After attending WordCamp Miami in 2010 and 2011, I was thrilled to be able to present at the 2012 event that took place just last weekend. It was an opportunity for me to indulge in one of my favorite topics: blogging. The session followed a morning of the technical side of setting up a WordPress site, so my goal was to present practical tips for getting started with the writing and content development. Here’s a summary of the four main points I addressed:

1. Goal Setting: Why do you want to blog? Whether it’s find a creative outlet, learn something new, address a burning issue, or start a business, the potential motives for blogging are seemingly endless. Your reasons will be unique to you and help you frame your expectations for the adventure ahead. Remember, it’s your blog, so you’ve got ultimate control over when, where, what, and why, but it can help to establish a few goals to get you moving forward. Put your goals in writing! And revisit them often.
2. Finding Your Voice: What do you have to say and how do you want to say it? Consider your intended audience and describe their demographics. Take a tip from Problogger and “brainstorm  a list of 10-20 personality attributes” you want people to use to describe your blog, then narrow the list down to 3-5. Is your blog going to be: clever, authoritative, inquisitive, opinionated, helpful, witty, outrageous, controversial … ?
3. Getting Organized: Chances are you have a day job and other life responsibilities that make adding blogging to your schedule a challenge. Consider adding frequency and topic goals to your calendar. Be realistic, especially at first and set up a plan that’s doable. Use categories to organize your thoughts about the topic your blog addresses. Identify 3-5 broad categories under your broader blog topic, and develop specific ideas as for individual posts related to each category. Consider using an editorial calendar to schedule your writing. Developing a list of writing ideas in advance provides you with a starting point when it’s time to write.
4. Joining the Blogging Community: As a new blogger you are joining a vast group representing every possible demographic you can imagine. It will be helpful to find other bloggers that share your interests and also write for a similar audience. Conduct a search, add them to a blog reader, and get to know these bloggers better. Take notes about what you like and don’t like and try a few new things on your blog. Leave thoughtful comments on other blogs and look for opportunities to meet other bloggers in your field. Consider scheduling time for this and plan on reading as much as you write.

If you are new to blogging and interested in finding out more, take a look at some of the other offerings from WordCamp Miami 2012. No matter your goals or topic area of interest you’ll find helpful resources and advice in these presentations:

• Blogging Basics from @vicequeenmaria
• Introduction to WordPress from @GABacon
• Building Communities Around Your Content from @JessJurick

Blogging can be an adventure on many levels allowing you to explore your own learning process, share your perspective with other learners, and connect with those who have similar interests. Many thanks to the WordCamp Miami sponsors, organizers, and volunteers!