When I first was thinking about starting my business blog, one of my main concerns was which platform or service to use. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to have a mentor (Teresa) who consulted with others to help me get information that could help me decide which service suited my immediate need of being affordable and easy to use, yet would allow me to grow should I love blogging.

Recently, USA Today (at least the Online Version) published an article that was picked up by Netscape on getting started in the blogosphere.
It provides a good overview of the various services available to begin blogging. While the advice is a little dated (in blogosphere terms), I think Josh Hallet’s words of wisdom still hold true— “Friends don’t let friends use bad blogging tools.”

Last month, he also posed 4 questions that every budding business blogger should consider before you start. In a nutshell, Josh suggests that:

  • you spend 2-3 weeks reading blogs in general to gain an understanding of the blogosphere. What’s out there? What do you like? What don’t you like?
  • make a list of the top 5 blogs in your industry and area. I would also suggest that you expand this to include the top 5 blogs that you like and to 5 blogs that you dislike.
  • understand a bit about the people that are writing the tip 5 blogs and begin adding substantive comments on their blog to expand the conversation.
  • try to establish a relationship with the bloggers you like so that when you launch your site that you can have a network to support you and give you feedback.

    • I would also suggest that you approach this endeavor as a learning experience. If you are doing it right, your blog will evolve. Just as in real life, sometimes this comes by making mistakes. There is much advice out there in the blogosphere on how to deal with mistakes, but my advice here is to be prepared to make them yourself. Subsequently, at least have an idea of how you will handle it. In most cases, a sincere, humble apology and a detailed explanation of your benign intent will suffice.

    Friendly readers, please expand on this topic. I know I have not covered everything.