7 things I wish I knew before I started blogging
While some of these points may seem fairly obvious when you're blogging; the only reason one would write is to attract readers, so to be ostrasized by the standard criticisms you get from a readership seems foolish - but I guarantee you that with the wrong attitude, you'll get upset.
#1 - You will be criticised, whatever you do
As I stated in the introductory paragraph; whatever subject you cover and however good your writing someone will always criticise you. Quite often this is because readers will disagree with an opinion you have expressed on a topic (something you need to do to receive any level of recognition). It's a tough pill to swallow initially because if you post something slightly controversial (which is rather probable) then you're likely to receive some hate-mail which can be a bit daunting if you're not expecting it.
Example: My poorly worded rant from August 2006 (before the site's official launch) about how Linux needs to become like Windows.
#2 - The lowest common denominator works
As I wrote recently, sometimes you will need to appeal to the lowest common denominator to receive mainstream attention - it can be quite handy to know how to leverage social news sites because they drive massive amounts of traffic and increase your exposure. It may seem a bit slutty but the most thoughtful of your posts are unlikely to appeal to the mainstream market, to grow you need to sell out a little.
Example: A sensationalist use of statistics explaining that 29.8% of users considered Linux over Vista. It's not the smartest content in the world but it brings attention.
#3 - You need an inflated ego
It's simple really. Success with blogging comes with having readers. To have readers you need to care about whether anyone is reading your content, therefore you need to KNOW that your opinion is interesting. You can't really teach yourself this, nor can I provide examples of this on Seopher.com - but the basic premise of blogging is wanting people to read your content. That takes an inflated ego.
#4 - You must be prepared to promote yourself shamelessly
I wrote recently why promoting yourself is important and it's perfectly simple: in the beginning you're the only person who knows about your site. You need to get the word out there and increase visibility of your website and the only way to do that is doing it yourself.
Example: Maybe look me up on Digg and see what I've submitted to there in the time I've been a member. Almost every single submission is content from this site - promoting yourself is crucial to finding success.
#5 - Someone will always want your help
If you do anything of value then someone will always ask for your help. Andy from AndrewSellick.com finds this an awful lot because his content is focused around developing XHTML/Javascript/PHP widgets and general web development tips. If you offer tutorials you will receive numerous emails from people randomly asking for your guidance and support. It's a bit weird getting emails from random people asking for help but it does happen.
Example: My tutorial on writing a Google sitemap generator in PHP has generated (ironically) numerous emails from users asking for help on their own implementation.
#6 - Someone will steal your content
I amaze myself by how angry it makes me when someone steals my content. It's almost guaranteed to happen if you write good content and have some readers. Someone will take a shine to your content and steal it for their own use. It does happen and it's surprisingly hard to combat, sending a cease and desist sometimes works but often it doesn't.
Example: not one, not two but three instances of content theft, each with a cease and desist.
#7 - Angry people comment more than happy ones
Sometimes it feels like all you receive is negative feedback; that you upset people left, right and centre and more people seem to call you an idiot than a hero. The thing to remember is that an angry user is more likely to express their distaste than a happy user who found your site informative. If you've written about the 10 best websites on the Internet, users who feel you've overlooked something obvious are more likely to tell you than someone who found the content interesting. Basically the attitudes expressed in the comments aren't proportional to that of your entire readership.
Example: I don't have an example of this as such, just look around the site for some of the negative comments (some just say "you're an idiot" or something to that effect).
So there you have it, 7 things I wish I knew before I started blogging seriously. If you're already a blogger I hope there's an element of truth in everything I've said; if you're thinking about starting a blog then I feel this advice is worth noting. I say that because the first time I faced non-constructive criticsm it threw me a little bit. I hope this is useful anyway.
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