By Max St John
Before you start hammering out your thoughts for all the world to digest, have a look at our checklist – if you can't tick at least one of these boxes (and I'm being generous here), have another think. If you can, get out there and start blogging.
1. Are you an authority on your subject?
If you've spent many years working in a particular field or you have a hobby that you could give valuable advice to others about, why not share your expertise?
2. Is what you've got to say of interest to others?
Most people go online to search for information or advice – in October alone, people in the US googled a mind-boggling six billion times (view source). If you think they might be looking for what you've got to say, put it out there.
3. Can you write clearly?
No matter how interesting your subject or pertinent the information, you need to be able to communicate in a clear and succinct way that keeps readers engaged. Don't panic – everyone can – it just takes practice.
4. Are you a creative thinker?
Being able to write clearly and concisely is one thing, a good blog has posts that put ideas across in an interesting way. Be inventive and find new ways grab your readers' attention.
5. Have you got the time?
Keeping a blog going takes time if you want to do it well. It's not just writing – you've got to come up with the ideas, decide how to present them and that's before you start trying to generate some visitors, field their comments and get a community going. If you're not going to have time, don't start a blog - a stagnant online presence is worse than no presence at all.
Still think you want to start a blog? Check out our top five benefits of blogging >