Category: Blogging

It Worked!

Neera

Hi All,

The post I sent earlier was from my mobile phone. It was an experiment.

In a few days I am travelling to United Kingdom and was wondering how will I continue to write a post a day if I can’t write one from home.

From there came the idea of writing the post from my phone. I downloaded the free WordPress app, hand wrote a note and off it went.

To hand write the note was even more creative idea than writing the post using phone app. Not entirely original yet very creative.

I have long been inspired by Debbie Millman who has handwritten her book “Look Both Ways.”

If a book can be handwritten, so can be a blogpost.

Besides, handwritten post is more personal, just like a handwritten letter.

And I am finding that typing a post from mobile phone is less intimidating than typing it from my computer.

What do you think of this little experiment of mine? Is it worth continuing or should I abandon it right here before it gets absurd? Drop me a line to let me know either way.

The feature image at the start of the post is also a book by Debbie Millman.

The first 1000 blog posts are difficult…

Neera

I haven’t written about blogging for some time. However, today’s blog post from Seth Godin, an entrepreneur, an author of 18 books, and a long-time blogger with 7000 posts to his credit (never missed a day), reminded me to talk about my blogging journey.

Seth has been encouraging people to blog.

“Daily blogging is an extraordinarily useful habit. Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing is clarifying, motivating, and eventually fun.”

He reckons the first 1000 posts are the most problematic (It only takes about three years to get there); after that, blogging becomes less strenuous and very rewarding.

He has found that after people get to post 200 or beyond, they uniformly report that they’re glad they did it.

It will take me six months to get there, but I already find that blogging is improving my writing, bringing clarity to my thoughts, and giving me immense happiness in pursuing creativity.

If you put monetizing aside, blogging is a compelling medium for personal development, connecting with like-minded people, and teaching while you learn.

There are thousands of generous bloggers who have been posting their non-commercial blogs regularly, and it’s a habit that produces magic.

Sasha, Gabe, Fred, Bernadette, and Rohan are some bloggers Seth follows.

I am sure you will enjoy their work as I did.

Share something every day

Neera

Two months into the blog and I am feeling the need to post every day. Not because I have lots to say, but because the opposite is true.

Coming up with something to share is a constant struggle for bloggers. Something I need to tackle head-on.

Today Austin Kleon came up with the post. Put it on the refrigerator. He is referring to a quote from a 2002 Jeff Tweedy interview. The full quote is here:

“To say I’ve never been inhibited by expectations would be a lie. It’s more daunting to contend with yourself. It’s like saying I don’t even need to write songs because the greatest songwriter in the world has already done this–Bob Dylan. But he’s dealing with himself, too. The internal stuff is the stuff that kills you. I want to write the greatest song in the world sometimes. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in wanting to do that, but I think you’re better off when you realize you have no control over it. You just gotta keep making s–t up, scribbling–like sitting down and drawing with my kids. It reminds me to do that in my songs. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad.”   

It is every artist’s responsibility to keep making the s–t up. And to do that every day. That is the only way to get better. That is the only way to find some nuggets in your work.

An artist’s other responsibility is to put their work out there. Worrying for your best work, and waiting till you get better won’t make you better. Putting your work out there, however amateurish, most certainly will.

I am setting this challenge for myself now, to start daily blogging, fully aware of the fact that there will be days when I cannot post anything, particularly when I will be traveling.

But I will tackle those days when I get there. 

10 Strategies for continuous flow of blog posts

Neera

No matter what they say in thousands of blog posts and YouTube videos, blogging is a massive undertaking, especially if you have a day job and a family to look after. Many bloggers don’t last beyond ten posts. Having done that so myself on two previous occasions, this time I am prepared.

Some strategies I am using are:

  1. Make a list of 52 topics to give you a whole year’s worth of blogs. Topics that have interested you in the past. Topics that you want to explore. Topics about which you have some opinion. Just a simple list of topics at this stage, no need to go into detail. If stuck, try Top 35 Blogging Ideas.
  2. Plan how many times you are going to post. Posting daily could be very intimidating for beginners. Anywhere between 3 to 4 times a week is great, 2 to 3 times a week might work. Determine how often you need to blog, find a sweet spot, and stick with it until you are ready to grow your blog.
  3. Each week, take a topic from your list and explore it from a different perspective. That way, you can generate four to five posts from a single topic. You can use Hubspot or Portent to give you different angles on your topic.
  4. I find mind mapping a great tool to get initial ideas on the page. There are some cool sites to Create a Mind Map and bring your thoughts to life and Visual Blog Content with Mindmaps.
  5. Speed-write a week’s or a month’s worth of topics in advance. That will give you time to polish them before posting.
  6. Once you have written the posts, you are going to need images to make them look inviting. I have written many text-only blogs and after a while, they are too much for the eye. Everything you need to know about images and How to find images for your blog are good links to start your learning about images. The best sites I have found so far for free images are Pexels and Unsplash.
  7. Sketching is a good way to make your own images. They are more personal and relevant. Another good source is the photos from your collection. They not only bring back memories but finally get seen. If nothing else works, gather a few objects together at home and take a photo with your mobile phone.
  8. I think that the ability to schedule the publishing of blogs is the single greatest invention in blogging. Schedule a week’s worth of posts and relax. They will be posted right on time on the days you have selected in the calendar.
  9. Do not worry if things are not looking that great on your blog. You have time on your side No one is going to find your blog for months. So keep learning and keep improving.
  10. If you really get stuck, find help as I did. While searching for web developers, I found WebTree a web-design site. I dropped an email to Jenny Power who responded even though she was on holiday and helped me find the right theme. She has a free tutorial on her site to Build Your Own Website. Check it out, it is pretty amazing.

10 Tips on Blogging

Neera

So you want to blog.

So do I. In fact, I wanted it for a long time and I did start. Twice. But both times my passion couldn’t withstand the commitment and planning a successful and sustainable blog needs.

Following two failed attempts (and lessons learned, research, and a lot of soul-searching) I am better prepared this time to make it work. I am more structured, more organized, and much more determined to succeed.

This time, I also promised myself that I am going to share what I learn with my readers. Both my successes and failures, as they happen.

I am going to do it through this weekly newsletter. If you choose to subscribe to it, it will come to your mailbox once a week with useful links along with my comments, recommendation, and spectacular failures.

Through this newsletter, I will share my journey with you not only as a blogger but also as a reader, writer, and student of creativity hoping it might help you with your journey.

Here are my ten tips for this week.

  1. Business plan for your blog. You need one. Believe me on this one. But you don’t need a very elaborate one. It took me just a couple of days to write mine and it brought a lot of clarity in my mind about what I wanted to achieve with my blog and where I want to go with it.

You can read a number of blog posts on the topic by experienced bloggers but here are four I recommend Blogging Business Plans 101 – ProBlogger,  Business Plan: How to Create a Business Plan for Your Blog, How To Write A Blog Business Plan (Free Template!), How to Create a Bangin’ Blog Business Plan (Workbook Included …

Check them out and use whatever you find is relevant to your blogging goals. Keep it simple. My business plan has only 5 sections.

  1. Choose a portal from where you are going to speak. Without a portal, you are soon going to be lost. You can’t write your blog as you write in your diary or journal. In your diary, you can write whatever comes to your mind, but in blogs, you write what you want to share with others. For me, it is reading, writing, and creativity.
  2. Decide whether you are going to be a hobby blogger or a professional blogger. A professional blogger is someone who is making her living from blogging. If you like, you can read non-stop, for the next ten days, on how to make money from blogging or you can do what I did. Just settle for hobby blogging while you learn the ropes. Besides, every professional blogger was a hobby blogger first.
  3. Decide what you are going to register as your domain name. Your name or a name that applies to what your blog is going to be about. You can read How To Choose a Blog Name You Won’t Regret to help you decide. How to Choose the Best Domain Name will give you tips and tools to construct one. Having both my previous blogs named relevant to the contents of the blog, this time I registered my name as the domain name.
  4. Decide which blogging platform you are going to choose. Although there are several free and paid platforms and How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform in 2018 compares several of them the choice for free platforms is really between WordPress and Blogger. Having tried both of them for my previous blogs I had no hesitation to choose WordPress again.
  5. Decide which hosting service you are going to choose to register your domain name. 10 Best Domain Hosting and Registration Services (2018) compares the main ones. BlueHost won hands down for me.
  6. Learn to host your blog on your hosting service. This is relatively simple. You log in through your hosting service and click on the link. And Voila! You are on the blogging platform. If you want to learn more, read 15 FAQs on Starting a Self-hosted Blog.
  7. Construct your blog. This is a fun time. Frustrating and rewarding at the same time. You first need to choose which (WordPress or Blogger) theme you want. Learning about the themes can take up a lot of your time, so be kind to yourself if you don’t pick the right one in the first instance. Choose one of the popular ones to start with and you can change it later. There are thousands of YouTube videos to guide you through the process.
  8. Write your bio. This could be a separate “About” page in your blog or just a few lines on your blog page to start with. You can build it up later.
  9. Write your first post. Keep it simple, even experimental. You can delete it later if you are not happy with it.

All of the above is a lot of work, even though various blogs and podcasts let you believe you can start your blog in half an hour. You can, provided you have done all the background reading and planning beforehand.

But let me not dissuade you from starting. Every hour I have spent learning all of this has been most rewarding. I do not mind that I have been staying awake past midnight and thinking through things while doing mundane work around the house (washing dishes and vacuuming have never been so enjoyable).

I can bet you too will find the experience equally gratifying. Your journey might differ from mine, and you will learn different things during the process. Share them here and we all can benefit from it.

Happy Blogging!

PS: Next week I will share how to write and plan blog posts.

Photo by Kaboompics.com from Pexels