-Ryan

While it’s not very technical, this tutorial has been useful for me: Blog Tutorial – Tips For Blog Templates & Blog Design In Photoshop

But I still couldn’t come up with anything so I just used a pre-made theme instead :)

Another problem is persistence. I started two blogs in three years, made couple of posts and abandoned them. This is somewhat related to self doubt, but main problem is persistence. Hope this time it will be different.

Then it’s spelling. It seems that I can not get it right, no matter what I do. I can use spellchecker, reread post 10 times and still I find numbers of mistakes after I post. My style also deserves better.

And last, but not least, I’m incapable of writing short posts. I sit to write one and end up with 2000 words.

Finally a little off topic rant.

Darren,

Now, that you have feedburner plugin, any reason to put only excerpts in your feed? It’s very frustrating to those of us who use non Web based feedreaders. And you may be even loosing some readers due to this.

But I’m not very good at coming up with images to go with articles, or for my site, even though I can tell when the use of images and graphics is done well. I think it’s that I don’t personally care about images all that much; graphics are an afterthought for me. I plan to work on this and ultimately to hire someone to come up with a graphic identity for my site(s).

I am excellent at coming up with new ideas for content.

But I’m not very good at disciplining myself to just sit down and finish writing about the ideas I’ve come up with. I plan to improve this by creating a posting schedule and having some set article types for different days.

I’m very good at sticking to my main topic(s) because I have chosen things about which I feel very passionate.

But I still get distracted by other things that come into my life, which could be anything from the need to tweak my template, to another of my passions or interests. I plan to improve this by creating a lot of posts ahead of time, so that if I’m not feeling “turned on” by my blogging during a given time period, new content will still be pushed out.

I’m good at marketing in general.

But sometimes I let myself just have the plan for marketing instead of actually implementing it, especially when it comes to networking on the web or in the real world. Or I will ignore particular pieces of marketing that seem overwhelming to me (SEO in particular). I plan to improve this by, well, just doing it!

I’m a good writer.

But I’m not very funny in print. I have no plan to improve this…I think I just may have to learn to live with it. Since my topics are more factual and research-oriented anyway, funny isn’t going to be the thing that ultimately leads to my success.

Design
Usability
Content

Any Others?

It’s a matter of degrees. For example, you said “It is important to learn new skills and develop your abilities to do some of the basics” but I’d say ‘not really’. Take the Photoshop tutorial you linked to, for example. Should I take the time to learn the basics of making a banner in Photoshop, or should I go to the 5dollarbanner.com site and give the guy my $5 and tell him ‘have at it’?

I think the question should be more, what are the essential skills rather than what are our strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, we all have areas where we’re stronger and areas where we’re lacking. When our strong areas overlap with the essential skills you need to succeed, then great. In other words, it’s as important to know what are the essential skills to succeed at anything, blogging included, as it is to recognize our individual strengths and weaknesses. Then we can identify which weaknesses to accept as weaknesses and which we need to develop into strengths.

That’s what I meant by saying you might be thinking about it in the wrong way, not that I disagree, just offering another perspective on it. But then, I always start off by thinking someone who doesn’t look at something in the same way I do is “thinking about it in the wrong way”, my personality flaw. ;)

Did that even come close to topic???

Joe

I am on the “am OK at” side on most of the questions. My problem is finding ways to promote my Blog. I can’t even decide if I really need an RSS feed or not (I do use Feedburner).

I want people to visit my site, not just read the Headlines and never bother to read my posts.

I think the “Jack of all trades, master of none” is the hardest way to accomplish any objective. I read constantly to try to improve ALL my skills, so I end up staying in the middle of the road instead of actually improving any “skills”.

Always half way there.

Joe

But I have a hard time being clever and funny in my articles.

I’m always amazed at how ideas seem to float in the aether above the blogosphere, and lots of people pick them up at roughly the same time.

I am a jack of all trades, master of none. A scattered, unfocused dilletante.

It’s pointless to say “I wish I could devote my energies to one thing and do it well”. I can’t – there are just too damn many things that interest me and my blog reflects that.

I will say that folks shouldn’t worry about writing, because there’s an audience for everyone. Some readers like dry, engineering style writing. Some like amusing fluff, some like in-depth analysis. Some like different things at different times.

As to technology, well, I do think you should understand as much as you can, for your own protection if nothing else. I write all my own code, but I’m a control freak. You don’t need to do that and probably shouldn’t: there are far better coders than me. But understanding (at least as far as you can) will let you identify and fix problems more easily.