Advice for starting a blog – Keep it short and write about YOU.

Last week, a friend (and fellow Match member) asked me what advice I’d give her as she’s considering creating a blog. I thought I’d share my response so that anyone else that is thinking about this can consider my comments.

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First things first, you have to be able to keep it up once you start. Most people start blogging, write some epic first post or two, and then find it hard to keep going because the pressure of writing a great post is too much.

I say, make your first two posts short and sweet. Get them out quickly. Spend no more than 30 minutes on each, and 15 if you can do it. That way, you set the bar at a reasonable level. It will take the stress off and show you that short posts can be effective as well.

Second, and probably most important, write about things YOU’RE interested in. And know its ok for those things to change over time. If you were to chronicle my blog from day one until today, what I write about has shifted pretty dramatically. I’m sure I’ve lost some readers because of it, but I also am sure I’ve gained some. And the big win is that, because I’ve written about things I find interesting, I’ve kept doing it. If I would have tried to write about the same exact topic for five years, I would have stopped long ago.

What do I want to read about? I like to follow “people”. Some of my favorite bloggers write about their personal experiences and then sometimes they write about the industry we’re both involved in. The more you can share who you are and what gets you excited, even if that was a recent trip to Maine, that would be great. Share YOU.

If I were starting today, I might consider using Medium. I personally use WordPress but man, I love the features I see coming out on Medium. I think you could build a pretty good following on that platform.