5 Things I Learned in my First Year as a Blogger
If you didn’t write, you may as well never have existed
I’m tantalized by the unknown when looking at my family’s ancestry. I wish I had a journal, a ledger, or anything written by one of my great-grandparents. I want some clue as to how they thought, what they valued, or what their days looked like.
Yet, I have nothing.
At the beginning of the Covid crisis, I started a daily journal. I kept track of Covid deaths, hospital-bed usage, and summaries of public announcements. I knew it was a unique moment and that someday one of my descendants might be interested in this information.
Yes, I’m aware there are nearly eight billion other people who could have been doing the same thing. But again, if you didn’t write, you may as well never have existed.
Besides, who else is in my exact situation?
After the confinements ended I continued the daily journal. I record exercises, conversations, to-do lists, how much I spend at the market, trips, and birthdays.
It’s a hodge-podge that isn’t useful on its own. But it is a veritable treasure trove of first-person observations and data.
Where does the blog come in?
What better polishing stone than public opinion? Or even the idea that someone else might be reading?
A blog is a like a next-level journal.
That’s not to say that a blog should take the place of a journal Each has its place and its utility.
I don’t post daily blog posts; far from it. But what I do write is more digestible. More directed towards a particular audience. My posts are organized into various themes.
Tie the public journaling aspect with the far-flung hope of making money and there’s no time to lose in starting a blog.
Steve’s Nook has been live for about a year now.
I hope it has many years left.
Given the near anniversary, it’s time to look back and evaluate what I’ve learned.
Here are 5 Things I Learned in my First Year as a Blogger.
Write Better
I love English. I think it is infinitely malleable. I play with it, and my best friends do too. But what this playfulness represents to outsiders is probably nonsense.
Blog posts require discipline and editing. The English is a more hashed version than what I’m used to. Long, run-on sentences get left behind, at least, I hope so. Short, easy-to-understand sentences take over.
I use the free version of Grammarly to check my spelling and to tell me when my phrases aren’t clear. Someday I’ll upgrade to a premium version.
The feedback is immediate, and it helps me clarify my thoughts.
Post to Twitter
One of my first colleagues in France spent hours on Twitter. I followed him into the labyrinth and found that I like the highly personalizable aspect of the site.
Yes, at first I spent too much time on Crypto-twitter. It had me FOMOing at the worst possible time into alt-coins. In hindsight, I was spending too much time in an eco-chamber.
Still, it is an unmatched medium of information exchange.
Once constrained to defined periods, it becomes a useful tool. Thank you, Cal Newport and Digital Minimalism for helping me reduce my digital consumption!
Twitter allows me to follow people with similar interests to mine and to post blog articles where they are easier to find.
It allows me to minimize my exposure to state-sponsored propaganda and to hear unpopular opinions.
These are all aspects of Twitter in my personal life, but they carry over to blogging as well.
Twitter provides the perfect platform for sharing information, creating community, and getting inspiration.
I’m still learning the ropes of how to gain more Twitter followers, how to attract more people to my blog, and how to engage an audience but I can feel my competence growing with each new tweet.
Thanks to Steve’s Nook, Twitter has become a tool for creation instead of yet another way to consume information.
WordPress
WordPress is a customizable platform for web content. Like Twitter, it is a tool.
WordPress is very popular, as are its widgets, plugins, themes, etc. Yet there’s no way I would ever have learned how to use WordPress without starting Steve’s Nook.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, start a blog and get ready for a crash course in CSS, form creation, SEO, SSL, email lists, etc.
I wish it weren’t the case but learning something abstract just in case it becomes useful is not my learning style.
Perhaps someday I’ll be able to leverage my WordPress knowledge into a better job or a better workplace role. I honestly can’t say.
No matter how I may one day use my WordPress knowledge, it is all due to starting Steve’s Nook.
Myself
What is the self?
That’s a big question. I don’t have the whole answer.
But I do know that without an exhibition space, there’s little reason to look for a definition.
Steve’s Nook has helped me learn about myself – meaning I can now more clearly label my habits, interests, values, and style. I’ll stick with this definition of the self for now.
I’ve broken down my blog into themes. Generally, they reflect my interests and values. They are Personal Musings, Book Reviews, Cryptocurrencies, Ecology, Fitness, Language, Personal Finance, and Travel.
These themes are where others might gain value from my thoughts, knowledge, and experience. And they don’t encroach too much on the spheres of my life devoted to family, friends, and past – things I would like to keep private.
Public Value
While trying to get more page views I’ve looked into many strategies, from SEO mining to building community with other starting bloggers. One of the ideas that resonates best with me is that a blogger needs to create valuable content.
People visit and re-visit a blog because it brings value to their lives. It answers a question, clearly defines an idea, or it entertains.
By striving to bring value to the reader, a blog post goes from rambling and personal to succinct and general.
Discovering need and delivering value is difficult. It takes a thoughtful approach, but it gets easier with time.
For example, I can see that very few people are looking at my book reviews.
Who’s to blame them? I’m not the New Yorker, the Library Journal, or the New York Review of Books. My blog can’t compare to the authority of these sources of information. Besides, why would I only want to review new books?
I’m not saying that there’s no value in writing reviews, but maybe there is a way to make them more useful for others.
What would make book reviews more valuable?
Why not take it up a level and compare two books together? Why not create a reading list? Perhaps giving a summary and a breakdown of the book’s takeaway points is more useful than a simple review.
Ultimately, it’s a search for what people need and how to answer that need.
Do you have a blog? What have you learned from it?