Blogging – 5 Things No One Said
Blogging is only hard if we let it become hard!
Funny Fame
Looking back at the very first post I ever did on tumblr (where I started my first blog) I wish there had been resources that were easy to understand and explained things from a beginners standpoint. I am not planning on writing technical manuals about blogging. I thought I would share a few things I wish I had known from day 1.
As a general rule, excited bloggers anticipate making their first post. You have a sense of accomplishment about blogging once your first post is wrote. You then sit back and wait for people to appear on your site. You are sure that you will become discovered and become famous within days. Now let me explain something to anyone “thinking” about blogging
Dream On
1. Excited – You just bought your own website. You are still happy when you make it to your “new” domain control panel and you are trying to find how to write posts (writing is the reason you blog….you don’t have time for technical details). You are still excited when you discover you will have to download WordPress to make your first post. You start to download the program and the internet provider goes down….sigh
2. Still Excited – The internet server is back up and you download WordPress. Finishing your first post excites you. (even if it did take 112 post revisions). You schedule your post for first thing in the morning.
3. Excited Less – You periodically check your site stats during the day. Your stats finally show a visitor which makes you feel good. Upon further examination the one visitor was on your site for less than 2 seconds.
4. Not Excited – Each day, you continue to check your stats and they begin to depress you.
Blogging Reality Bites
Many new bloggers (and some veterans) will quit at this point. They decide that blogging won’t get any better. Once they quit, some potentially, excellent content disappears into the web.
Persistent bloggers will continue to question how they can improve their site. You will start to have questions and discover that everyone has an answer to your questions. The problem is that you don’t know who is correct and who isn’t.
Blogging Persistence
1. Determination - When I started blogging I read a simple statement someone posted, “do you know the reasons you blog?” If you blog for fun or an online diary don’t worry about anything and write. If you blog to have a voice you will need to search, listen and learn. Don’t wait for someone to tell you the answers to things. You need to actively look for answers to questions.
2. Snoop – Don’t be afraid to look at other sites. You won’t break their site by looking (I promise or at least not intentionally)! I might have a parenting blog but it never stops me from looking at other blogs. Having a parenting blog means I need to become aware of the latest trends in other things besides parenting (your niche isn’t reading in stone)!
3. Notes - While you are looking around take notes on things that you like, e.g., widgets, colors or word styles. If you really like the site don’t be afraid to leave a message telling them you really enjoy their site. Everyone is a little vain and people like to hear they did something exceptionally well. It is possible they might give you constructive criticism on your site if you ask them too.
4. Proactive – Be proactive about yourself and content. Don’t wait for others to notice you! If you want people to notice your content, you need to start noticing theirs first. Most bloggers post their social networks they are on, make sure to follow them (click any of those to reach mine), e.g., facebook, twitter or stumbleupon. Don’t just become a follower become a super follower.
5. Value – In my opinion, value comments are one of the most important things a person can do in blogging. If someone leaves comment on my blog, “Great job!” I have doubts they even looked at my work. If someone adds to the discussion by having questions or statements that are well thought out, then they have added value to my work. I try to value comment on several blogs a day. Value comments can and will bring back potential viewers to your blog.
BONUS CONTENT #6
6. Share - Triberr is a way for bloggers to extend their reach through social media and the help of other bloggers. Anyone blogging can join triberr. You will look for tribes you can join or invite people to your tribe (there is no cost to join tribes). Once you are in some tribes you can share each others content on your social networks. Triberr will also help you to connect with other bloggers and make some great online friends (these are the people who will support you and your blog….. never forget to return the favors)!
There are many other topics I wish someone had told me from day one, e.g., S.E.O, Google Analytic and Alexa. I will write about them at a future time when I can dedicate a whole post to each topic. If I blog about them I might stop someone from making some of the mistakes I have made. After all, I know parenting is about continuing to learn new things and I am never to old to learn (Note: I can still tie in the main focus of my blog, parenting, to my post topic blogging and learning)
I made many mistakes when I started blogging including some that I am still learning about. How did you do when you started your blog? Did you just write with a vengeance or learn about the market and coding? Is there anything you would do differently if you could? Be sure to tell me in the comments!
Today I am on Silly Dad Blog Names being featured (they seem to think Dadblunders is a funny name)! Check out my interview Post 8 – Some Catching Up Silly Dad Name Blogs – Dadblunders
If you like this post help get the word out by using stumbleupon and hopefully help some future bloggers!
Tags: accomplishment, blogging, dream on, internet provider, internet server, own website, reality bites, revisions, technical details
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- Blogging: The Benefits of Value Commenting - Dad Blunders - [...] about developing your own site I discover how little I actually know. As I discussed last week, Blogging – ...
Hahaha. I remember the excitement of that first visitor to show up in my analytics. I giggled my ass off when I discovered it was me visiting my own site!!! Oh how far it seems I have come!!
Tracey,
LOL…sadly I have done that too. I started to add that but felt I made the point already… I am going to start writing a few more of these. I know when I began blogging I wish I could have found something that was easy and simple to use. A place to just start understanding what I need to learn.
Aaron
If Xander can sit and play with the degus is there any chance you’ll sit next to me and show me how to apply improvements to my sites.? Widgets, colours and wordstyles all need looking at since the first is a mystery, the second is supposed to attract certain readers and the third could stop me being too wordy. Does my humour fit my audience?
The degus will look after Xander and keep him laughing.
David,
I would be happy to help you anytime you want me too. I am not an expert but at the rate I am going at some point I might be one….yikes! I get frustrated when something doesn’t work and I will search high and low to find out why! It can be a good thing and a bad….If you really do want me to help though I will do my best just let me know…You have my email too.
Your friend,
Aaron
Oh, I too felt the initial pangs of beginning blogging last February, but I kept at it, and even if I feel burnt out, I still love it. Nice tips, and awesome post!
Amberr,
I wish someone had told me some of these things the day I started. Even today I am still trying to correct things on my site that didn’t work correctly in the beginning….maybe a simple/small book of required reading for new blog owners….just a idea….
Aaron
There is so much to building that audience too… I didn’t even touch in this post the simplicity and complicated nature of S.E.O and it is something you really want to work on if you want to become successful. Link building is another thing I didn’t discuss at this time…I am going to make more of these type posts…I knew though the best one to start out with was just a few everyday things i didn’t know and I had to learn.
Aaron
My “other” job — or at least, one of my other jobs — is freelance writing, and I’ve had a number of Internet marketing clients, so I’ve had to write quite a bit about link building and SEO and such. I hate it, but I suppose it’s a necessary evil. My main gripe is that it’s hard to do “just a little” SEO. You’re either not doing it at all or you’re spending a huge amount of your time on it. Personally, I’d rather just be writing.
Manny,
I understand that. I think I spend way to much time working on SEO things. I would rather just get back to writing myself but if you don’t do it you lose to the search engines….
Aaron
Greg,
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something in it useful!
Aaron
This is wonderful advice. I don’t know Alexa, and I have Stumble Upon and need to use it for something more besides awesome Cat pics. I also don’t use Google Analytics as much as I should either, but I’m slowly getting there. I’m a slow learner. I think it has more to do with comfort level with me. Truly Aaron, this is great. I’ve learned more from you about navigating and using these tools. Thanks!
Mary,
There is a ton of things to learn and do if you want any chance of making it the ranks of google. I know that when I started I looked and searched and read everything I could just to figure out what half those things were and how they worked.
Aaron
Good Job!
Gina…..
LOL….
You are just wrong on so many levels!!!
Aaron
I know!
That’s part of my charm
Sorry, Aaron, but I had to post a “Good job” just to be a pain. I couldn’t help myself.
Lots of great advice.
The ironic thing is that it seems like when one first begins, we don’t even realize how much we don’t know and need to seek help and guidance with. Seems like it’s only after you’ve done it for a while that “Hey – this ain’t right!” pops up and the idea of seeking out advice becomes so important.
If you could please figure out everything for everyone, we would all appreciate it!
Thanks!
-gina
Gina,
I am working on figuring it all out. I think if i can figure it all out I can take credit for inventing the internet!!! What do you think??
Aaron
Totally!!!
I absolutely love this post!!! It SO honest and true-to-life to what many Bloggers feel on a daily basis and have experienced! Just know that you are not by yourself–there are many who feel exactly the same. And as with everything, blogging is all in what you make it and give to it. Thank you for sharing this awesomeness!
Thank you!
I know that when i started I wish there had been somewhere to find the answers you needed….easily! I know that was one of my biggest problems there were tons of answers out there just none easy to find or to know if they were right or not….
Aaron
Great post mate. I’m about to launch my umpteenth blog in a little while and have now learnt so much from the years of terrible blogging that I actually feel I might be on to something! I’m about to become a dad so I thought a little while about might be worth blogging about fatherhood and faith, we’ll see how it goes. No doubt I’ll be popping by again. Cheers.
Jon,
Great to have you here! Congratulations on getting ready to be a dad! It’s an amazing feeling and experience that I highly recommend to any man. As soon as you get your new site up for fatherhood http://tryharddad.com/ be sure to stop by and let me know so i can check it out or you can tweet me on twitter
https://twitter.com/Dadblunders
Every time I think I have something figured out on blogging I discover 3 or 4 other things i didn’t know about or should have known about. Its the reason I shifted gears a little bit from my normal fatherhood stories and started this series. I know if I had a rough time so did other people so I am trying to share a few things I have learned about blogging and hope it might make things easier for someone else.
Aaron
Hi Aaron, This is great advice. I think it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the ancillary topics for blogging. I would say just focus on writing, commenting and sharing for the first three months, then you can worry about Alexa, SEO, etc.
I was really scared the first time that I posted an article at The Wonder of Tech. I had to call a friend to talk me through clicking the “Publish” button. But I’m really happy I did!
I started blogging because I wanted to share tech information with others. When you discover a cool new app, you want to shout it to the world! (At least I do…) My blog is my megaphone to share cool tech with others.
Thanks for sharing these pointers with us, Aaron!
Carolyn,
You are so correct about becoming overwhelmed. I know when I started Dadblunders and moved my content to fill this site from tumblr to here I was scared to death about losing it. What no one told me is that it will transfer but it might not transfer into a post correctly. I am still working on old post trying to make them read and line up correctly but I did transfer over 300+ posts. I feel sure I might finish and catch them all up in about 5 years or so….lol
One of the deficiencies of tumblr is the fact that you learn nothing about SEO or Headers or the DMOZ project. It wasn’t until I started having to do things myself that I started learning and practicing what a person actually needs to do to make a site successful.
I am planning on continuing this series with helpful advice of things I have learned and things I am still learning. One of the problems I came across when I started out was very little of the information could help a person that was walking off the street to learn. Most of things i found you would need a degree in computer science just to understand it. I am trying to break it down some to simplicity. I think many of the articles are over technical which is a turn off to a lot of first time bloggers…..just my opinion of course.
Aaron
You’re doing a great job, Aaron, with the blogging series. You are explaining everything in plain English clearly so everyone can understand.
It’s amazing that you transferred posts from tumblr. That must have been a huge challenge. But I’m glad you did so that the content can be better searched by others looking to find the content that you so ably provide.
Yes and I wish it would end correcting the old posts but I am beginning to believe it won’t…lol
Aaron