Six years and 578 posts. Considering my awful track record of journaling (often months between posts!), I guess that’s not too bad.
Since starting this blog in 2007, I’ve tried to share things I’ve learned or observed, including experiences with newsletters, running my own business, tips for writing and communications in general. Okay, occasionally I post silly stuff, too, just for a laugh.
Here’s some of what have I learned about blogging over those six years:
- Blogging helps you meet and get to know people, especially if you take the time to comment and get into discussions with others. (Hello, Les Potter, ABC! We met and became friends after we cosmically started blogging within a day of each other.)
- Images or photos really do make a difference, something I didn’t pay much attention to early on.
- So-called experts will have all kinds of advice on how often you should post and what you should post about, but you have to decide what’s right for you.
- Even if you only post sporadically, if what you say has value, readers will appreciate it. In fact, they’ll appreciate that you don’t just post for the sake of posting. This is good to know for those of us who find blogging is the first to go when things get busy.
- You don’t have to be shy about letting people know you’ve blogged about something on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or other social media…
- …but you really shouldn’t ask people to retweet or otherwise publicize your post. If it’s worth it, they will. If it’s not worth it, you’ll just look like you’re begging.
Here are six of the most popular posts, according to recent stats:
- What curating content is and how to do it.
- What you need to know about writing estimates and proposals.
- Where to find great newsletter content.
- A better alternative to cold calling.
- Networking tips from the Queen of Networking.
- Mulling over the new IABC strategy, and how it was sort of communicated.
Thank you for reading the Red Jacket Diaries. If you blog, too, what have you learned from blogging?
Image: Stuart Miles and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
I definitely agree with your lessons, Sue – great post!
One additional lesson I’ve learned in my fairly new adventure of blogging [I’ve only been at it since 2010] that you have to be yourself in your blog. I read a lot about blogging before I decided to do it and there were tons of articles and people advising on what makes a good blog – some of it very helpful, some not. Even though I write about communications, and my experience is in corporate environments, I’ve always found that the posts that get the most interest and positive response, tend to be the ones that are really “me” – silly, irreverent and slightly sarcastic – ME. The ones that people who know me well said they could hear me saying what I wrote are the ones that get the best reaction, so when something gets me all whipped up, I try to just go with it and get those reactions down in a post before I lose the feeling.
It is an adventure, though, isn’t it? Looking forward to continuing it!
Thanks for commenting, Kristen! You are right about being yourself. That’s the difference between a forced “it’s time to blog” post and a “this has got me riled up” one. And definitely it’s an adventure!
Happy blogging anniversary, my dear friend. The fact that we both started our blogs at virtually the very same time never fails to make me smile. It lead us to a beautiful friendship, and that may just be the best thing about blogging.
Les
Happy blogging anniversary to you, too, Les. That is definitely something special we share!
Happy blogging anniversary, Sue! And thanks for sharing what you’ve learned about blogging. As you know, I enjoy reading and sharing your posts. Keep ’em comin’!
Thanks, Donna! I really appreciate your support and friendship.
Sue:
Congratulations on your six year mark! Hope to see and share more of your blog into the future.
Roger, thanks so much for reading and commenting — I guess that is a function of the ‘cross-pollinating’ between LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs!
Happy Anniversary, Sue.
The photo thing is really big, isn’t it? I think the reason my early posts didn’t have photos is that it was so much more difficult in the early iterations of WordPress to actually include photos. I seem to recall having to go into the HTML to change the sizing and so forth. Okay, I did get there before WordPress made it easier, but boy am I glad they did.
Here’s to a wonderful Blog Year 7.
–Daria
Daria, I appreciate you stopping by! Thanks for your encouragement.