“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” Calvin Coolidge
Reflections: 20 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging When I Started…
♥Think through that blog name ~ Choose one carefully and think long term
♥Invest in a custom domain name and use it ~ Buy your name and use it
♥Brand your blog name across a few social media sites not all ~ Stay involved
♥Blogging, like any small business, has growing pains ~ There are quiet and busy times, and times to change direction
♥The blogosphere is a microcosm of the real world ~ There are nice and nasty folk in the community and we learn to seek like-minded bloggers
20 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging: When I launched my WordPress blog in late 2008, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew people across the globe were writing blogs about all sorts of things, and I had an idea of what a blog looked like but not much else. Back in the early 2000s, I had checked out a few top blogs on the internet and found it fascinating that some bloggers were not shy about taking positions on controversial subjects and that all had their soap boxes of opinions. Some were personal blogs, others offered information, education or inspiration.
“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” Napoleon Hill
Reflections: 20 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging When I Started…
♥If you want a future in it, treat it like a business ~ This means setting clear goals and managing its growth
♥Quality will always trump Quantity ~ Great original content that helps others learn remains king, and will always bring traffic = fewer better posts.
♥Don’t wait forever to monetize ~ If earning some income is a goal, start building towards that end and then do it whether WordAds, Affiliates or other.
♥Blogging Can be Healing ~ Writing a motivational blog can offer some surprising insights and rewards
♥The Blog Tank empties/dries; its okay to take five but be consistent ~ Bloggers need time to regroup and rejuvenate. Take it!
To spur me on, my cousin Frieda who was an HP engineer at the time, offered to build a website/blog page for me and I agreed. She built it, I played around on it for a few weeks and then let it fade into obscurity. When I returned to the medium in 2008, I was ready to write, engage, support, promote, build community, align my blog with other service oriented, do good groups and grow. But, I had no clue how to accomplish any of it. I joined a few communities: Problogger, SITSGirls, CopyBlogger, and later Daily Post and a few others, and I took workshops to help the blog along; my posts got better. By 2010, traffic was growing but not the readership; that would come later. I persevered and kept blogging and connecting.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl
Reflections: 20 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging When I Started…
♥Protect and Maintain other interests ~ Blogging can be all consuming, so it’s wise to determine how much time is feasible to assign elsewhere
♥Focus, focus, focus ~ Whether we create a niche or not, become an advocacy blog or not, find a focus and make your blog matter. we can offer a bit more.
♥Building a Readership is important and maintaining it is a full time job ~ Even if we fail first, keep working on connecting with the readers as it is worth the effort.
♥Google Stuff happens: ~ From re-calibrations to Panda, Google makes changes that can kill or increase our traffic in a blink. Key is to keep building great content
♥Get a grip on SEO and HTML basics ~ learning even a smidgen on both can bring great changes and pay dividends in polishing and highlighting our blogs
During those early days, I wasn’t focused much on a name and learned the hard way when a name I chose for my blogger blog was bought by someone else, and I had to change the blog name. Instead, I spent more time meeting other bloggers on line, connecting and interviewing people through social media, and trying out new things, like blog hops, blog carnivals, special promotions or conferences to help my blog grow…. At some point, I had decided to maintain two blogs on different platforms (WordPress and Blogger) to see which I like best. They are quite different blogs (even typealyzer agrees) and I soon learned it meant more work to do. Contd. More below!
More below!
