Writing a Blog

[malakaix]

Has anyone here had experience writing a blog or running one for personal or commercial use?
What has been your experience?
What mean's did/does it serve?

I work all week and have ton's of spare time when i come home, as i'm saving money quite extremely for a future investment and not going out much im becoming tired of wasting time on unproductive pursuits and need something to work on over time.

I've recently had the desire to start writing more as a mean's of creative expression but also to develop writing and learn how to create content of value and potentially market it but that's way down the line and im not interested in that idea yet, i'm just focusing on writing good content around a particular area of interest of mine that i feel passionate about and see where it goes..

Right now im just building content through Open Office Word, and will worry about publishing through Wordpress later.

But i'm interested to hear from anyone who's done this and what your experience was like.. Thanks!

 

[alasdairm]

write about what you know. write a lot. just write.

i've used blogging in the past to, for example, track my progress in a cross-country drive. i read others' blogs tactically when i need help on a specific subject. i don't really subscribe to or read any blogs regularly but i do listen to a couple of podcasts (which is kind of like a blog to which you listen )

i'm just focusing on writing good content around a particular area of interest of mine that i feel passionate about and see where it goes

i think this is a great place to start.

...mean's...mean's

you need to proof-read, grammar check and spell check relentlessly (hint: no apostrophe in "means").

good luck.

alasdair

 

[thujone]

i don't have that much experience with blogging but i've worked with blogs personally and professionally. the professional writing was for blogs making money through "affiliate marketing" but considering the unnaturally low pay i'm really dubious that it's anything more than just a ponzi scheme for freetards.

legitimate professional blogs sometimes rely on ads but also on donations (eg. krebsonsecurity.com) or are written just as a live document portfolio to pump up someone's rep. for the latter people often just take a blogging platform and deploy it as a CMS, cutting out the social features that you don't really need if you're just trying to promote yourself.

i don't know about Wordpress but I've used Blogger for personal blogging and I guess new blogs are promoted pretty well because i got a lot of unique hits for my first post. I was blogging about a super niche topic but if you're aiming for general relevance and just appealing to a broad base then you'll want to start out strong if you want the first few visitors to be impressed enough to follow and link to you.

ime people will read anything if it's interesting. two good approaches are to either: 1) keep your posts relevant to a niche topic or 2) post diverse content that can catch the interest of a broader audience. the first approach is pretty difficult because there are likely to be a lot of other blogs out there able to better capture that niche. look at what those blogs are doing right, steal what good ideas come out at you and infuse it with your own individual personality to define your audience.

and yea, writing/posting a lot is important if you want to stay relevant. tbph, unless you really just crave an audience or have something you NEED to get out there, blogging is probably one of the shittiest forms of self-expression.

 

[malakaix]

write about what you know. write a lot. just write.

i've used blogging in the past to, for example, track my progress in a cross-country drive. i read others' blogs tactically when i need help on a specific subject
you need to proof-read, grammar check and spell check relentlessly (hint: no apostrophe in "means").

Yeah, i've heard similar advice from others who have done blogging.. just keep on writing, the style will develop and you will get better.

My grammar is horrendous at the moment but im trying not to become to caught up with it because when ideas flow its easier for me to just write them down in a complete mess and come back to it, but i will need to comb through and edit everything before considering publishing it.. i've read blogs where there was little effort made to correct spelling mistakes or grammar and it made the whole experience a pain in the ass.

Thanks for the tips.

i don't know about Wordpress but I've used Blogger for personal blogging and I guess new blogs are promoted pretty well because i got a lot of unique hits for my first post. I was blogging about a super niche topic but if you're aiming for general relevance and just appealing to a broad base then you'll want to start out strong if you want the first few visitors to be impressed enough to follow and link to you.

ime people will read anything if it's interesting. two good approaches are to either: 1) keep your posts relevant to a niche topic or 2) post diverse content that can catch the interest of a broader audience. the first approach is pretty difficult because there are likely to be a lot of other blogs out there able to better capture that niche. look at what those blogs are doing right, steal what good ideas come out at you and infuse it with your own individual personality to define your audience.

Hey thujone.. thanks for the advice here. Yeah i've heard focusing on a niche topic is much better then a broad topic because you can cover it better and in detail, i wouldn't say what i want to write about is niche but it's a couple of different topics that are all strongly relevant to each other and tie in together. I've been scouring a couple of blog's for idea's.. although this is away from the writing aspect i feel it's role has may have an impact on the style of writing. There seems to be debate between personal format blogs and magazine format blogs.. im leaning towards magazine because i find in my experience im more drawn to that style because the layout is cleaner and i can see what i want to read without digging through the blog, the downside is this format generally needs much more frequent content..

and yea, writing/posting a lot is important if you want to stay relevant. tbph, unless you really just crave an audience or have something you NEED to get out there, blogging is probably one of the shittiest forms of self-expression.

It's more of a creative experiment for me.. since i've started writing my mind has been exploding with idea's connecting with other idea's, if i can get into the zone it just flows and expands effortlessly.. which i havn't felt for many many years. The last time i felt like this was when i use to do 3D level design as a hobby.. I find i read a ton online and i post almost daily to 4-5 different forum's but i've never considered writing before.

But i suppose i'll see where it takes me.