In a time very, very close from now… the Force awakens. We’re on the brink of rioting as anticipation continues to crescendo upon waiting for the seventh installation in the Star Wars saga to finally come out! The Force is awakening around the corner and while we all wait (excruciatingly), here’s a few tips on how to start a blog or website, with the help of some quotes from our beloved Sci-Fi saga.

“I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you.” Or rather, I’m Chris.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” — basically everyone

The best way to infiltrate the online world with your own blog or website is firstly, to start. Contemplating and hesitating are natural and they are the first and possibly the hardest barriers to overcome. You may start with butterflies in your stomach, but once you get going, your confidence will take over and you’ll be owning your blog in no time!

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…” — Obi-Wan Kenobi

Or rather “This isn’t the audience you’re looking for”. Ensure that you know who you’re catering to, whether that is a target audience for your blog posts or a target market for your eCommerce products or services.

For bloggers:
Know who you’re writing to by fleshing out what you want to write about, and mixing and matching that with what you think people will want to read. Never forget that you’re writing for an audience, not for yourself — always think if a viewer would be interested in what you’re writing, otherwise you’re basically writing a personal journal.

For eCommerce websites:
Like chiselling a statue, you need to carve out certain aspects of the artwork — for your target market, that means looking at all the factors that can affect their interest. Segment your market by creating different target markets that you want to write to by determining certain aspects.

These aspects can include demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioural, social, and economic qualities. From there, by process of elimination, you can determine which target market(s) are best for you or your business to write to.

“Your focus determines your reality” — Qui-Gon Jinn

Don’t forget who you’re writing to, what you’re writing, and how you’re writing it — do this by creating a content strategy. Plan out the aforementioned things in a document and print it out to stick somewhere you can always see it, then constantly revert back to it and refine it as you implement it. Come up with some themes for every month, and jot down some ideas for articles or headlines for those themes — all the while remembering your target audience.

Being focused is the key ingredient to a successful blog, and being consistent within your content strategy is as essential. “Stay on target”, as Gold Five would say.

“In my experience there is no such thing as luck.” — Obi-Wan Kenobi

You’re most likely not going to get lucky, it’s going to be hard work from here. My 3 P’s of proper promotion and blog writing sums up this one — Passion, Patience, Persistence.

Keep planning and thinking about your strategy, keep writing on a constant basis, and most of all, love what you’re writing about, otherwise you won’t enjoy it. Patience is essential, because it’s not all going to explode into popularity, so you have to wait for things to happen.

Social media is your lightsaber. You can gain fantastic exposure from social media sites, by sharing, posting, getting your friends to like your page, etc. Get onto Facebook and Twitter, and if relevant to your blog, Instagram, Google+, and LinkedIn.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader

A lack of faith is very disturbing. Believe in what you’re doing and you’ll be doing it fantastically. As previously mentioned, you’ve got to love what you’re writing, otherwise you won’t enjoy it, and that can take a large chunk out of your productivity and quality of writing.

Also, don’t give up when you think things aren’t going the way you want them to — the tables can be very easily turned. Always remembering to look back at your strategy is great, but something that will help you to understand your performance is to analyse your progress. Analytic tools, such as Google Analytics or Facebook analytics, that show you important statistics about your website and posts, are considered essential. Rifle through the amount of statistics, including traffic and views of your posts, and understand which posts did well and which didn’t, then learn from that and write posts accordingly.

“You do have your moments. Not many, but you have them.” — Princess Leia

In terms of traffic and exposure, you will have your moments. You will gain exposure, and people will start to notice you, but things online (unless amazingly popular) mostly take their time to bloom — which is where patience becomes important.

“Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.” — Han Solo

This one is self-explanatory. It’s great to be excited, but don’t go in over your head, stick to the essentials of your writing, and also to your strategy.

Even though you may get some traction and start getting lots of exposure, be sure not to lose sight of who you’re writing for, what you’re writing, and how you’re writing.

“Impossible to see, the future is.” — Yoda

The rest is up to you! The power is in your hands, so get out there and show the online world what you’re all about.

“Remember… the Force will be with you, always.” — Obi-Wan Kenobi