I got such a question from a visitor on my Romanian Blog and I thought it would be nice to not just discuss this privately with him, but to create an article. And since that article was well received by other Romanians interested in blogging, I thought now that it would be nice to make it available internationally.

1. What does a blog need?

It’s the first thing we need to discuss: a blog needs QUALITY content, updated frequently (some talk about daily updates, most of us who want some traffic try to write as frequently as possible, 1 article per day or even more). There is a lot of work to be done most of the time in order to create a good blog.

We don’t take too much into account the revenue right now, but in time, after months of work, it’s a good idea to also earn a decent buck. You won’t be able to buy a car from the advertising revenue for instance, but it would be enough to pay for the domain renewals and maybe hosting. I can understand you think about this as a hobby, but in time it would be pretty good to also get something from it, not only the pleasure of having a good blog.
It’s very important for you to understand a blog requires work and dedication. And no, I won’t hide it from you, it’s absolutely amazing to have a blog, there is a lot of satisfaction in it, so don’t hold back.
2. OK, I really want a blog .. but what’s it about?

If you decided you really want a blog and understood you’ll have to work on it, let’s discuss something even more specific: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO WRITE ABOUT? Please don’t open a blog with Youtube movies or funny pics you just stole from the internet. This is most of the time ILLEGAL content and in the end pretty useless.
A blog means interesting content (at least that’s how I would see this). Don’t copy articles, don’t take the easy road. Work and put some unique content and, believe me, it’s gonna work out nicely.
You need to find a topic you like to talk. AND TALK A LOT.

I was never interested in creating a project on a “well paid” niche. The internet is filled with high paying Adsense keywords lists and there are just too many sites created just for this. Sites about investments, real estate, diseases, created with no care for the actual reader, but filled with banners.

If you do know about these, then by all means write about these topics. If not, just stick to something you really know and love. As I have already mentioned before a blog means writing a lot of UNIQUE content on a niche, you really need to know that topic so that you can provide quality content frequently.Are you good with gaming? Write about this? Are you an experienced webmaster? Then why not have a webmaster blog? I know such niches are over saturated, but there is always more room for a GOOD BLOG. It’s better to write in a “crowded” niche and do it very well, than write crappy articles on an obscure niche.
If you are not that interested in a single topic, make a general blog. I know they are less likely to succeed nowadays, but remember again that GOOD CONTENT SELLS. There are so many weird things going on in our lives, you’ll surely have a lot of subjects to post on your blog.

Conclusion: write ORIGINAL articles. No movies, messenger statuses or funny pictures. Quality content you personally created. I can guarantee you this is the way.

3. What’s its name? Where do I keep it?

After knowing the niche you are going to blog about, it’s time to do a bit of a “branding” effort. Think about a name for your blog, something that would contain your keywords (of you are on a niche) or something nice with your name (of it’s a personal blog). Don’t use “l33t” talk as name, it doesn’t sound too professional.

GET A DOMAIN. Seriously .. it’s a pity to work on a blog and “rot’ on blogspot or another free hosted domain. Any online project deserves a domain. You can get a .info (3.19 USD on Godaddy) or a .com/.net … don’t use .tk, it’s just not the right extension.
Having the domain in your “mouth”, get some hosting. Again I speak AGAINST free hosted solutions. You have limitations (wordpress) and cannot develop to your full potential.
Don’t be a cheap person. With 3-4 USD / month you can get a nice hosting plan. It’s not a huge price and the freedom you have is priceless. After some time you can even sell advertising and cover your expenses nicely. Moving your site from the sub-domain to a domain means losing PR and traffic. START RIGHT and you won’t regret the initial investment.

4. What do I install?

I use wordpress on my 3 blogs and I have to admit I like the script. I have found some good modifications for it and the skinning is OK. There is a huge development community, so there’s always chance for more plugins and themes. There are also other systems, you can discover the best for you.

5. Ready .. what do I do now?

After you installed the script of your choice, start playing with it. Find a free theme you like and then start modifying it. I know you are shocked now, but a blog doesn’t mean only content. Start “playing” with some images, some colours in the sylesheet.css file (after you have saved the code in a separate file, so that you always have a backup).

Don’t be afraid to experiment .. little by little you’ll create new headers for your blog and some more changes in the looks. With patience you’ll succeed.

6. How do I give “birth” to it?

Any new blog cannot be attractive since it’s .. new. Start 10 articles and start promoting from that moment on. Enter some well known systems (technorati, mybloglog etc.), write in specialized forums for your niche with your link in the signature, do some directory submissions.

Let’s not forget another secret for blog promotion: COMMENTS on other blogs. Search for new sites on blogrolls, make a list of those you like and start commenting (you can read about the blogs worth commenting on). A good comment will attract people to your blog and they might even return. Your initial traffic comes from this “trick”.

This traffic will provide new returning visitors, people to subscribe to your blog, always “hungry” for more of your articles. For the first weeks I would advise you to write 3-4 articles a day and then relax a bit to 1 article daily or every 2 days.
7. PR? I don’t need no stinking PR.

Well, you need it. Not only to brag with your PR4 or higher, but because you will start being an interesting option for other bloggers (for link exchanges) and even advertisers. Some people might pay for a link on your site. Don’t be a shy girl, if they want to pay, get their money

How do you “make” this PR?

• Write quality information .. other bloggers will love your content and link to it (we are not talking about copying your content, I never allow this. I did have a lot of cases when people linked to a good article I created. I got a link and their visitors got a very useful recommendation.
• Get “tagged”. Ok, I get it .. they seem stupid, but tags can do some wonderful things to you: links to your site. Share the “link love” yourself and you’ll have some excellent results.
• A bit of a scandal can help. Sometimes getting into a bit of a “fight” can do wonders traffic wise. I had another blogger steal my content. I made a bit of a fuss on a blogging forum and a bigger blogger wrote about the problem. This link brought me my initial traffic boost. I was smart enough to keep that high traffic with some good articles and this really helped.
• Blogroll exchange .. this is a link exchange among bloggers. Normally the big “fishes” don’t exchange links since it would make their link lists huge. Still, a good content might make some “medium” bloggers link to you, because they trust you and know you’ll have a big traffic in few months with such good articles.

A higher traffic and some PR gets you into the success blogs “team”. Blogs that are read a lot, that get a lot of links, blogs that set an example and a “trend”. Now you can harvest some revenue too for your hard work. Some money to pay for your increased traffic and keep you motivated to write more good content.