So, I never thought blogging would be easy, and I started mostly because 1) I thought learning to blog would be fun and, 2) I had quit my regular/full-time/corporate/”real” job and it appeared that I would have a lot of time on my hands (haha, little did I know…). BUT! no matter how hard you think blogging is, it is harder.
Now, everyone will have a hard time with a different aspect of blogging but I am starting to realize that things specific to blogging like finding a niche, a domain name, a hosting company, learning a CMS, and even monetizing are pretty much the easiest. Because most of those have been ultra-processed and ultra-optimized and ultra-massified online.
The two things I find the hardest are: 1) getting traffic and 2) coming up with post ideas!!! Some small details I forgot to iron out when I started…
And even being, as I am, totally lost (not just kind of lost…) I realize, again, two things: 1) traffic and content are totally correlated and, 2) they are absolutely critical. Everything else is fluff.
Keep following because I think I am getting finally to something worthwhile here.
The next thing I realize is that there is a correlation between traffic and content but there is also causation and obviously, to me anyway, which I am after all, quite lost, content comes first!
The epiphany
Finally the real epiphany here. I have come to realize that many many times I get enthused about a specific topic, and I get deep for 1/2/3 days, and after a while, I feel confident to say:
…wow I’ve read a lot about this, I’ve experimented and I have a new perspective, I saw something nobody saw yet, or have a new insight or I just got to a place where I could become useful to others. I really should share…
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So then I say:
This can become a really good blog post!…
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But of course, by then I have spent maybe three days doing research, not realizing it was research and I haven’t typed a single word. I have saved none but a couple of bookmarks. I have nothing. And now I have to start writing the post from scratch. What? Do it all over again? No frigging way!
Learning to blog
I am not sure about you but before blogging yourself you need to start reading other blogs. My favorites are My. Money Mustache and Root of Good. Both are in the FIRE “community”, which is what kind of got me going as well/
The three rules of blogging
So even though I am the least experienced blogger on Mother Earth I do have an idea that most bloggers can find helpful (if they are not already doing it). I am calling it the three rules of blogging:
Type! Type! Type!
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So what? Nice talking. Or writing. What do I do about this? How do I fix my process? How do I do this? I have no idea. Or a small idea. What I am going to try to do from now on is to have a blank new post template open on my browser at all times. To make sure this happens I will add the template as a bookmark to my browser and add the bookmark to the list I open every morning (along with the news, email, and sites I follow).
I hope this works for me. I hope it works for you too.
Any other advice? I really need it!
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