We’ve made some major headway on our new blogs, so now it is time to write your first post!

There are two approaches to doing this:

• Start posting, right out of the gate, with your own content
• Put up a “Welcome!” message, really a quasi-placeholder, to start things off

I am going to run through a few examples of each, and give you guys the scoop as to which one I would recommend for your new blogs!

Your First Blog Post

When I first started theNetFool.com, I really didn’t have a handle on what blogging was all about. Heck, if I had a guide like this I would have wasted a lot less time putting up pointless time-consuming posts that got me nowhere. My first post was actually a review of a sportsbook program; that’s right, a sportsbook (for online sports betting?). This concept really had nothing to do with anything… and I figured that I could tackle the world with my website and everyone and their mother would want to read what I had to say. Think again! Blogging is much more about the relationship w/ your readers than anything else, so you want to target your content from the get-go.

Method One: One way to start out blogging is to get right into your content. For my blog, I would be putting out a way to make money online or some type of blogging tip. For another, perhaps you start in with a product review like I offered on theNetFool.com.

Method Two: The preferred method of starting a blog, now that I have tried both ways, is to put in a placeholder welcoming post. Basically, we want to outline to our readers what we are going to be writing about, who we are and why they should subscribe and come back day after day.

• Example 1: John Chow dot com
• Example 2: Winning The Web
• Example 3: Tyler Cruz

Clearly, I wholeheartedly support starting things off with a welcome post. With any new blog, it is going to be slow going from the start. Therefore, we need to insure that we retain a solid core audience by putting out a casual introduction as our starting blog. Nobody wants to be launched into a new blog to read without understanding the face behind it, so aside from our occasional passerby… we want to be informal and friendly from the start!

I recommend keeping things short on your first post regardless of which path you take. But if you stick with my recommendation, you may consider including: who you are, why you are blogging, what you will be blogging about and how readers can subscribe & leave you feedback.

Get that first post out, and join us back for the continued construction on Day 19!
-Jimvesting

Sorry for the delay in posting folks! I just started up at a new job, so the transitioning has led to a slight lag in my availability. However, I should be back for good now, so lets get back into it!

First things first, on Day 15 we ran a quick contest to give away a 125×125 banner advertisement. The winner of that competition is: “Aman@BullsBattleBears“, so a big congratulations to you… and thanks for your participation.

Your Next 30-Minute Mission…

On Day 16, we explored the wonderful world of WordPress Pages… and we made our “Contact Us” page to create an easier connection between blogger and reader on our websites. Use your next 30 minutes to make an “About Us” page, much similar to this communications page.

Why “About Us”?

I believe that it is especially important to create an “About” page for any blog simply because so many readers will be looking for it. You may be thinking that people will be reading your material and moving on, but when a reader sees something they like… it is highly likely that they will be compelled to seek out who wrote it! The amount of hits to my About Us page on Jimvesting has been stunning considering that I do not promote it at all. This tells you that the demand is strong, and it is a page that you need to have.

In addition to sheer demand, About pages are nice because they create a better bridge between your readers and you! Much like the contact page, peopel the come across your blog really want to feel that they know the face behind it all. Additionally, people that choose to deal with you in partnerships, advertisements and more typically request to know a bit about you. Why not knock out a step and give them what they want here?

Things to Include on your About Us Page:
- Biography
- Pictures
- About the Blog
- Why You Started the Blog
- Topics that you Cover
- Fun Facts

With this, you should have everything that you need to get started on your “About Us” page. Set those pages up, and be sure to check back tomorrow for more from Jimvesting’s Build-A-Blog Workshop!

-Jimvesting