If you are thinking about starting to blog, I suggest you head over to Amber Naslund’s blog, Altitude Branding, and read her Social Media Starter Kit post on Blogging. She covered the bases very nicely. And while you are there, download her Social Media Starter Kit eBook to well, get you started.

For those of us who have a blog and are not as disciplined with our writing, we need to once again, develop a system that makes it automatic for us.

But first, we need to get our heads thinking differently. If we understand the needs of our target audiences and deliver content that is of interest to them, you will be adding value. Too many times we think negatively of what we have to offer. Don’t get caught up in that thought process! So if you think:

• What I have to say is of minimal value
• Someone has already written about it
• It seems trivial to us
• No one is listening

Keep in mind the following:

• If you are an expert at something, what you think may be of minimal value just may be that piece of information someone needs.
• Lots of things have been written about. You just may explain something better than others so that your audience hears it.
• When something comes easy to us we naturally believe it comes easy to everyone and therefore, don’t place value on it. We miss opportunities to shine because we make assumptions that what we have to offer is not valuable.
• If you never begin to speak, no one will ever listen. So even though you may feel like you are speaking to yourself, in time, you will begin to see signs of people coming to your blog – either through little faces in your MyBlogLog widget or by leaving comments.

So how do we get into the habit?

• Set time in your calendar to blog – Schedule time over the weekend to write 3-5 posts that you can schedule for publication thoughout the week. Or schedule an hour a day. That’s up to you.
• Subscribe to Google Alerts – pick keyword topics and get a feed of information on those topics. Scan them for ideas that you can use.
• Keep a journal of these ideas – don’t worry about starting a lot of posts and just saving them when you get an idea. One of those just may form into a more meaty post later because of something you read or hear.
• Vary your type of posts – write “how to” posts, news and opinions posts, the “5 – 10″ reasons/ways/mistakes etc. type posts and thought leadership. Some are easier than others. Organize your ideas into these categories or more.
• Break ideas into smaller chunks – Cover one topic per post and strive for a post no longer than 600 words.
• Be disciplined – I know it’s hard. Treat an appointment with yourself as you would with a client. It’s part of working on your business rather than in your business.

As with all plans, they are a living document and need to be monitored and modified as necessary. I keep monitoring my marketing system continuously, adding new ideas and eliminating those that I find of little value. For me, the value of sharing and building relationships outweighs the effort. Is it for you?

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Habits of Successful Bloggers is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.