Having blogged for the past few years, whether on my own site or for others, one common questions always comes up. Why do you do it?
Initially I used it as a way to get my ideas from thought to something tangible. However, like everything, you have to set some expectations if this is something that is going to be sustainable
In the beginning I decided that no matter how many people read (or didn’t read) my blog that I would continue to do so at a regular interval that would be realistic. In the beginning I decided that a weekly post would be sustainable, even if a bit challenging given that this wasn’t the only thing I had to do all day.
Another guideline for me was that the posts would be something that a person could read during a short morning or afternoon commute, about 500 words or so. After all I was getting some basic ideas together, not writing a thesis. The nice thing about short posts I found was that there was room for questions from the reader as well as potentials for follow up articles.
The last area for consideration was around feedback. I decided that no matter how seemingly harsh any criticism might be I needed to take it as constructive. However I found that I was far more critical of my writing than others would ever be. In most cases the feedback I received were for more information on a subject, or someone’s personal experience on what I wrote about to give me more information on a subject.
One of the first discoveries after starting to blog was that I really enjoyed the process of writing. It actually helped me think in ways I may have not been able to do before. By getting my ideas ‘down on paper’ I noticed that a solution that hadn’t occurred to me before became more apparent.
An additional benefit was that I was able to broaden my network among my peers in a way I may have never been able to do beforehand. Connecting with people from different geographic and professional backgrounds allowed me to further develop my knowledge by being able to bounce ideas off them, which until that point I was not able to do.
I look forward to continuing to blog, and connecting with you.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions