On December 21, my family threw me a surprise birthday party. My birthday was on the 18th, but they decided to celebrate on a Saturday. I had no idea what was going on I never thought they were going to throw me a party. That Saturday morning my niece called me and told me if I could take her shopping. I went to go pick her up from my brother’s house and from there we went to the Frisco Mall. She bought a pair of shoes and some clothes. She convinced me to buy something cute to wear. After walking the whole mall we stopped at Olive Garden and my favorite dish. From there we went to go see the movie called Underwater at Studio Movie Grill. When we got out I received a call from my mom saying to come back home because she didn’t want me to drive in the dark. When I dropped off my niece I saw a lot of cars parked in front of my brother’s house. My niece said my brother and sister-in-law had some friends over for a cookout.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.