Ask Dosh Dosh: What Should You Know Before You Start Blogging?
Last week I wrote about the benefits of an advice column and mentioned that I would be starting one every Friday on Dosh Dosh to answer questions sent in by readers on related topics.
Today is the first advice column and I’ll like to keep things kinda casual. I won’t be writing long and well researched articles. Instead I’ll try to answer everything from my personal experience because I think that’s what really matters when you’re offering advice.
The first question comes from Cenk: “What are some of the most important things that a new blogger should know before they start blogging?”
I started my first blog a few years ago while I was working in a Public Relations agency. I was tasked to promote our clients online and that was when I first discovered the world of blogs. I didn’t know much about it and I thought blogs were just the personal diaries of those who liked the attention of strangers.
So while I was on the job finding blogs who would write about our clients, I started my first blog on Blogger, a free blog hosting platform. It was interesting because it seemed as if I was talking in a vacuum. Nobody read me or left any comments but yet it was reassuring to know that my voice was alive.
Perhaps somewhere out there, someone was listening to me. At that time I didn’t even know there were such things as analytic tools to discover how many people visited your blog daily. In a way it was liberating. I didn’t know how many people read my blog and I didn’t care at all.
I was writing for the sake of writing. For the joy of seeing my words appear on a screen in a clean dark-on-white template that was my very own spot in the chaotic geography of the internet. I didn’t really notice the commercial benefits of blogging although I saw how blogs could transform ordinary individuals into celebrities.
As time went on, my knowledge about blogs progressed, alongside its general evolution towards greater mainstream acceptance and adoption. Nowadays things are rather different. Blogging is a serious affair. Small and big business love it. So do marketers, consultants, freelancers and entrepreneurs. It’s a powerful tool.
So to come to back to the question: What are some of the most important things you should know before you start blogging? I could easily name a dozen things like server management skills, blogging etiquette and site usability requirements. While important skills to have, I think another factor bears mentioning for any new blogger.
The most important thing to do is to blog as if no one else was reading you. Know that the most crucial thing you need to protect is your authenticity. Know that your voice will change as you accumulate more unnecessary knowledge. As you realize that people have expectations. As your blog becomes a profitable asset.
None of the existing meta-blogging guidelines are necessary. I say this from the perspective of someone who has imbibed marketing and PR principles for years. Advertisers, peers, industry customs and societal obligations will affect the way you write. It will tame your voice and narrow your perspective.
This advice might sound odd to some of you, especially if you already own successful blogs but I feel its one of the most important things to keep in mind. I wish someone else said this to be when I became increasingly self-conscious and aware that blogging became something I had to do to meet the expectations of others.
It would have made the time I spent less stressful and more fulfilling. If you’re starting your first blog or a new blog, keep this in mind. I actually think it might help in some strange, metaphysical way to improve the quality of your blog as well.
That’s all for this week’s advice column, have a great weekend! If you have any questions at all, please send me an email and indicate that it’s for Ask Dosh Dosh.
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Great advice Maki. Although sometimes it’s hard to remember especially when one of your motivations is writing to have a voice; to be heard.
But it’s definitely important to take a step back and pretend no one is reading you. It loosens your fingers and your mind. Lets you write with freedom.
Love your stuff!
I think another important thing to do is to read other blogs. Commenting on them helps as well, so that you learn more about the community of blogging.
And as you said, don’t worry at first about people reading you. It may happen eventually, but your blog will develop more naturally if you are most concerned with being yourself, not who you think the audience wants you to be.
Hi Maki, great advice. Frankly, I never really anticipate such authentic advices from a blog about making money online; maybe somethings like content is king… blah…blah…blah… (no offense intended).
I’m a personal development blogger and I’m at the point where I’m feeling exactly what you are saying.
My readership is starting to grow and I have some loyal readers who likes my writing and authenticity.
However, I’m starting to feel exactly what you are saying here - the pressure to perform and meet expectations. If I overlook this, that’s when my success will (ironically) become my downfall.
This is a timely reminder. Thanks a lot for this advice column. I like the casual style that you’re bringing it across.
Oh yes, and it definitely helps to know that even Maki has days of blogging without any responses.
I guess this is a great reassurance to many new bloggers.
That is such excellent advice. Since there are so many blogs out there now a days it’s sometimes hard to distinguish one blog from another. One thing that always stands out for me and the blogs I gravitate to are the blogs that have a unique voice. If you are writing about the a certain niche, it’s probably not possible to have the most original content but the way you deliver it and make it interesting to read is probably what will get people to notice and take note of your blog.
I liked this advice. I’m so glad you didn’t advise playing it safe like so many others seem to do. Like Jolly Green Girl said sometimes it’s so hard to distinguish one blog from another.
A potential new player to this field should know that blogging isn’t just about making money online. They should also understands that it will take a lot of time and effort before they will see traffic on their site.
Pre-requisite technical knowledge should helps a new player thrive easily in this field but at the end, bloggers who are willing to learn and have the right attitude will have the ability to outwit the one with pre-requisite knowledge.
A very good thought. I have never really been able to post as much as I would have liked to my blog, I have always waiting until I thought I had something special to Say.
But now I may just end up writing more, not worrying that visitors may think I am not smart enough or something.
*smile* I can relate to that feeling of ’speaking into a vacuum’
While I do want to have a ridiculously successful blog one day, I certainly agree with you - your heightened sense of awareness (of your audience) can affect your Voice.
It’s why I cont. to write, pretending like no one is reading it..
(Which, btw, sometimes is the literal truth but never mind that)
I am confident that Authenticity is key.
Thanks for the reminder
Some good points you have made. I agree with the “your own spot in the chaotic geography of the internet” part. Very true and very cool.
Maki that is really inspiring advice to read.
As a BNB (Brand New Blogger!) I’m finding it quite a challenge to absorb SO many ideas, concepts, techniques, languages etc etc… and they’re all coming at me at once….
I’ll keep this advice close to my heart - ultimately the writing is the roast - everything else is just gravy…
I’m cloaking because this is totally off topic rant and b/c this is a semi-plea to Maki. Please don’t hire annoying (albeit talented) bloggers to guest-write/provide content here. I’ve unsubscribed from all but three MMO & “How to Blog” blogs in my reader. I’m sorry but the big guys must diversify. It’s the same articles over and over again. You’re a tralblazer, Maki. Don’t let the money bloat you to where you become fat, lazy and boring.
I agree with you Maki, it’s the personal touch that will make the difference.
I agree so heartly, that I elaborated on the point about being authentic on my own blog (pwnership.com). A short quote from my post:
Art is contrived. Authentic contrasts with the controlled, planned nature of most artistic expression. Authentic is spontaneous, captures a certain wildness, and chaos. That contrast, and the different quality of bonds evoked by authentic expression, help artists significantly improve the quality of their relationship with the audience, and in fact the size of the audience.
Also, I tried to figure out what dosh signified (in less than 1 minute). This is what I came up with:
dosha |?d? sh ?|,
noun
(in Ayurvedic medicine) each of three energies believed to circulate in the body and govern physiological activity.
ORIGIN Sanskrit do?a, literally ‘fault, disease.’
Also, there is a great TED presentation by J.J. Abrams of Lost at TED. It’s inspirational. It was reference material for my own post. Pardon me for providing a link: http://pwnership.com/117/
After survey the comments, I would ad that simply have the willingness to be exposed in an authentic, uncontrolled manner is so contrary to the personalities of many artists that I work with. Often, they are defensive people who hide behind their art.
If you think you can do the authentic thing, you are well ahead of most. And probably well ahead of me. I might do something about that, just don’t tell anyone I know.
Thank you, Maki, for posting something so true. I can see your story of the evolution of blogging perspectives in myself, so it really rang a bell with me.
I’m only just discovering the world of serious blogging (I’m a little behind, I know) and currently working on my first real blog attempt. So naturally, I’ve been reading up and trying to devour as much information as I possibly can about the process. I’m quite lucky to have found your work as I have to say that your articles have taught me the most of any… so I wanted to thank you.
One question I have found myself running up against is “Should I say this… and if I do, what will folks think of me?” Over-analyzing what I say and do is one of my faults naturally. So of course, this is a big thought in my mind as I write. But on the other hand, by not saying what’s in my heart, I feel like I’m doing people a disservice and only giving them half what I can give.
Your advice here has confirmed this. I want to be authentic… because not only is it giving your readers your all (both good and bad), but it’s what makes a writer’s voice original and their own.
Thanks for giving a newer blogger the proper mindset. I look forward to your future advice!
“Blogging as if no one was reading you” is a great advice.
Good advice. It’s also important to remember that unless your blog is just your private diary, you’ll need a lot of time for researching and writing your blog posts.
I just started blogging 2 days ago and found these tips very useful.
BTW like the way you blog: long and rare posts.
This is what I’m trying to keep in mind…being authentic. Alot of times, and I think school is a big part, most people write to try and please the audience. But people really appreciate your own point of view. I started my first blog a month ago, and more and more I’m starting to let myself come out a bit. Its a good learning experience, especially since i’ll be launching another blog in a week or two. Keep the info comin’ man, good stuff.
That is so true. And until you do it and then see for yourself, you are not really going to know what it means to blog as if no one else were reading.
This is especially true if you come from a smaller city or town. You will tend to base your opinions on what people will read by those around you.
The internet is a big pond. Throw up a flag and people like you will see it. If you are an antisocial book worm geek you will find others like you that aren’t afraid to be social behind the veil of the internet.
Write like no one is reading? I like it. Although I guess it depends on what is written. Unnecessary knowledge! lol
I have been blogging for some time now, but I find myself impatient a lot which drives me to try and find quick content to get out of writing those long posts. I really agree with you, just blog to blog and people will recognize your originality and will regularly visit you.
I think in the early stages it’s important that new bloggers write as if they had a large audience, or at least the audience they want.
We’ve all seen blog entries with something like, “What does it matter, no one reads this blog anyway.”
I remember seeing the rock band Dash Rip Rock one time, playing after the headliner in a small club. Everyone in the audience left but about five of us. Felt sorry for them. But that band played as if they were rocking Madison Square Garden.
But of course this doesn’t mean pandering to people who don’t exist!
“…like no one else is reading you…” This is very hard, once you’ve discovered that actually someone IS reading you. It happened to me after six months of blogging, when I finally discovered what RSS feeds are, and I saw that I had 16 subscribers. That was the day I started paying more attention to my words. I liked it better before, but those 16 readers were always on my mind.
Excellent advice. Quite easy for me currently as no one is actually reading me. Yet.
Maki - Thank you very much for responding to my question! Your answer is very inspiring. I have to admit that I went through a phase where I spent too much time caring for what others would think about the posts I wrote. After some time, I realized that I am doing this for fun and nothing should get in the way. From that point on, I spent less time on fine-tuning and more time on writing about stuff I enjoy… Many thanks again!
Great advice Maki, Most of the bloggers try to write for an auidence and forget about themselves. If you write it for yourself it you will find it more challenging and interesting. It would be a good start for any one who wants to get into blogging.
Thanks
Thomson
Hey Maki,
Congrats on your first advice column. It is a great topic to start with.
One thing I might add is to make sure to stick to it if your going to start blogging. One thing I hate most is coming to a blog with only a couple of new entries dated from years ago.
Very interesting article. Thats a good point to start first focus on quality of content you are providing on your blog and not on puttings tons of adsense, banner ads. People need to have trust to you, like your blog to click something in your blog. Now many people are focusing only on making money from blog from very beginning, not really on quality of posts, but really top blogs present best quality around and thats why get more traffic.
Hi Maki. I have been reading your articles for a while now. Thanks for some great advice and for keeping your site original. I have recently started a couple of blogs on blogger, trying to increase my use of the web, http://cleaner-earth.blogspot.com/, and http://hotbuttonz.blogspot.com/. I am also working on building a website, not up and running yet but I hope to be online by the end of January.
Being true to yourself is great advice. Too often I see people change to please the market only to loose direction in the end.
Well Maki your advice is a very good one. Authentic writing becomes easy when you think that no one is reading. A valuable advice.
Nice article. I always say to those considering blogging that they should consider the time it takes to do it well. If they are not willing to commit the time and do it consistently then there’s no point in even starting to blog. For a company considering blogging they should determine if blogging is right for them: some companies are “closed” and shy away from publicity so an outward facing blog may not be the best use of the technology for them.
Ah, the elusive “voice.” What a lovely topic to concentrate on. After all, the Net is awash in information. Conveying that information in a way people want to read; that’s value added!
Like everyone else, I love compliments and am crushed by criticism; and both of them have dangers.
I guess keeping one’s voice is like the command “dance like no one’s looking.” Keep it true, keep it interesting, and you keep it.
Nice article, i need this advice because today i plan to write my first post. Thank you.
Sorry not to agree (one more time), but writing as if no one was reading is not always good advice.
If your intention when starting a blog is to help your readers you should at first try to know if someone is looking for what you will offer.
Write as if no one would read if you do it to relax, or to help yourself. But if you want to serve a community, make sure it exists !
I’m not sure that many would be interested in my new technique to grow genetically modified oysters, so if I do it for traffic, this could be bad for motivation…
Maki, advice is good when it is helpful and constructive. Your fits the bill. Finding your voice can be truly liberating. I still feel like I am writing to myself, but every now and then someone drops by and reminds me why I am blogging in the first place - to share my passion for writing with others who dream of doing the same thing in their life.
Good advices, i tihnk that makeing more personal blog that can have something mroe then other blog, something different can make you top.
Seems like the topic of the day for me. If you blog as if no one is reading, won’t you just go all out and rant away? It’ll be kind of dull after a while if one day everyone’s started reading and all they find is a bunch of angry letters.
“The most important thing to do is to blog as if no one else was reading you.”
Excellent advice. One thing a lot of bloggers have a hard time accepting is the old “If you post it - they will come” theory.
I’m not saying you can’t be strategic in your blog posting - but I am always surprised at the posts that end up getting the most traffic.
The one’s I write for an intended audience rarely generate the ones that I don’t write for an intended audience.
@Tom Reeves
Thanks for the TED video!..I’m afraid to burst your bubble but dosh has nothing to do with Ayurvedic medicine. ‘Dosh’ is simply British slang for money.
@ Rod
Writing as if no one you are reading doesn’t mean you’re writing aimlessly without a goal. You could have a persona of the ideal reader in your mind and you can write to him or her as if you’re having a conversation with the other person.
I guess the important point this post makes is that you need to not be afraid of writing out how you really feel or think. It’s a little more than a technique to relax your writing style. We are talking about authorial authenticity here.
@ Rudy
It depends on the person I guess. If he/she is someone who’s chronically depressed or hateful, rants will come out. But then again, some people are drawn to the honesty of these authors.
The internet facilitates anonymity and it’s easy to pretend to be someone you’re not. If you prefer to moderate your voice, that’s fine as well.
@ Everyone else
Thanks for your comments!
I love the idea of a weekly advice column. Good job! About this topic, when I started my first blog (with Blogger) it was definitely exciting to see my words published on the web. I just wish I would have known (spent more time) researching how to set up wordpress and customize my themes. But I know that now so all is well that ends well!
Cheers!
‘Papa’ said,
“Write one true sentence” That is my desire,Polaris,hope and repeated failure.
Maki, your blog is one of my favorites as your writing style and pictures are smashingly wonderful!
“I didn’t know much about it and I thought blogs were just the personal diaries of those who liked the attention of strangers.”
Same here, buddy
That’s what I thought too
Great column, great advice!
Hi Maki, thanks for this incredible advice. I will be sure to check in next week. Thanks a ton.
Hi guys
Right up let me say that I’ve found the Dosh Dosh site to be one of the best marketing information sites I’m currently watching. I’ve picked up some very useful information and ideas from her and while I’ve only entered into the world of blogging over the past two months or so, her site has taught me a lot..
I would appreciate a bit of advice. Recently I turned a site, promoting Clickbank products, into a blog. The blog http://www.worldwide-infomedia-services is aimed at the Irish emigrant in America and the first generation Irish-American. I live in Ireland.
The market I want to target is big one. Maybe to big? I know there is lot of ‘home-sickness’ and a desire to know what is going on ‘back home,’ so it would suggest that there is a market there; but what to offer it, that’s really the problem.
So far I’ve played around with giving a digest of the big stories back home, a little bit on the sports scene and interesting information about popular/famous Irish. But it’s dry, there is no life there. So two questions. How would you tackle such a blog? Do you know of any similar type blogs that I might have a look at to see how they approach their topic?
The questions I’ve posed above suggest two ways a blog can go. There is the scatter gun approach, cover everything like a daily newspaper and hope to attract enough passing visitors to make it worth your while. Or be specific, aim at one, two, at the most three issues and try to build up a dedicated following.
I’m beginning to learn that blogging is not a half hour every day or so, but it requires work and dedication.