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:

  1. 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.)
  2. Images or photos really do make a difference, something I didn’t pay much attention to early on.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. You don’t have to be shy about letting people know you’ve blogged about something on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or other social media…
  6. …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:

  1. What curating content is and how to do it.
  2. What you need to know about writing estimates and proposals.
  3. Where to find great newsletter content.
  4. A better alternative to cold calling.
  5. Networking tips from the Queen of Networking.
  6. 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.