If I were starting a new blog tomorrow I'd spend considerable time mapping it out in this way. The beauty of doing this exercise before you start a new blog is that you think a little strategically about the bones of your blog (categories) and before you even start blogging you have a road map of the posts that you want to write in the first weeks and months.

There are cases where blogs are successfully used as broadcast tools with little interaction between blogger and reader – however in most cases there is at least some element of ‘listening’ going on by the blogger. Let me explore a few ways that a blogger should consider ‘listening’...