I’m sure you’re ready to dive right in and get started with your blog but there’s a little planning that needs to be done first. The success of your blog could hinge on the thought you put in to these first steps. While not everyone intends to make money with their blog, for the purpose of this series I’m going to assume that is one of your goals. Who couldn’t use some extra money? Let’s start with a little brainstorming session.

Everyone has a passion about something. Take a minute and think about yours. Some people struggle with this. Fortunately, this isn’t a problem for me. I have too many passions for my own good, so I’m always trying to pick the theme about which I am most passionate.

Go ahead and write down a few topics. Once you have come up with a few then go back and write reasons why you would or would not be qualified to write about each one. My list would look something like this:

Photography - I enjoy sports photography. It’s a fun hobby, I’m fairly decent at it but I’m by no means an expert. I’m not sure I could add a unique perspective to the photography blogs that already exist.

Coaching Basketball - I coach a varsity girls homeschool basketball team. I certainly couldn’t offer much advice from an X’s and O’s standpoint but I have learned a lot about organizing a new team, fund raising, scheduling, etc. Could work if written from a homeschool standpoint with advice on creating new teams. But is there a large enough market?

Politics - I have plenty of opinions to offer and I’m right about every one of them I love politics and there’s an endless supply of material in the news each day. There’s already a lot of political blogs, in fact that may be the single most popular blogging theme. To be successful I would need to find a unique slant to the site. This is a strong possibility.

Gadgets - I LOVE electronic gadgets. iPhones, PDAs, robots,  USB thumb drives that hold 64 GB of data! But what could I say that would be unique? I have no inside scoop on the latest tech toys. I don’t have access to pre-release gadgets in order to write reviews. This would be fun but I’m not sure I could attract visitors.

After writing down some topics I’m passionate about and analyzing the pros and cons it looks like a political blog may be my best option. It’s something I naturally keep up with on a daily basis (I’m watching Bill O’Reilly as I type this) and I believe I could do something a little unique that would bring people to the site.

Spend some time on this process. Think it through and then let me know what you come up with by leaving a comment below.

Next, we’ll look at choosing a domain name, another very important factor in the success of your blog.

Blogging has been around since the early days of the web. The term ‘weblog’ was apparently first used in a Usenet group posting on August 6, 1995 to promote the presentation of research papers by G. Raikundalia & M. Rees, lecturers from Bond University in Australia. However, Jorn Barger of RobotWisdom.com was the first to use the term in its’ modern context. Weblog was originally pronounced as ‘web log’ but by 1999 the pronunciation had evolved to ‘we blog’. Eventually the ‘we’ was dropped, leaving us with the modern term ‘Blog’. I’m sure that’s more than you wanted to know about the history of blogging.

So what is blogging? I’m glad you asked! Blogging has changed drastically over the past ten years and there is no hard set definition for today’s version of a blog. A blog can be anything from an online diary of your life to reviews of movies you see each week to rants and praise about your favorite sports team. Stay at home Mom’s write blogs discussing the daily struggles of raising children, photographers write blogs to share their experiences and tips and politicians have blogs to promote their agendas. A blog can basically be whatever you want it to be. Afterall, it’s YOUR blog.

One word you will read over and over throughout this series is ‘Passion’. It’s perfectly OK to blog with the hope and expectation of making money, but to build a successful blog, you MUST have a passion for the material on which you write. If not, one of two things will happen; either you will quickly get bored with your blog and you will gradually stop writing as frequently or your readers will see right through you. Find something you love or feel strongly about and build your blog around it.

While we’re on the topic of money, did I mention you can make money with your blog. Lot’s of money if done right. I have made a healthy five digit income from my sites for over ten years now. I also have a full time job and coach a varsity basketball team. In other words, I have generated annual earnings of $25,000 to $50,000 a year working LESS than 20 hours a week at the most and only 5-10 hours during basketball season. I don’t say this to brag. In fact, that is pocket change to some of the big time bloggers. I don’t exaggerate when I say there are thousands of bloggers making over $100,000 a year and many even bring in over a million dollars a year.

If that peaked your interest then I hope you’ll stay tuned. I’ll show you exactly how it’s done and you’ll be amazed how easy it is. Take a minute to subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll get the latest lesson in your email. Just enter your email address in the form in the upper right corner.

In the next article we’ll look at the first steps you need to take to become the Internet’s next hot blogger.