How to Start Blogging as a Multipotentialite

These days, a lot of multipotentialites have blogs. Many of us have more than one.

We tend to use them to express our passion and knowledge about different topics and to play with our ideas to see where they take us. If you don’t already have a blog, you’ve probably at least thought about starting one.

Unfortunately, multipotentialites face more hurdles than most people when it comes to setting up a new blog.

As well as having to get to grips with the technical side of things, we have to figure out what we’re going to write about and which medium we’re going to use. While, for most people, topic and medium are no brainers, for us, it can be hard to know where to start.

Here are a few tips to help you get started with blogging, whether or not you know what you want your blog to be about.

Choosing your subject matter

1) Create a scratch list

Start by creating a scratch list of topics that represent the range of interests you intend covering on your blog. Ask yourself:

• What’s my overarching theme?
• How do the different topics link together or complement each other?
• Is there a dominant topic or are all my topics more or less equal in importance?

Get a sense of what you’re going to write about or who your audience is going to be. If you’ve got a huge list of topics, look for a broader theme, perspective, philosophy, or lens that you can look at those topics with.

If you’re still unsure about the topic, just get started and come back to this stage once you’ve got some blog posts under your belt.

2) Check you’ve covered your main subjects

Once you have a scratch list, do a quick check to make sure you’ve covered of all the main topics you’d like to write about. Refer back to your overarching theme. Will the range of blog post ideas give a visitor to your website a good feel for your subject matter? Does the content feel cohesive?

3) Choose your medium

You don’t have to stick to just writing on your blog. You could use a particular medium to explore some of your other interests. For example, if your blog were about travelling, graphic design, and learning languages, you could use graphic design as a medium to create infographics about travelling and languages, rather than needing to write about design too.

If writing isn’t your thing, use video, audio, illustration, or any other form of communication that you can think of. Whatever you do, just make sure that it’s something you enjoy, otherwise you’ll lose interest in your blog.

4) Vary the medium

Think about mixing and matching the types of blog posts you create. You could alternate between written posts, infographics, photographs, videos, podcasts and how-to guides, for example. Adding in a bit of variety can help to satisfy your multipotentialite desire for new experiences and stop you getting bored too quickly.

Also think about the purpose of your blog. What’s in it for you and what’s in it for your readers? If you want to blog mostly for yourself, you could make your blog more of a personal journal. If you want to appeal to an audience or start a blog-based business, think about how you might create content that will entertain or provide value for your readers.

5) Draft working titles for posts

You might want to note down some rough ideas for the titles of your blog posts. Don’t worry about making the titles clever or snappy, as you can always refine them later. The job of a working title is to provide you with a prompt, so when you start to create the post, you know which points to include.

Managing your blogging schedule

1) Write a back catalogue

Whether you’re getting ready to launch a personal blog or your new business, you’ll want to write a selection of posts to populate your site. Remember to set aside enough time for writing, along with all those other tasks you’ll be busy with!

If you can, try to build up a bank of blog posts when things are quiet or when you have some unexpected free time. Despite the best made plans, there are always things that crop up in life that mean you don’t have a chance to write for a few weeks. This is when having a back catalogue of posts is invaluable.

2) Create a blogging schedule

Writing blog posts does take time and, as we all know, there’s nothing quite like a deadline to spur you on, so consider putting together a schedule of posts and noting the dates you want to publish on. Until you find your own blogging rhythm – the frequency of blogging that suits you best – you’ll got your schedule to keep you on track.

Pitfalls to avoid

Pitfall #1: Overcommitting your time

In the early days of any blog or business, it’s hard to strike a balance. Either you don’t have as much time as you’d like to put into writing, or you’re putting all your time into writing and nothing else.

While blogging can be an important part of exploring your interests or promoting your business, if it’s preventing you from getting around to doing other important tasks, you need to rein it in.

Pitfall #2: Being too ambitious with your blogging schedule

It can be easy to underestimate how much time writing blog posts and running your business will take you. Try not to make any promises, either to yourself or your audience, that you might not be able to keep. Maybe steer clear of putting “Get daily updates from me” on your site until you know whether or not that will be achievable (and enjoyable)!

Your Turn

Do you have a blog? What strategies did you use when you were first getting started?