Getting your blog on
This is probably the hardest part of the process; deciding how specific or broad, how personal or professional, and exactly how detailed your posts should be can be a much more difficult process than just writing the posts.
Actual writing skills can be helpful, but absolutely perfect written English is not a requirement. There are a number of popular blogs where the focus is on images, video posts, podcasts, webcomics and link aggregation so long as someone is creative and can put together interesting content on a regular basis there’s hope for those of us that aren’t exactly up to writing that great American novel.
Digital cameras, while not absolutely necessary, are extremely useful. Even if you are a literary god, it helps to have a visual or two. Images help break up blocks of text and add visual interest to the page, meaning that people who may otherwise pass your blog by will hang around and even return if the images tell as much of a story as your written post.
This image has nothing to do with the post, but it belongs here anyway.
There is no definitive how to formula for blogging, but there are bits of advice that prove mildly helpful over the long run.
First, know a little html. If you don’t know any html, at all, then learn. From time to time it’ll prove useful. Very useful.
Second, try to post on a more or less regular basis. I’d be a total hypocrite if I claimed I wrote daily, on all my blogs, all the time. I don’t. I have had periods of bloggerificness where I have and I have almost always benefited from writing daily, and I have almost always found that it’s hard to return to the habit after taking extended breaks. Not every post needs to be a literary accomplishment, some just need to let your readers know that you haven’t fallen off the face of the planet.
Don’t be afraid to jump the tracks from time to time. It’s okay to make friends with your readers (after all, when you first start blogging the majority of your traffic will be your friends) and it’s okay to go off topic and let slip hints that as well as a reviewer of excellent handmade combs or a collector of vintage pie plates that you might also be a human being.
Don’t pretend to be someone you are not. People will see right through it, you’ll be publicly called out (possibly on Youtube or 4chan) and eventually someone will make a Wikipedia page on your fraud.
Don’t be afraid to change your mind. Sure we love a good diatribe on how carbon emissions are bad for the birthrate of the rare wooly toad, but if you find evidence that contradicts your original opinion it’s perfectly acceptable, even worthy of admiration, to admit that you have changed positions. Personal evolution, maturing, is awesome.
Finally, have fun.