Sunday, April 17, 2016

7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging

So you’re thinking about starting a blog. Or maybe you already have and you’re curious about what I think about the process. Or I’ve forced you to read this post because you’re my critique partner. Whatever your reasons for reading this, if you’re remotely interested in blogging, this post is for you.


I’m coming up on my 50th blog post. (This is #49. Woot! Woot!) And I’ve learned a lot of things along the way. Here are just a few of them: 

1)     The word blog is okay.


At first it may taste funny on your tongue, but like sparkling water or black licorice, you may just learn to like it. Now, like John Watson from the modernized Sherlock, I can proudly claim to be a blogger. So if you’re thinking about starting a blog, embrace the title of blogger. There’s no escaping it!


2)     Formatting is evil.


I mean seriously. I don’t know how many times adding a picture to a blog post, and it messed up EVERYTHING. Or how many times I had to fix the spacing, especially when I hit backspace, and Blogger interprets the backspace as an enter stroke. Blogging is about a lot more than simply copying and pasting stuff from a Word document. And I still don’t know everything I want to know yet. There’s still coding, which I might peer into once I graduate.

Unfortunately, there’s no avoiding formatting. And you have to learn how to do it properly or else nobody will want to read your blog. But…


3)     Writing blog posts can be really fun!


At first, it was more of a chore for me, but as I wrote more and more posts, I found what I liked to write. Instead of merely writing fiction all the time, I had adopted a form of nonfiction. Sometimes it’s a critical vent about something I wish could be changed but others times it’s fangirling about something entirely different.


4)     Blogging is time consuming.


“I’m just going to write a blog post really quick.” Yeah. Sure. Usually “really quick” turns into three hours of ideas, creating pictures and playing with fonts, and formatting that stupid paragraph again and again and again. Dear readers, you have no idea how much work I go through for each blog post.


5)     The more posts I write; the more ideas I get.


Just like you get stronger the more you work out, the more you exercise your imagination, the stronger it will become. When I first started blogging, I struggled to come up with ideas. Sometimes I would postpone my posts for lack of ideas or time. But the more I wrote, the easier it became. And now I have a schedule and I’ve been ahead on my blog posts for up to a month in advance.


6)     Getting involved in the blogging community is a MUST.


This is the point I perhaps have the most challenge with, being an introvert. But the more time I spend blogging, the more of other blogs I read, and the more I try to leave comments. After all, what better way to support other bloggers than to treat their blogs the way you want yours to be treated. Not only does it give bloggers feedback with your comments but it also helps share your own blog. It’s a win-win scenario for both bloggers.


7)     It’s not all about me, the blogger.


It’s about you, the readers. Yes, I write blog posts to communicate, but communication is a two-way process! So thank you, dear reader, for being your amazing self and reading this post. If there’s anything you like about my posts or wish I would change, be sure to let me know. I hope to see you next week.

Do any of these points relate with you? What would you add to the list? If you haven’t started a blog yet, what are some things you’d like to know?

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