourself through your posts. Your readers don’t need to find out everything about you all in one shot. Share yourself gradually with your audience by talking about your experiences in your (on topic) posts. It will come off a lot more naturally and less like you’re standing up in front of your grade four class and introducing yourself before getting into your actual presentation even though everybody in the room already knows you.

Get crackin’

Quit over-thinking it and get posting! Content is obviously the key to any successful blog and if you want to develop a following, you’d better get started. Not every one of your posts is going to be an award winner but sometimes it’s important just to feed your readers. Think about it: would you be more likely to regularly visit a blog that had one great post a month or a blog that had a great post, two good posts and two decent posts a month? Feed your readers so they don’t get hungry and find somewhere else to eat.

 

 

Did you like this blog post about tips for writing your first blog post? It was Thomas’ first post on Kastom Media’s blog (ironic, right?) and he’d love if you used the buttons below the post to share it with your friends. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed or follow Thomas on Twitter to be alerted about new posts.

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