5 Keys: Start a Blog That Defines Your Mission

Starting a blog for someone has been on my bucket list for a while.

When a colleague of mine launched his luxury tiny home/Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) company, I immediately pitched the idea to him, with a minimal knowledge of the tiny home industry (I spent one night in a tiny home a few years ago) and a modest knowledge of the housing industry (I bought a house three years ago).

I just knew that the blog presented a blank slate that would allow me to dive into a topic in my own way: I could apply my data storytelling and traditional reporting skills, and even help the company with business development. And my client, HomeEc, has been so easy to work with, they let me do what I wanted, pretty much exactly how I wanted to do it.

One month and five blog installments later, HomeEc had a blog that any startup would be proud of (in my not-so-humble opinion). What's more, they were able to leverage the information generated by the blog for media interviews and talking points for lobbyists and think-tank wonks who are advocating for new housing options.

Here are five tips on how to start a blog that can help define your organization’s meaning, mission and purpose:

UNO: Before You Start a Blog, Work Out Thumbnail Descriptions of Each Blog Post

As any good publication process/news-gathering venture goes, it's always good to establish a roadmap. I formulated the topic list, ran it past the founders of HomeEc, and they added one extra entry: They wanted a blog entry that describes their operational philosophy. That made sense to me, so we locked in the rough road map and I went to work. As research/writing progresses, you might end up with more ideas than you could fit into your five blog posts (because blog posts can proliferate like rabbits if you're not careful).

DOS: Before You Officially Start a Blog, Make Sure Your Blog Roadmap Stays Flexible

So, we knew we wanted at least five entries ready to post when the company announced itself to the public. Following that logic, the first entry MUST explain the reason for the company's existence. In HomeEc's case, that reason is the current U.S. and the global housing crisis. After writing the first entry, I had amassed so much information that I realized it would take a second entry to fully do the topic justice. And it wasn't just a question of volume of content: I had found enough red meat that I felt compelled to write it.

Out of the blue, the second blog entry unexpectedly focused on a Supreme Court case that effectively damned the bulk of the U.S. housing industry to quarter-acre lots with standalone structures. I located a 100-year-old court opinion, in all its mustachioed, hide-bound glory, and even created a graphic image with it.

The third blog entry was another no-brainer: What are HomeEc's tiny-home competitors? I've got to say that the resulting blog post closely follows the SCOTUS post as my favorite. Did you know that Amazon sells accessory dwelling units? I didn't.

When I started looking at the reviews of one of these homes, I laughed out loud: One of the suspected/alleged buyers (in the review above) said that he came home to his Amazon home one night and fell into a wall, and the house collapsed. Of course, there was no way to verify that story. But it was so crazy, the blog post pretty much wrote itself after that. I even included a picture of workers inserting questionable screws that hold Amazonian ADUs together.

The fourth blog post was the company philosophy, which pretty much consisted of a summary an interview I had with the company founders, which, again, wrote itself. I got to mention the quirky Steve Jobs in that blog post, so I was pretty happy with that.

The fifth blog post sprung up when I was speaking with a HomeEc founder about what other roadblocks he was seeing in getting his luxury tiny homes/ADUs built. He said that a family in exurban Dallas was interested in one of the HomeEc tiny homes, but that their HOA wouldn't let them.

As a former reporter, I felt compelled to get a detailed firsthand account of how this went down.

I got the couple's phone number and did what I've done (literally) thousands of times before as a reporter: I interviewed them. I asked them for a copy of the HOA contract. I got a copy of the HOA rejection email. I got a copy of the city zoning code that supposedly banned HOAs. The result? I learned that – from my vantage point – the couple's HOA was blocking the ADU construction by misapplying local zoning codes that were supposed to apply to sheds. I even figured out how an ambiguity of zoning codes helps HOAs stop ADUs.

If it were up to me, I would have stirred up some trouble after that, but I’m just their Blog Guy.

Tres: Start a Blog That Even Beelzebub Can’t Stop

Those blog posts were written MONTHS before the company started publicly promoting itself. The company website had no place to put a blog on its website. Finally, when it was go-time, I had to install a "blog" button on the HomeEc homepage using WordPress.

I'm far from fluent in WordPress. After some disastrous attempts, I got coaching from an Ohio State colleague of mine, Maria Averion, who graciously helped me out for no charge. It was a dark time, but it's passed. I am convinced that WordPress was summoned from Hades by Satan himself. Guess I'm just a Wix guy, even though even Wix is giving me heartburn right now. Maybe I'm just a content/strategy guy.

Anyway, the upshot is that if you’re going to start a blog, you’ve got to have a serious plan for how to make it happen. Don’t just wake up and wish someone would figure it out for you. Having content so interesting that it becomes your mission to make it see the light of day. Having a friend named "Maria Averion" helps, too.

Quattro: Before You Start a Blog, Optimize for Search Engines

Sounds kind of backward to search engine optimize (SEO) your content before it’s online, but that’s how search engine optimization works. That means if you created your content before you determined your key words and phrases, you’ll have to retrofit those key words into the blog posts. Which is what I ended up doing. So, when it WAS finally time to publish them, I used Wincher to identify relevant highly searched terms into the body copy, headlines, and into the meta tags. Further, we decided to publish the blog posts twice a week, to build interest in the company. As I’m coming to realize, there’s a lot more than clickety-clacking on a keyboard to build get something that can be found online.

Cinco: If You Have the Cajónes to Start a Blog, Be Prepared to Promote It

As I re-read and edited each blog post, I thought about how they might impact some of my friends. Especially those who were or are journalists. I tagged them in my LinkedIn posts, knowing they would at least provoke some discussion, or a chuckle or two.

Not long after I wrapped up the blog posts, I sat in a meeting with my HomeEc client and some housing lobbyists, who asked for a list of talking points from HomeEc. To many organizations, that might sound like a Herculean task. But fresh off writing five blog posts, I was ready to go. I sent my summary talking points to my client, who signed off, and the lobbyists got their talking points within two days. My client still uses those talking points and some takeaways from my blog posts. They are his talisman. And I'm proud of that.