12 Checkpoints before Starting Your Career as a Full Time Blogger

Many students try to make their career in blogging because a blogger is his own boss. And a blogger also earns a healthy monthly income.  But few of them succeed. I am not going to tell you fear factors of blogging because everyone has to be bold in making decisions. One thing is sure blogging is not so easy. So there are some checkpoints before starting your career as a full time professional blogger. And you may not ignore them if you want to succeed in blogging business. One more thing, there is nothing wrong if you want to make your career in blogging.

Basic Checkpoints:

(1) Good knowledge of English:
This is very basic requirement, one must be having good knowledge of English, including reading, writing and speaking. There can be exceptions for Chinese, Japanese, Russian and some other countries because they have local audience who does not read or write English. But in India you would not earn money with Hindi or Gujarati blog unless it is other than blog.

(2) Basic knowledge of computer hardware:
I have a PC since two and a half year. I never given annual maintenance contract or never called any engineer for any problem because I can troubleshoot most of the problems. I can easily install windows and configure it, and it always saves my time and money.

(3) Good Knowledge of computer programs:
You can start and shut down your computer that is not enough. You should be having good knowledge of windows components as control panel, installing and uninstalling programs. And some of the most important computer programs you need to work on them. I am not supplying a list of computer programs here. Adding something more I will say you should be having knowledge of basic graphic designing, picture editing, working knowledge of HTML and CSS.

(4) Advance knowledge of Internet:
You chat on Yahoo messenger with your friends and strangers; you check your yahoo mail and know about Orkut that is not enough. What you know about internet is very basic; I think you should be having advance knowledge of Internet. You should know the difference between and website and a blog. When you visit a website you should be able to categorize that website, popularity, pagerank and its size. You should keep yourself updated with new information about Internet.

Advance Checkpoints:

(5) Good Knowledge of Blogging Platform:
There are many blogging platforms, but for professional blogging with free solution WordPress self hosted is the best and most recommended. When you start using WordPress you will face many difficulties. So you may install WordPress in local hard drive for testing purpose. For some basic customization and settings you can create a free account on WordPress.Com.

(6) Knowledge of Choice:
If you want to become a blogger I think a picture will be in your mind about blogging as how your blog will be and which topics you will choose to write about. After all, this is most important to choose your blog topics wisely. You can choose any of these topics: blogging (itself), money making, celebrity news, humor, political news, tech news, tech tips, computer programs etc. These all topics are known as ‘niche’. For blog promotion you may not select more than one niche.

(7) Knowledge of hosting and domain:
For a self hosted blog you need a webhost where you can host your blog (self hosting) and for that you have to pay. To learn about good hosting you should read hosting reviews on various sites; you may visit hosting sites and ask them for more information if you have any question. Now hosting is very cheap if you go for shared plans, and most of bloggers relay on shared hosting. Before purchasing a hosting plan you should think about a killer domain name. There are some of most popular domains as .com, .org, .net, but for blogging .com is best. Your own name is not good for your professional website name, website name should be including your niche or it should be unique. Your niche should be reflecting in your website name. As my blog name is TechShali, ‘tech’ is related to technology.

(8) Learn how you will make money with your blog:
If you are willing to blogging, you are willing to business, business needs investment of time and money. So you should be aware about getting it back with high interest. I am running adsense ads to monetize my blog.

Critical checkpoints:

(9) Do not start blogging as full time business and not leave your present job:
It is recommended. You may not start blogging as full time business instead you may do it part time. After launching your blog you will learn plenty of things about blogging. If you are doing job in a firm do not leave it instead try to manage your present job and part time blogging because it will take at least six months to make some money with your blog.

(10) Have your own PC and Internet connection:
You may start blogging as part time with your own computer and internet connection. Office and cyber café is not suggested to use for blogging because of security concern.

(11) Get approval and support of your Mom and Dad:
It is very recommended if you are student or not having a good paying job.

(12) Credit card:
In India credit card is very necessary for bloggers. Without credit card you would not be able to verify your PayPal account. You would not be able to purchase hosting plans outside of India. My ICICI debit card was blacked by bank (itself) for PayPal verification and denied by Bluehost for hosting.

I have done many mistakes; you can learn from my mistakes and avoid doing them for yourself.