Everyday people share information via various social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. why you should have a blog (especially a company blog). Yet, you hardly ever see articles that share lessons bloggers have learned from blogging. I definitely wanted to take this opportunity to share the lessons I have learned from blogging because one week ago was my blog’s anniversary.

I have always had a passion for writing and finally decided to channel that energy into a blog. From a business standpoint, I know that having a blog is essential because it serves several purposes such as demonstrating your industry expertise, generating interest in you or your company, connecting with prospects and customers, etc. In case you are experiencing some reluctance in jumping on the blogging bandwagon, I believe it is a worthwhile endeavor because blogging will teach you the following lessons:

1.) Inspiration comes in many forms: Many do not blog because they do not know how to come up with blog topics. At times it can be overwhelming to generate ideas for your blog because you are putting so much pressure on yourself that you are inadvertently causing your mind to shut down. When I get like this I force myself to take a time out because staring at the computer is only going to frustrate you. I have a variety of activities that I perform during my time out such as reading other blogs, exercising, etc. The best ideas come when you are not intentionally looking for them.

2.) Write on: One of the main reasons I started this blog was to share information that I felt would empower and encourage people. I wanted to be more than a logo. However, you have to realize that there will be times when you put your heart and soul into writing a post that you may consider to be a “masterpiece” and still not receive the attention you anticipated. It can be disheartening to receive a negative comment or worse—no comment at all. However, this is still no excuse to avoid blogging. One of my favorite blogs, Men with Pens, wrote a great post about comments. People often do not leave comments for various reasons (check out the comment section of this post) and this is not necessarily a reflection on your content.

3.) Patience: When you first start blogging you may feel that no one is reading your blog. Therefore, many often give up right before their blog starts to pick up momentum. You have to have confidence in your capability to write quality content because it takes time to build up your Click here to read the rest of this post at the TargetStars Blog.

The TargetStars Blog is authored by VAF member LaTosha of TargetStars.


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This is definitely an encouragement for me to blog continuously no matter how my reader responds (or no responds at all) to my blog.

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Joey Wong - Virtual Assistant Service - Your Partner in Achieving Business Success
Facebook

I know this has encouraged me to keep blogging. Excellent blog topic!

Thank you, this is very valuable info for me. I haven't started a blog but have been contemplating it for so long.

Blogging is hard work but the main thing about blogging to maintain your readers and get new visitors is consistency. If you make blog post everyday then all of a sudden became weekly then you go back to everyday then you will lose visitors that way.

It doesn't matter if its weekly or everyday, just make it consistent. For me the best interval is about 2 to 3 days. I make sure there will be wo blog post every week. Sometimes I make 4 or 5 if there's plenty of time.

Thanks this is really useful, i'm going to attach a blog to my website but i'm unsure where to start or how often to blog etc.

I've been looking through all the posts on blogging, and this was a really great one. I'm trying to learn all I can about blogging, and there really is so much out there. I'm just getting acquainted with "The Blog," taking baby steps so to speak. I semi-figured out how to use WordPress and got my first blog up and out there. I actually received a comment, which was so exciting. Now it's time to get that second blog up, but I'm a little unsure if the topic has been "over used." I wanted to write about how VAs can help get an office to go "green." So I'm not sure if I should research other blogs on the topic and then add in my comments, or start my own blog on the topic. I think I can come up with some original ideas -- but I'm afraid it might be one of those "oh-another-going-green blog." Any thoughts on this would be really helpful! I've actually started writing bits on my topic, but don't want to post because of my blogging awkwardness .

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Patty

Patty, why not sign up to Blogger and start a personal blog, it could be about absolutely anything but preferably something you feel comfortable writing about. You could also make it anonymous (i.e. not have your name shown anywhere) if you wanted.

I started a personal blog mainly to help me relearn my writing skills, which hadn't been used in a number of years, and it's really helped.

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Bridie's Typing Services - specialising in transcription services
The professional's choice

Definitely take baby steps, but whatever you do just start! LOL
If you're waiting to be "comfortable" then it may never happen because there will always be a feeling of inadequacy preventing you from writing. I recommend starting the blog on WordPress.

It is extremely user friendly and if you decide later on that you want to turn your blog into a blogsite ( a site that can be used as your website and blog) it will be easier and you don't have to go through the hassle of transferring everything over from Blogger (I went through this and although it's not hard it was a step I would have rather avoided-LOL). Blogging is a way to establish your expertise, build SEO, etc. so the sooner you get started the better. If you're looking for topics to write on check out a site called Skribit (I wrote a blog post about this site in case you want to learn more about it).

It helps alleviate the fear of what to write about by having people write in about topics they wish to read about and hope someone will write about the subject. I am confident you will get into blogging and don't forget to use an editorial calendar to keep you on track (I am guilty of straying away from this rule myself, but plan on getting better at this for 2011). Sorry for rambling...LOL Good luck and have fun!

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LaTosha Johnson
http://www.targetstars.com

Great advice from LaTosha!

There are so many great reasons to blog, and so many wondrous ways to blog! I recently co-wrote an e-book, with Christina Nelson, on the rock-bottom basics of blogging. Any entrepreneur or leader of any kind should blog in some manner, whether or not their blogging attracts an audience.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com