Starting a Blog? Here's How to Discover Your Blog Purpose

Updated January, 2019Are you looking to start a blog? Wondering how to blog for your business? Before you get started, you first need to discover your blog purpose.That purpose becomes your focus. It creates a rhythm and a flow to your content that allows your initial readers to relate. You share your thoughts in a way that naturally attracts the exact right reader.So how do you figure out the purpose of your blog? Below are the first 6 steps you must take to create a blog and discover its purpose.

Starting a Blog? Here's How to Discover Your Blog Purpose

1. Find Your Blog Purpose

According to Webster’s, purpose is:

Intentionally or deliberately working towards an aim or a goal.

Purposeful blogging based on conviction gives you motivation. Blogging without purpose can leave both you and your readers feeling frustrated and lost.When I first started blogging, I struggled to find my purpose. I was a random blogger without consistency. I also lacked content that served anyone in particular.Looking back today, I wonder how those 400 word posts even gained traction. But hey, it was a different time in the blogging world with very different expectations.

Today, if you want to blog with success, you need to identify:

1. How a blog will support your current business mission, vision, values
2. How a blog will support the growth of your new business idea
3. What the competitive landscape looks like and how you're filling a unique need
4. Why your audience will (and should) care about your blog and ultimately... your business

If you're spinning out in trepidation and fear, worried that if you "niche" down and get specific you'll lose a broader audience, don't worry.It's only when I narrowed my focus that things began to turn around. Once I stopped claiming my audience as "everyone" and decided to speak to an "audience of one," my blog began to grow.I moved from obscure blogger to Award winning writer, a blog that eclipsed 250,000 Pageviews per month, and an email list that grew from 5,000 to 25,000 in less than 6 months.And that's exactly what finding your purpose can mean to your blog and your business.

2. Create A Vision Fоr Yоur Blog

Once уоu knоw whу уоu wаnt tо blog, the next step is creating a vision that will power your blog. Think about the message you want tо relay tо your readers.For example, if you're a health and fitness instructor, do you want to show people how they can eat healthy and lose weight? If so, your vision will include content that leads them through your process.

You might show them how their eating habits impact their health or share your strategy to get out of bed and make it to the gym consistently.Whatever the case, write with your reader in mind. What do they want to know, learn from you, and gain when they subscribe to your blog?Let that power your vision!

3. Commit to Your Blog Purpose

I didn't immediately find meaning in my writing. I blogged about things I knew, but didn’t put my heart into it.My articles felt lifeless and my readership numbers reflected that. I needed a strategy. The problem was that there was no way I could define a strategy without purpose.I was sporadic and un-focused in my blogging and my words lacked conviction. I needed a “blog intervention” and fast!While my intervention was slow to come, the questions I asked myself will be beneficial to you, no matter the stage you're in.

How to Create a Sustainable Blog

1. What do you want to achieve with your blog? (specific results)
2. Who are you most passionate in serving? (your ideal audience)
3. Why will this be a long-term commitment for you? (what will keep you going on the tough days)

To give you an example, my answers would look like this:

• Authority: create content around a singular focus or topic
• Credibility: build a reputation within in your industry
• Thought Leadership: drive market decisions by anticipating needs
• Motivational: excite, inspire, and lead your audience
• Legacy: design content that leaves an indelible mark on your industry, audience, and community

Barkabull Animal Rescue does exactly that. They create content that increases awareness around a cause, inspires action and encourages empathy.

4. Infuse Your Passion

If you're blogging to create authority and credibility (and I'm sure you are), then you know you must eat, sleep and breathe your subject matter. Consistently blogging about your topic creates a conversation around your brand, but it will take time.But knowing your topic doesn’t always equal passion. Are you passionate about what you're blogging about? If not, it may not come as natural as breathing to you. If your content feels forced, your readers will sense that.And if you're not excited about your blog, then who on earth can be?

Take out a notepad and pen and write:

• The first 10 topics that you're most interested in
• The top 3-5 topics you're an expert in

Now ask yourself, are these topics you could write about even if you didn't get paid? (not your goal, but you catch my drift)If your answer is yes and they're not a part of your blog now, get them added in. This will add rotation and increase credibility in a variety of areas.Instead of being a one trick pony, you show that your interests are diverse, but your solutions specific and unique.

5. Create a Conversation

Do you work daily to engage your readers, draw on their emotions, and ask them to discuss, debate and contact you?Are you asking open ended questions or using free offers or advice to draw them in?Have you defined a call to action and do you ask them to take action on a consistent basis?If you can’t create a conversation then you will never gain a audience that feels a part of your community. Make it feel like home to them…a place where they belong and enjoy spending time.You also want to create a feeling of loss if they miss an article.How can you drive readers to your blog and then interact with them on a daily basis? i.e. blogging about hot topics, local information, answering frequently asked questions.Be specific and then take action by adding this to your blog.

6. Write Relevant Content

By engaging your readers on a consistent basis you should be totally in sync with their needs. Listen to their concerns, their fears about the market, what keeps them awake at night and craft your content around this.Your articles should be a refuge, an answer and a calming force in an otherwise tumultuous and overwhelming time within their lives.Give them what they are searching for and they will be forever grateful.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're a business owner or an entrepreneur, your blog plays a vital role in your success. Not only does it increase visibility, but also improves engagement as you build a loyal following.Turn your blog into the catalyst that drives you toward your goals. Identify your purpose and then write with conviction.Getting clear on your purpose will open up the creative flood gates and allow you to connect with your audience all while building your brand and your profitability.