Yesterday I had lunch with my friend David in Denver. Like a number of other people that I’ve talked to during this month-long road trip, David reads this blog, at least sometimes. I’ve been surprised and encouraged by the number and diversity of readers. I have not promoted it. My goal, when I started last fall, was to see if I had what it takes to regularly write. This is my 116th post, so I am gaining confidence that I am able to sustain a blog.
For me, sustaining a blog is not easy. I have considered quitting a couple times. For me, the steps to producing a post are:
- Remember that I should write something.
- Think of something interesting that has meaning beyond the incident itself.
- Find the 30 minutes or so that it takes to write approximately 300 words.
- After gaining confidence that the blog communicates what I intend, hit “Publish.”
- Enjoy the comments that people offer in response to what I have written.
I intend to not be “preachy.” Rather, I try to recount personal experiences, current observations, and lessons I am learning. I prefer to say, “Therefore, I want to change,” than to say, “Therefore, you should change.” I hope that what I am observing and learning will encourage others. However, that is up to them.
David encouraged me to begin promoting this blog. I am willing to do that, but I will have to learn how. Do you have input that would help me? For example, it would help me to know why you read this. What have I written that particularly encourages you? How could I improve this blog? What would make it appealing to more people? Your feedback is appreciated.
Today marks my 7 year blog-iversary. Here’s my first month of blogging: http://mypartofnairobi.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html
The reason I share that is just to encourage you that it’s possible to sustain the effort. I currently do a personal blog post about once a week and a professional blog post also about once a week. (http://greenergrassmedia.com/blog/) Maybe two a week for the pro blog would be more ideal. But don’t be afraid to do just one post a week. Quality vs. quantity.
Thanks Paul!
I would agree with Paul that focusing on whether you want the blog to be mainly personal (sharing your journey) or professional (sharing ideas, insights, etc.) or both (two blogs) would be a good next step.
Thanks David. I need to give this some thought. Two blogs is intimidating, but I see that my posts do tend to fall into those two categories.