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What I learned in ten years of blogging

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Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#111

Post by pbhjpbhj »

mortivore wrote: post #68
justpassingby- wrote: post #22

Eh, none of this really matters unless you actually care whether or not anyone is reading your content. I've been blogging random thoughts and assorted happenings in my life since 2002, and it's all out there on the public interwebz, but I write for an audience of one - me. If any poor soul happens to stumble across it, then that's their bad luck.

This is interesting. If you're not writing for anyone except yourself, then why post it online? Why not just use a journal or an audio diary?

Not OP: I tend to blog tech fixes I found to make them more visible, I'm not really writing for an audience, but just recognising that there may be value in it and so ensuring that such value can be extracted. As much as anything it's a journal for me.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#112

Post by ip26 »

paulpauper wrote: post #82
patio11 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tough to win the "I hope you die of cancer" demographic regardless of your actions, so why bother trying? (I have particular interest in this because geeks often cite them as the rationale for why not to price aggressively, because they complain about prices at every price point, including free. )

many years ago in a an online disagreement someone wished testicular cancer upon me, which was flattering, because if he really wished ill upon me he would have hoped for something that is far worse like stomach cancer (few survive that).

It just tells you about demographic- that is, this is a person for whom orchiectomy is a fate worse than certain death.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#113

Post by bonestamp2 »

paulpauper wrote: post #80
baby wrote: post #63

I find this article meh. I've been blogging for something like 15 years so here's my take: * If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. * Be regular. This is hard. I fail this rule most of the time. But a successful blog is a…

Yeah and the blue background and font also annoying. But he is not American, so maybe it works better for him and his readers. TBH, there are few tips or rules. I have seen successful blogs that employ virtually every kind of format and style. Some that follow all the rules an others that break them all. First-mover advantage seems to be important. I'm sure the first person to blog about Bitcoin did well, but the 284…

> the blue background and font also annoying

Using a blue background with white text used to be an "easy reading mode" in Microsoft Word (with a simple checkbox to enable it). So, I wonder if there is some research behind this color scheme.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#114

Post by mockingbirdy »

paulpauper wrote: post #78
mockingbirdy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works. The content should be SEO-optimized, though (it isn't "normal" content, it targets certain keywords). Your domain ranking, on-page SEO, link structure, even title formatting and other stuff is also relevant. As someone who has 50k+ views per month on one site I know a thing or two about this. I also write a personal blog where I don't do SEO and only get around 300 views per month. I could optimize that, bu…

This is not 2001. On-page optimization does not work that well anymore. I know how to rank pages but the problem is it is too expensive and time consuming to be worthwhile. You need a lot of quality links and high domain name authority.

There are many things that still work.

High DA and quality links are a necessity, but I have people in my network who make 100k profit per month with a lot of sites that have DA17-25 (pretty weak) and some backlinks (around 30 per site, although there are some strong ones). They usually analyze the content of their competitors and write articles that are simply +500 words longer. You wouldn't believe what's still possible today, although I agree that it doesn't work for main keywords.

It's cumbersome (analyzing niches, competitors, finding long tail keywords, organizing content writers), but it still works.

Disclaimer: I don't sell online courses or something. I know that I may sound like a fraud, but it's simply a network of the best SEO people in Germany. I only know 4-5 people who earn this amount of money passively, so they're the 0.0001%

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#115

Post by hnauz »

baby wrote: post #63

I find this article meh. I've been blogging for something like 15 years so here's my take: * If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. * Be regular. This is hard. I fail this rule most of the time. But a successful blog is a…

>If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later.

Terrible advice. If your blog proves popular, it'll be impossible for you to move away without losing your position in search engines. Lock-in.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#116

Post by gitgud »

hnauz wrote: post #115
baby wrote: post #63

I find this article meh. I've been blogging for something like 15 years so here's my take: * If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. * Be regular. This is hard. I fail this rule most of the time. But a successful blog is a…

>If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. Terrible advice. If your blog proves popular, it'll be impossible for you to move away without losing your position in search engines. Lock-in.

I think that's reasonable advice, it's one of the easiest platforms to get started on and to migrate off. Also Wordpress.com allows you to add a domain, meaning that if you change your blog platform, you have the same urls, and the same search engine links... Not locked in at all...

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#117

Post by mixmastamyk »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #113
paulpauper wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and the blue background and font also annoying. But he is not American, so maybe it works better for him and his readers. TBH, there are few tips or rules. I have seen successful blogs that employ virtually every kind of format and style. Some that follow all the rules an others that break them all. First-mover advantage seems to be important. I'm sure the first person to blog about Bitcoin did well, but the 284…

> the blue background and font also annoying Using a blue background with white text used to be an "easy reading mode" in Microsoft Word (with a simple checkbox to enable it). So, I wonder if there is some research behind this color scheme.

Believe WordPerfect for DOS was the original white on blue. Might have something to do with lowering the contrast from white/grey on black in a 16 color scheme, although blue wouldn't be my first choice. Probably chosen due to its stronghold in lawyer's offices.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#118

Post by hnauz »

gitgud wrote: post #116
hnauz wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. Terrible advice. If your blog proves popular, it'll be impossible for you to move away without losing your position in search engines. Lock-in.

I think that's reasonable advice, it's one of the easiest platforms to get started on and to migrate off. Also Wordpress.com allows you to add a domain, meaning that if you change your blog platform, you have the same urls, and the same search engine links... Not locked in at all...

Their pricing is insane, if you want a custom theme or to install a plugin (which is something you will need) you're looking at 25€ per month and you have to pay year by year (300€ upfront).

Starting with a cheap shared hosting is a no-brainer.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#119

Post by BeetleB »

SonicSoul wrote: post #85
baby wrote: post #63

I find this article meh. I've been blogging for something like 15 years so here's my take: * If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. * Be regular. This is hard. I fail this rule most of the time. But a successful blog is a…

hmm.. from OP: I’m 21, but I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years. I grew up doing this. What I’ve written on the internet has reached millions of people. Most of what I’ve written is in Italian, but I was also quite successful when writing in english. My Quora profile, reached 400k people in three months. i feel like these are reasonable qualifications to give blogging advice. Your advice sounds good, but are you sp…

>i feel like these are reasonable qualifications to give blogging advice.

You're assuming equivalent intents. The OP's advice is good if your goal is maximize the size of your audience. Many people (and I suspect more likely in this crowd), the goal is to generate interesting and meaningful conversation. You do need some threshold of views for this, but beyond that threshold, a larger audience is not of benefit. And a really large audience becomes a liability - the conversation becomes less meaningful very quickly.

Re: What I learned in ten years of blogging

#120

Post by bonestamp2 »

baby wrote: post #63

I find this article meh. I've been blogging for something like 15 years so here's my take: * If you've been wanting to blog, stop pissing around, open a blog on wordpress.com and start writing. That's my first advice to anyone. Don't waste time on the technicalities, just write. You can move your blog to another platform later. * Be regular. This is hard. I fail this rule most of the time. But a successful blog is a…

I think your advice is great, but I also disagree that the article is meh. I've been blogging for about 10 years, and my blog won a Webby award and a W3 writing award. I don't say that to brag, just to add credibility that other people think my blog is worthwhile.

Anyway, I agree with almost everything the article says, and there are some things in there that are not obvious to people who are just starting out, which I think puts it well above meh.

But, the one thing I disagree with is his first step when writing a blog post: brainstorm titles. I started that way, but I found I almost always changed the title and sometimes even change what the post is all about by the end.

I generally start with an idea instead of a title; then write down what I know about it; then I put those thoughts in an order that I can use to tell a story; then I research to confirm what I think I know is indeed factual. That is where it becomes interesting.

Sometimes I'm completely wrong, and the story becomes that -- the truth is often more interesting than the assumptions. Sometimes I discover things about what I knew that are more interesting than the original idea. Sometimes what I knew is true and I just back it up with facts and the idea alone was interesting enough to begin with. Lastly, sometimes it's complete shit and I shelf it until the time feels right or I find a new approach to the subject.

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