What It Takes To Blog

By Kimberlee Lockhart

What does it take to blog? I admire bloggers who keep at it consistently. They are able to take the knowledge, facts and ideas swirling around in their heads and put them on paper in a concise and stylistic manner.

In order to blog, you must write. It doesn’t matter what you are blogging about, or what medium you choose to do it in, blogging involves writing. If you produce a vlog, you still must write, If you produce InfoGraphics, you still must write, if you produce a podcast, you still must write (you know, like show notes and such).

In order to write, you must…READ!
I’m a voracious reader. My mother taught me how to read when I was four years old. By the time I got to first grade, my reading skill was such that the teacher put me out in the hall with a third grade reader-book because I already knew what she was teaching. So, I can read blogs all day. But can I write one?

We can all read and write. However, to blog, you must master a whole other set of skills such as:

•Discipline
You HAVE to train yourself to adhere to a strict schedule. You can’t blow it off! If you don’t write and post consistently, then that’s not blogging.

•A Grip On Grammar And Such
To blog, you must know the basic rules of language and grammar. Also, you must have a decent ability to spell.

•Editing
It doesn’t matter how educated you are, you HAVE to have someone else edit your work, even if it’s some kind of software and not a human. I would still run it by a human though.

•Research Know-How
You must have the intelligence to know how to gather information from any and all available resources.

•How To Use A Computer
There’s no way around this one. You must know how to use a computer in order to publish a blog.

•Ignoring Fear (I was gonna say ‘Overcoming Fear’ but that may never be possible.)
Ignore your fear and do it anyway. If your blog is yours alone, and you are not blogging for business, then who cares? So what if no one likes your blog? What’s the worst that can happen?

If you really want to keep a blog, you’ll have to work at it and ignore your inner critic. Even if you’re afraid of ridicule, just do it anyway.

Related:
“What Does It Take To Blog”