How to blog?

Note: Below is a translation of the article “Simply said ... How To Blog” , in which the author describes his own successful blogging style and gives some practical advice on the organization of work.

Once I received a letter from one of my readers ( Celeste ), in which she wrote:

“I would be very interested to know how you manage to combine the authorship of such an active blog with a full-time job, because I have the same lifestyle. Would you like to make this the topic of your next note? ”

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In the process of answering her question, I will touch on my thoughts on how good it would be / should / it would be great to start a blog. Perhaps this will be exactly what I unconsciously long wanted to tell you about ...

Answering Celeste ( thanks to baho for clarifying this issue ) ...

Well, Celeste. But I received this question hundreds of times, and my typical answer to it was: “work at night” ( note: the original burn the midnight oil ). However, I thought a bit and brought together a few useful things that are worth paying attention to. In any case, I was already too far from the topic.

So, let's go:

Your name

It should be understood that as soon as your real name hit the network (it was published), it is there forever ( note: literally, a living example ). If your blog was unsuccessful, how will your future employers look at you? If your blog has become widely known and popular, does the current employer have the right to assume that you are writing to the blog instead of working? It turns out that this is a stalemate. If you have just started a blog, my advice to you is to ask your boss if he will be against it and save his answer in writing. As long as he is sure that you do not blacken your company, everything will be all right. It is also worth reading “write a blog under a real name and do not worry about it” from Penelope Trunk. I have quite a common name, so I can not worry about its disclosure on the network. I mean, there are hundreds of Jay White ( approx. Or Sergeyev Ivanovs ). But if you are Ira Kapinsky ( approx. Or Aglaia Dateshidze ), then you should think about this fact.

Time

Your blog is your blog. There are no bosses who could put pressure on you so that a breath of fresh air will seem incredibly attractive. If you do this, there is a possibility that this occupation will become the highest priority. This means that you, like me, will take time off from work to devote this time to writing new notes. However, you should not jeopardize your ability to earn a steady income at the main place of work. It is better to develop a schedule that will help to combine both of these activities. If you don’t, you’ll look like the guy in this video:

Be flexible

I have a blog with advertisements, popular notes, recent articles, etc. vary according to a completely random algorithm. Thus, I can not write a whole week. However, if I do this, that my blog will change very little for the regular reader, note: therefore, it is worthwhile to take into account, first of all, the permanent readership of the blog when choosing the frequency of writing articles and notes .

My schedule

My day schedule is exclusively mine, and it may not be applicable to everyone else. However, it may be useful to someone. So, I get up very early, at 4 am !

• 4: 00–6: 00: I write in my blog, look through the articles, the links to which were sent by the readers, or look through the proposals of a commercial nature .
• 6: 00–6: 15: I take a shower.
• 6: 15–7: 00: I read and respond to a letter from my blog. 7: 00–11: 30: I work in my specialty (from home).
  
  11: 30– noon: if there is time, then I reflect on the topics of notes for my blog tomorrow.
  
  Noon – 5: 00: work in the specialty.
  
  5: 00–8: 30: devoting time to the family.
  
  8:30 –Midnight: I check blog statistics, take notes, read letters, etc.
  
  Midnight: go to bed.
  
  
  

  Honesty

  
  
  From the very beginning I said that I have a full-time job, which takes me most of the time. I have no reason to deceive you. I mean that some sites, for example, Lifehacker, hire a team of professional bloggers and occupy one niche in the market with me, but there is no rivalry between us. You should be aware of the limitations of their capabilities and be frank with readers. In order to somehow solve the problem of time constraints, I made a special blog space for my readers to report about things I’m going to write about as soon as time appears. The results exceeded all expectations, and visitors apparently realized this problem.
  
  

  Topics

  
  
  I have hundreds of ideas for new notes in the process of my work. I mean that all the positive facts that I learned about the complaints , I realized it in the process of my work. Things that annoy you are likely to annoy other people. A good example is the blog, to which I recently gave a link, where the assistant administrator solves the problems that he encounters. It will be correct if your blog describes a solution to a problem, not a complaint about it.
  
  

  Information disclosure

  
  
  I don’t know what your boss will say if you start uploading private information about your company or rumors about a CEO ( CEO ) to the network, most likely, you will be fired. If you are so eager to do this, then better create a blog anonymously on blogger . But even in this case, you can not guarantee your safety.
  
  So, I have already opened the topic somewhat. A little further, I will describe a few more points that you should take into account, even if this is not completely true in your case:
  
  

  Do you really want this?

  
  
  You do not know how many times I went on a diet and, in the end, threw it? A lot, believe me. It seems to me that it is worthwhile to start working on a blog before you make the site a normal design and “comb” it. Just post some good notes and let yourself be drawn in. I redesigned my blog 12 times before my first blog post and 13 times after. I was lucky, and I was involved in the process of writing articles to the blog. If this had not happened, those 12 times would have been just a waste of time.
  
  

  Do it wisely

  
  
  Choose a topic that really interests you. I love to save time and money, this is clearly seen from my blog. In the process of creating an article, I don’t think much about these things, I just write. If your goal is to get money, you should choose something to your liking, but that does not require large investments for your advertising. If your choice will stop at something that requires money, it will be hard for you to write, therefore, you will have less visitors, and = = .
  
  

  From the beginning, earnestly read Problogger

  
  
  And carefully review the archives. I created dumblittleman.blogspot.com with no idea what I could write there. I owe a lot to Darren ( note: the founder of Problogger ).
  
  

  Widgets and other trash

  
  
  A blog created for your readers, not for you. Everything that you add to the site should be added for reader's use only. Today I am disgusted when I see a blog with 19 icons belonging to different groups, ratings or non-thematic sites ( in the context of the Runet, this will probably be called link-washing ). Who needs it? How it will help readers who go to the Sash site? And look at <a href=cu www.ebizmba.com/articles/popular-blogs.html »target"_blank"> list of the most popular blogs: at least one has these stupid banners? Sorry, but it really annoys me.