5 Useful Links To Help You Start a Blog

If you're a millennial, then odds are that you know someone who blogs or has blogged. About 12 million Americans are blogging, according to a 2006 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and more than half of them are under the age of 30. The number of blogs is continually increasing as the Technorati State of the Blogosphere reports show. It probably isn't a stretch to assume that you've thought about jumping on the bandwagon, especially if you're a member of Generation Y.

Before launching The Schiff Report, I spent a lot of time thinking about blogging. I kept reading about the benefits of blogging and also watched as many millennial bloggers made careers out of doing something they had started just for fun. I wrote about three examples here. After all the reading and observing, I couldn't resist the potential professional benefits of blogging, so one day, I just started.

Here are five of the most useful items that I came across when I first started seriously thinking about blogging. They run the gamut from motivational to operationally helpful.

Blogs as a Career Tool - Two Posts
There are tons of reasons to blog. This post discusses some of the reasons that I find blogging most appealing: networking and professional advancement. I also really like this Newly Corporate post, which lists some good reasons why blogging is great for millennials.

Choosing a Topic
Figuring out what to write about is challenging. Initially, it was probably my biggest obstacle. ProBlogger has many outstanding articles about the ins and outs of blogging and this post can definitely help you define a subject for your blog.

6 Easy Steps For Starting a Blog
Penelope Trunk, the career/life advice guru, spells out what to focus on when you're just getting started. Here's the list.

Good General Blogging Tips
In this post, LifeDev blogger Glen talks about how to write great content. He probably knows what he's talking about too because LifeDev was almost an instant success when it first launched. Read the link for more of the stats on that.

Please refer to the comments for additional helpful links that I've come across since writing this post and for recommendations from others. I encourage you to add any other good resources for people who are just starting to blog.