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Title: Achieving Blogging Success: Overcoming Obstacles and Reaching Your Goals
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I have done a fair bit of blogging and managing blogs over the years and would like to take this opportunity to address some of the key questions/points that I am asked around blogging.Image Reference : https://creazilla.com/nodes/1717346-book-hand-pen-illustrationI have categorized these frequently asked questions/concerns/doubts and have put down my thoughts for each of them. I respect each of these questions/points and I want to share my experience that can help you cross that bridge.I have not written before / Not good at writingThere is always a first time. The most popular bloggers also started with their first post and look where they are now. We have all started somewhere, stumbled and got along.The tools to get writing today have never been better and easier. Writing is a great way to improve and share your knowledge. Consider this as an opportunity and get started.This point is coupled usually with the fact that most folks stay away from written communication stating that they are not good at writing. Some say their hold on the language that they wish to communicate in is not good. A few have remarked that “English is not my forte”.To be honest, none of us are experts in any language or communication. Ask anyone who reads stuff online, that they are looking to learn, to get inspired, looking to connect to the ideas and perfect written communication is not something that they are looking for. This is not some school/college exam where you are going to get penalized for some grammar mistakes. If in doubt, use online tools to help you structure some of your statements. I can vouch that all of us who are reading your article do not give a second look to your perfectly crafted statements. So get your stories in place, because that matters and the words will help support it, perfect grammar or not.Start bloggingOne of my most enjoyable and importantly learning experience while blogging came from my writing at Programmable Web. Thank you John Musser and Adam DuVander for the opportunity. Over a period of a few years, I ended up covering 100s of artciles covering API News. As a side note, APIs still rule :-)I remember that since covering this kind of news was new to me, I asked my editor, Adam, if I could first observe a few posts for a week or two and then start blogging. Adam caught that immediately and I distinctly remember him telling me that you just have to get started and that he will help to review and give feedback. That gave me a lot of confidence and indirectly it underlined the fact that you have to get in the water, if you have to swim.So in essence, just like any other task, get started with, get your work reviewed, folks are there to make your writing better and soon you will get the framework that helps you create the posts.Its perfectly fine to be a bit afraid about your first post, how it will be received but you have to get started. That is something that you have to do.Which topic to write about?You might be lucky if you are planning to write for a publication that has highlighted a few key topics on which they are looking out for articles. If those articles are in areas that you are already knowledgable about or are interested to explore, then it makes it easier.But a majority of us may not have that data. In that case, my suggestion is to pick a topic that you are passionate about or are familiar with and which might be a more comfortable thing to start with. If you are working with a set of tools, languages, platforms at your work, that could be a good source to tap into also.As script writers say, the stories are all around us and this is true when it comes to you. You definitely have a few topics that you can talk about. Just tap into those.This topic has been covered multiple times!!!This is a point that I have seen most folks new to blogging get discouraged by. They mention that the topic has been covered a lot by others, there is nothing new to cover here and a lot of overthinking starts.My response to that is “Who cares?” . You can interpret my answer in a couple of ways. One would be to assume that I am asking you to write and not bother about anyone. But my real point when I say “Who cares?” is to actually understand that there are several folks who are interested in what you may write. You have a different view or style that the other 999 folks who have written on the topic. What matters is that you got out of the blocks, got a post in front of the world and I can assure you that there are folks who will read and benefit from your post. They do care about what you write, they will be investing their time in reading your post and might even learn a thing or not. So you focus on the what you can control i.e. the blog post and let the world know that you have written the post.I have an idea but am struggling to write!This is a valid concern and one that each one of us face, even if we have written 100s of blog posts. You know the drill : you have an idea or topic in your mind, you know the material and yet struggle to put a structure to the blog to get you started. Often called writer’s block but we don’t need to make things that complicated.One of my first editors, when I wrote for Wrox publications in the year 2000, told me that it is very simple to write an article or a chapter for a book. The steps are as follows:You tell the audience what you are going to cover.You cover it.You tell the audience what you have covered.Simple … isn’t it? It does illustrate effectively that you could possibly use the above structure as a guide to get going. In my case, what really helps us when I write technical articles is to get my application code working. Once that is ready, I tell the folks what I am going to cover, then describe the working code and conclude by what they have seen. Try that the next time.I don’t think there is a magic formula but be prepared to have your own tool available to write down ideas, points, etc that you may get anytime of the day. If you are planning a series of articles, put down the topics in a list that you would prefer to cover and then tackle them topic by topic. Divide and Conquer or breaking it down into immediate targets is also another strategy that has worked well for me.I am afraid of how my material will be accepted?The fear of feedback is real for all for us. I am not going to say that its easy and we need to be cool about that. Feedback is essential to improve and feedback at times can hurt your confidence. The same applies not just to writing but also to conference / event talks that you do.I always believe that its essential to do a few things first. If you are going to talk and write in public, make sure that you are putting in your best effort into the material. As long as your process is sincere and its the best that you could do, you are a success.An approach you can try is to have a few trusted folks that you can reach out to for review. If you are writing a book or for a popular publication, chances are that there is already a process where your work is reviewed before being approved for publication. If you are writing on your own blog, reach out to a few folks, who you believe would give you feedback from multiple angles. Take that feedback seriously, see what you can incorporate and then publish your article.Worst case, what might happen? Someone might point out that they did not like the article? Ask them if there are areas that you could improve. Others may point that there are incorrect things in the blog post. Ask them to point them out and correct the blog post. The fact that you accepted some errors on your part (not intentional) and still went ahead and corrected it with feedback, is a great asset.In one of the books that I wrote, one individual actually read the book page by page and incorporated suggestions/fixes across the book and highlighted in detail where the problems were. This was not from the book publishers reviewers but from someone in the general public. So be positive and you will be amazed to see genuine feedback from folks who recognize that you have put in the effort to share your knowledge on something new/recent and are willing to help fix it to make it more useful to others.There will be your share of feedback which will be like a punch or might even sound rude. Even in those circumstances, see if there are any suggestions in there to improve or is it just a rant. For e.g. I was given feedback that one of my books was the worst technical book that has ever been published but with no other feedback. I moved on to the next feedback … we have to. That didn’t prevent me for continuing to write and share stuff that I like.What kind of format?This is an interesting point and one that I believe if addressed well can bring more people to blogs. Giving an example from the technical world, you should not be restricted or assume that technical blogs can be of a certain type or format only.You can write a technical blog:Informational on the topicQuick How to or Getting Started on the topicA codelab that folks can try on the topicShare a cool talk that you heard, an article you read, etc.Summarize a few articles to read that you found useful and believe that others would benefit.A competitive study that you have done about one tool/tech v/s the other.Built an interesting tool or project. Open it up on Github and share it via a blog post.Implemented a cool feature in your recent project. Write about it.Fixed a tough problem. Help others who might be facing a similar issue with your solution.There are additional formats than the ones listed above. The takeaway point is that there is no right or wrong format. Not all formats may even be relevant to all your readers. You might not be comfortable writing about some of these formats. It’s completely fine. Pick one that you can start with.Just ask for helpThe power of the community is often underestimated by most of us. We also grossly underestimate the number of folks, who are ready to help out with their feedback and guidance. But that can only happen if you take the first step and just ask them. Feel free to reach out to your inner circle, trusted circle, folks you know give you constructive feedback when you are taking your first few steps in this. In fact, even as someone who is used to blogging, I end up reaching out to few folks on certain topics or a particular blog post that I’d like them to review first. There are plenty of good folks out there, who know more on most topics than each one of us. So as long you are comfortable and accepting of that fact, help is just a message away.Its an investment of my time. I need to get paid.This is a fair point and I would leave it to each one of you individually to decide if you want to get compensated for each blog post that you write. You need to consider publications that you can write for, which may give you a token amount for each blog post. On the other hand, if you are writing at your own blog, you do have a choice of earning some income from it (the amounts may not be astronomic but you have the option). Examples of this include Medium which has a member only stories option or at your personal blog, you could use some relevant Ads.In my experience, every blog that I have written has paid me back several times (whether I was paid for it or not). It has paid me back in becoming a better writer, able to communicate technical terms better, got me valuable readers that give me feedback, opened up opportunities via folks reaching out vis-a-vis the topic that I have written and more. So keep a long term view in terms of multiple returns that you will get for your time investment.There is a big difference between someone holding a job and doing blogging occasionally and someone who does blogging/reporting/technical writing for a living. The latter definitely will look at avenues that can sustain them and getting paid for it is a high priority for them.Why should I blog?If you have been reading this article and reached this section, I don’t think you need this section since you have your own judgement on how blogging is useful.I personally believe that blogging regularly has benefits and all of which I may not be able to list down here or do justice to them via examples. Here are some points from my experience:It helps me or forces me in a good way to learn more about a topic. Its similar to teaching a class. It will make you read a bit more, try out ways to explain a topic, makes you double check a few things and more.It definitely helps to improve your communication skills. Written skills are important or have never been as important as they are today, given the age of Gen AI tools that we live in today.All the best for your blogging journey. Do share in your own experiences that got you started and any other tips/advice that you may have for writers.
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Author: Romin Irani
PublishedDate: 2024-02-29
Category: Blogs
NewsPaper: Romin Irani - Medium
Tags: writing, tech-blogging, blogging-tips, tips, blogging