We all know the story of Snow White. She was a beautiful princess, and her mother, the queen, didn’t want her to become the most beautiful in all the land. She orders her huntsman to kill Snow White, but the huntsman cannot bring himself to do it and tells her to run away. Snow White finds a house that is inhabited by seven dwarfs who offer to take her in, in return for cooking and cleaning. In the Disney movie, the Queen finds out that Snow White is still alive and gives her a poisoned apple. In the Grimm tale, however, it takes the queen 3 tries to incapacitate her. First, she tries to suffocate her with a bodice lace. Then she poisons a comb and tries to comb her hair. Finally, she tries the apple, putting her into a deep sleep. The dwarfs bury her in a glass coffin so they can still see her. Eventually, a prince comes and convinces the dwarfs to give the coffin to him. As they are taking it out of the ground, the piece of apple is dislodged, and she wakes up. Snow White seeks revenge on the queen and forces her to dance in burning-hot iron shoes until she drops dead on the floor. For obvious reasons, Disney decided to keep that out of the “kid’s version”. Make sure to subscribe to stay updated. See you guys next time as we discuss “Hansel and Gretel”.

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.