2019 was the year I decided to just shut up about my plans to blog and actually do it.
I had drafted up plans about what I would do, how I would do it, my usual MO for an unknown plunge. This unfortunately tends to turn into an exercise in procrastination, but not this time. I had finally pushed myself to just go.
It didn’t take long for every plan I laid out and every idea I had to be thrown out. I had planned for an unknown, and the more I got to know it, the more I realized how out of my depth I truly was. I had to do something differently.
By a few months in, I had learned a lot. Traffic generation and content production were one of the hardest parts. Writing wasn’t easy either when working on a blog. I couldn’t just approach things either analytically or creatively, I had to use both.
There were softer skills too. The more I learn, the less I know. These are a few things I wish I knew a few months ago.
Throw Things Out There
I was originally worried about just putting my thoughts out there for anyone to read. I started slow and kept close to home.
Nothing really happened with my blog until I stopped trying to control my perceived “image”. For better, and definitely for worse, no one really cared what I wrote. Once I realized this, the more I wrote, the more I made my writing natural.
It didn’t matter what anyone thought. My blog was as much an act for me as it was for others, and I have no qualms being a little selfish sometimes, especially if it won’t actually hurt anyone.
I learned to just throw things out there. That didn’t mean write shock pieces for the sake of writing shock pieces, but to write about things I felt and cared about. It was hard to bear anything in the beginning, but it got easier the more I did.
The less guarded I got, the better I wrote, and the better my blog performed. I had to write for the sake of writing. I also had to take throw things out there and take risks I hadn’t before.
Throw Things Out
Not every article was worth finishing.
The sooner I learned this, and more importantly followed this, the sooner I was able to improve my writing. I focused on getting more concepts, trying them out, then throwing out ones I just couldn’t write about.
Having a reservoir of ideas meant I didn’t have to force an idea. I could just throw it out or back until I was ready.
Try different things, but don’t be afraid to throw them out. You can’t just change the essay prompt in school, but you can on your own blog. I had to learn to decommit from a piece that just wasn’t going to do it. And I’ll admit, it’s still really hard to do.
If you write ten pieces, don’t feel compelled to publish all ten, or even nine, or even one. Throw out what doesn’t work or fit with you.
Writing The Next Piece
In the same vein as just throwing things out there, always be working on the next piece. This was one of the hardest lessons for me to learn, but one of the most important in conjunction with the others.
I tried to write a single piece from start to finish in the beginning. Sometimes it would just stall, other times, it wasn’t good. I had to learn to just keep focusing on the next thing.
At any given moment, I have the plans written for a minimum of 10 articles. Once I started getting a selection, I could pull open a list and pick what I wanted to do. If it stalled, I could just pivot.
I kept myself on the next piece at all times. I worked on writing shorter articles to practice all of the techniques which go into writing more.
By always focusing on the next step, I stopped focusing on the minutia which was holding me back. I stopped writing in circles.
And People Too
People in your circle will laugh at your new dream of writing. “You’ll never make it.” “Don’t quit your day job.” Some of the cynicism may be well placed, but ignore whatever doesn’t actively better you. Some people are just crabs in a bucket.
The same goes for comments and responses on social media. Some of it is just tedious, other bits are downright toxic. People pick fights for the sake of picking fights.
I had to learn to just not care. Letting a failure or similar get in my head slowed me down until I could power through it.
Some people just want to watch the world burn, don’t let them affect you.
Relate To Your Readers
You’re not just writing for yourself. If you were, why are you publishing in the first place?
Who are you writing for? If you’re writing for yourself, what makes you want to read what you wrote? It isn’t enough to just write technically correct and mechanically consistent content.
I had to learn who I was writing for, why they wanted to read what I wrote, and what to do fit them better.
I originally started on the advice to just write for myself. This is great in theory but terrible in practice.
Does your audience have enough of the same overlapping interests to put together your obscure references? How much of what you think is pop culture isn’t all that popular? What regionalisms or even just regional culture are you referencing? These things can add spice to your writing, but too much spice and you make it inaccessible.
It gave me a lot to think about when I really started to analyze what my readers were looking for. I still write for myself, but I try to know what I can do to make my writing more appealing to others.
Making It Pretty
I have absolutely no qualms judging a book by its cover. My reasoning is a bit different though since I used to do editing. If a book can’t afford to look nice, then they probably haven’t put money everywhere they should.
This wasn’t hard from an academic perspective, but it did take some work to treat the content creation and acquisition process as part of the entire writing process rather than an aside. Once I learned to do this, I was able to make things more interesting.
Throw in images which are related to what you’re talking about to add some eye candy. Make sure that the headline, summary, and preview image are exciting.
A great article with a terrible headline and no imagery is going to be missed by most. It might pick up if someone reads it, but you’ve already filtered out your audience before they get to your actual content.
Read Like A Writer
Reading and writing go hand in hand. Reading provides a way to gleam insight into what is popular or being talked about, but it also gives a way to get topics and information for more writing.
How you read is just as important as what you read too.
If you write fiction, what do other authors do in your genre? For essays and blogs, what topics are hot and how are people writing? What styles are popular and successful? I had to learn to look past just the words on the paper and to focus on what was being said and how.
I sat and took apart pieces to see what made them tick. How did that author flow to the next section? Why did they bring up a given point?
Read like you’re trying to edit your own piece. Once I learned to read like a writer, I was able to speed up my writing and improve its quality substantially.
Setting Goals
I didn’t really start my blog with a specific goal except to write. That left me in an awkward spot since I had to figure out some way to promote what I was doing. The problem was, in the beginning, I didn’t know what I was doing or why.
As I wrote more, I was able to stumble onto new goals. Once I figured out what I really wanted to do with my blog, things just clicked.
It’s hard to keep people coming back if they have no idea what you’re doing with your blog, and I definitely had no idea what I was doing with my blog. I wrote about different topics without any real rhyme or reason.
I arguably still do, but the difference is that I’ve set my goals for what I’m doing with my blog. The whole thing turned into an exercise to better my career and as a creative outlet. I also used it as a way to keep myself on track to write a new book.
Once I set goals for what I was doing, and why, things fell into place. Once I really decided what I was doing with the whole thing, it made it a lot easier to build momentum in one direction and to keep myself from just wandering in circles.
What are you writing and why?
Be Social (Or At Least Pretend)
The skills around blogging like using social media and growing traffic are things I’ve done professionally, just never for myself. I had to relearn how to apply them to myself. Normally I have a specific goal with marketing, but with my blog, it could be whatever I wanted.
Interacting more and taking more social risks made me able to push my blog better (without being spammy), but it also carried over to my writing. As a whole. people barely cared what I was saying, let alone writing. Talk to people and see what they want. Interact with people who read your stuff and see what they like about what you’re doing.
I’m still not the most social, but I can at least pretend to be. Learning to do so pushed my blog ahead from both from a traffic side, but more importantly it improved the writing because I learned what people liked.
Making Money
I hit some financial snags relatively early in my blog writing process. Nothing pushes me more to do better than to try and monetize what I enjoy. Despite this being completely contradictory to what most people say, I feel it is an essential lesson to learn.
I write for me and I’m willing to turn down easy money writing content that doesn’t interest me personally (when money is good), but my blog has turned into a way to get freelance jobs and has allowed me to quit doing side work I don’t enjoy. I don’t have to go fix computers on the side when money is tight, I pick which thing I want to write about and enjoy the process.
Make no mistake, writing for money is almost always going to still be work, but it’s work that you hopefully enjoy to some degree.
The risks I learned to take and the monetization strategies I learned from my blog have helped me in my career as well.
By trying to sniff out the money in writing, I was able to sniff out money in everything I’m doing. It may not be a lot, but things have gotten a lot easier financially, and I don’t work outside of my main job on things I don’t like anymore.
Ultimately, most people reading this are reading about how to make money off their writing. Focus on your writing as a product and increase its quality first. Then, work on selling it properly. A great product with no sales is a bad product. Use what you learn to better yourself and your craft.