Written on June 24th, 2007 at 12:06 am by Darren Rowse
What do You Know Now About Blogging that You Wish You Knew When You Started?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?
While I’m the kind of guy that spends more time looking forward than dwelling on the past - I’m a firm believer that from time to time it can be a worthwhile exercise to look back on our experiences and let them help shape our future.
So today’s reader question asks you to do just that:
What do You Know Now About Blogging that You Wish You Knew When You Started?
Perhaps it’s some method of finding traffic, perhaps it’s about your writing style, it could be more about how you interact with readers, maybe it could even be something to do with a blogging tool that you’ve discovered or it could even be that you wish you’d never started.
I guess another way to ask the question would be - name one thing you’d do differently if you could start over?
Looking forward to your answers either in comments below or as a post on your own blog (if you do post it - just leave the link below so we can check it out).
110 Responses to “What do You Know Now About Blogging that You Wish You Knew When You Started?”
D
June 24th, 2007 12:14 am
Things I wish I’d done differently from day one:
1. Hosted the blog under the same domain as the commercial website.
2. Left out the personal posts - that’s what the anonymity of blogger is for.
3. Focus, focus, focus!
4. Understood the true importance of titles before writing the first post.
Andrei Rosca
June 24th, 2007 12:19 am
I wish i knew the importance of talking to every single one of the visitors that were leaving comments. By just talking to them you show that you care about their opinios and you encourage them to say more often what they think.
NetBusinessBlogger
June 24th, 2007 12:26 am
Posting original content!
I started blogging to make money. I created around 30 blogs (i don’t hesitate calling them spam blogs) related to cars, cell phones, humor, health, business, etc etc. I used to post around 5 articles in EACH of those, just by copy-pasting content from other blogs. Implemented Adsense. The result? I received immense traffic, lots of clicks which meant lots of money for a new blogger like me.
At some point, you start realizing that this method of earning money is not life long as the traffic never grows. Once the visitor comes to know that the content is plagiarized, he is never going to come back!
Today I’m happy that I’ve deleted all those spam blogs and currently I’m working on just 2-3 blogs which have genuine original content written by me. Its a great feeling to see your blog grow!
Many bloggers say that they wish they knew about ppc advertisements, paid reviews, link ads, etc at the time they started blogging. For new bloggers, these are actually distractions.
John Wesley
June 24th, 2007 12:37 am
I would have thought more about niche and branding. In the beginning I didn’t understand how important those things are so I had to adjust as the site developed. Having a plan from the start would have helped a lot.
Bowrag
June 24th, 2007 12:42 am
Differently:
1) set the theme before I began… I have changed too many times and need to change again.
2) Name the blog the same as the domain name I had. I had an old domain name and used it but the blog is different.
3) FIND traffic
CSS for WordPress
June 24th, 2007 12:43 am
On my blog, I write tutorials, news and other information for the WordPress platform. I love using WordPress and teaching other people how to use it. However, some days I find myself wishing I had left my topic a little more open to other platforms, cms’s etc. It would have given me a lot wider topic range to cover from a writers standpoint and it would potentially bring traffic from users of other blogging platforms aswell.
Lori
June 24th, 2007 12:48 am
Great question..as a 3mth newbie, I would do many things different. But the one thing that stands out is I wish I would have made a plan and researched my niche before jumping right in. I was so excited to get started that I didn’t research anything…hec, I didn’t even know what blogging was when I started. RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!
Deb
June 24th, 2007 12:49 am
Just about everything. Okay that’s probably too broad.
1. A single post never killed a blog.
2. There are shades of difference between being real and being personal (I do not run a commercial blog).
3. There is room for “my style” within the general acceptable practices of blogging.
4. That developing the disciplines of blogging would hone how I approach my other writing projects. (It is funny that I say that because I literally jumped off the deep end into blogging when I read an online writing mentor’s, whose name I have lost, opinion that writers who were not blogging should consider it a lost opportunity.)
I could go on, but those are the top ones that come to mind.
Adam
June 24th, 2007 1:02 am
I wish I knew I could make money from them. Only started blogging commercially end of last year.
tejvan
June 24th, 2007 1:02 am
Use the best blogging software and try to avoid wasting time messing around with design and getting the blog to function. I learn’t through experience Wordpress is the best blogging software
Crazykinux
June 24th, 2007 1:06 am
1) Great content attacks visitors. Post, post, post!
2) Having enough great content takes awhile; we’re talking in months people here, not days.
3) Network with bloggers in your niche, they are your best source of new traffic at first.
My 2 cents!
Crazykinux
June 24th, 2007 1:08 am
And pick the right word in your spell checker!!! I meant attracts, not attacks!!!
rami
June 24th, 2007 1:19 am
I’d focus on one topic only per blog.
60 in 3
June 24th, 2007 1:20 am
I would have picked a better name for my blog. 60 in 3 has a lot of personal meaning for me, but not for anyone else.
Gal
Leszek Pawlowicz
June 24th, 2007 1:32 am
1. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Blogger was free, some aspects of layout are easy, and it lowered the barrier to start blogging. But ultimately it just wasn’t powerful or flexible enough to do what I wanted. I wish I had bitten the bullet and gone with WordPress from the start. Whatever platform you do start with, make sure the posts and comments are exportable to another platform in the future, in case you do decide to switch (fortunately, Blogger can be imported to WordPress, but it still took a lot of work).
2. Same for the domain name; the blogpost domain was free, but spending $10 upfront for a domain name would have ensured that all of my audience would follow me when I changed platforms.
3. Sometimes you have to write a post that you may not necessarily be all that interested in, but which you know will bring in traffic through searches. And sometimes the topic you’re in love with, nobody will want to read about (but do it anyway - you gotta have some fun).
4. Patience is necessary when building an audience, and for AdSense. I know make more in a day than I did the first three weeks with AdSense, and it’s still growing, but I didn’t know that would happen at the time, and it was frustrating.
Rich Minx
June 24th, 2007 1:39 am
1. Started with self-hosted Wordpress.
2. Stuck with my first blog. I started blogging in 2001. It was a good, growing blog. But I got distracted.
But really, I have no major regrets. Blogging is about learning and experimentation. All lessons learned just make you a better blogger, I think.
Simonne
June 24th, 2007 1:41 am
I wish I knew that it is absolutely normal for a blog to start with the end.
SEO Expert Blog
June 24th, 2007 1:47 am
I wish I knew that it is much better to write 1 or 2 high quality posts a week than 1 or 2 medium quality posts a day.
Pua
June 24th, 2007 1:50 am
great question which we deal with on a daily basis when facing the consequences of wrong decisions:
1. should have done more research before starting my hawaii blog
2. would have known then that wordpress was the way to go and not free blogger - hard to switch now for a non-tech person
3. started blogging with no real blogging theme - now i know better
4. ignored categorizing the beginning - can take care of that
5. wrong domain name - again hard to fix w/o help
i try to fix some wrong decisions as much as i can on my way to successful blogging but might have to pay for some major changes. could have saved that money w/more brainstorming! pua
Arjun Muralidharan
June 24th, 2007 1:53 am
I think the single most important thing I learned over time was that I needed to write content that had value. I know it sounds obvious and stupid, but initially I wrote a lot of long articles that were more for me than anyone else. I greatly improved on my writing, but I guess you can’t really have good writing skills from the very beginning of your writing.
baiguai
June 24th, 2007 2:02 am
I wish I knew the importance of getting involved. Whether it is with other blogs, or forums, or other online communities. It is through these outlets that I have found my most loyal readers, but it was slow going because I didn’t network enough at the start.
Vern
June 24th, 2007 2:15 am
This blog is going to be my masterpiece! muahahah! But, many mistakes on other blogs. Lack of focus to the blog was a biggy, as was changing from .blogspot to custom domain on blogspot and then, finally to FTP publishing on my own subdomain. Google has not caught up yet to the 5 blogs I changed over like this. It’s a bummer to go from PageRank 3 on all blogs while they were on Blogspot to grey bars for all blogs for the last 3 months after I switched. Hopefully it will rectify itself. If not, no worries - I’ll switch the 3 main blogs to Wordpress! ha!
alam
June 24th, 2007 2:16 am
Using draft and future posting effectively, I just remember the time when I don’t know about server side scripting or javascript. I have to got internet cafe everyday just for changing todays date . Lol
Draft will take main idea and future posting work as manager :-)
waterbird
June 24th, 2007 2:57 am
hi! I have rss your blog, Your blog is very good,thanks.
MichelleVan
June 24th, 2007 3:19 am
Live all these ideas . I’m learning everyday. I guess what I’m learning is to find my focus, but I wish I’d understood about permalink structure from day one. I also switched from blogger - wordpress, and lots some subscribers/google etc, but I wasn’t ready to start in wordpress and learn that on top of everything else. blogging has a learning curve just like everything else.
MichelleVan
June 24th, 2007 3:22 am
ok. well Darren, my fingers got carried away and I didn’t check the comment above before I hit that ADD button. Sorry about the spelling errors above. (should be love not live, should be lost not lots) . That is one of the best lessons ever. SPELL CHECK AND PROOFREAD!
Heraldo
June 24th, 2007 3:28 am
I wish I’d started out on WordPress rather than blogspot.
Barbra Sundquist
June 24th, 2007 3:46 am
My answer: I wish I knew to make links open in a new window. The reason why this is important is that making links open in a new window ensures that when someone clicks an external link on your blog they don’t leave your blog for good.
Wondering how to do this? I’ve written a step-by-step here:
http://www.homebusinesswiz.com/2007/06/how_to_make_links_open_in_a_ne.html
Michael
June 24th, 2007 4:31 am
I wish I started out hosting my own blog instead of using a free blogging service, starting out with blogger and then moving to my own domain was the biggest mistake I ever made in blogging
Chris Albon
June 24th, 2007 4:36 am
I wish I did not make links open in a new window. Why? Because it makes the site look trashy and spammy. Users notice.
Gamermk
June 24th, 2007 5:02 am
I wish I’d have started my new blog that I’ve had for a couple months, a year ago. I had the expertise to do it back then as well, just not the drive. The market I’m in won’t last forever and it was a costly mistake I think.
Michael Martine
June 24th, 2007 5:21 am
Excellent question! Like many, I wish I had started out with a self-hosted blog for GoogleTube Video of the Day (formerly just Google Video of the Day). I wouldn’t have experimented so much with AdSense and given things more time to test. For Michael Martine.com, if I knew then what I know now, I would have stayed focused on the topic of blogging and helping other be better bloggers, instead of getting lost and meandering all over the place, subject-wise.
Ades
June 24th, 2007 5:36 am
Chris you don’t have to criticize others! They are just sharing their own opinion.
Mommy Zabs
June 24th, 2007 5:39 am
Honestly, I started blogging after I had my first child in 2004 and I didn’t really realize then that some people supported themselves blogging. For me it was an online journal for the sake of
1. memories and
2. staying in touch with family and friends far away.
That being said I am not sure that I would have changed anything. I found myself in and out of blogging spurts because I had 2 children, moved 3 times and sold 2 houses. I feel like I made invaluable relationships during that time.
I started reading pro-blogger a several months ago and have learned so much. I have even moved to my own domain. Some great blog friends have followed me both on my switch to wordpress.com and a couple months later to my own domain.
From the beginning I could have been more focused if that was the goal. I could have written better, been more consistent… but there just wasn’t the time back then.
One regret I have is that whenn I moved I could not take my stats or technorati with me :) I have had to start brand new, but I know it will build back up.
I’m going to be changing the name of my blog soon. I will be switching it from
Mommy Zabs- Motherhood is not a cussword, to Motherhood is Not a Cussword by Mommy Zabs. My plan is to eventually spin off my other interests (politics that has to do with family, bible study…) into other blogs co-written with friends I have made along the way… but for now my blog is what it is. I’m growing and learning and not in much of a rush to be a huge blog. I just want to enjoy what it is for now.
Artem
June 24th, 2007 5:42 am
I wish I didn’t buy expensive links because I know today how to have it without spending.
And the main thing I wish: to be like Darren Rowse. :)
MoneyNing
June 24th, 2007 6:36 am
I would have started with much more planning and research, such as blogging software, host, and most importantly, domain name. After starting out in the end of last year, I have switch all three and changing each one was more difficult than the last (blogger software was the easiest, hosting was okay but painful since it added weird characters to ALL my posts that I had to fix. Finally, the domain name change was just a killer since I wanted to start clean so my RSS feed’s name changed, crippling all my RSS readers).
I’m sure I will have more items to talk about 1 year from now so post this entry again next year! :)
Expectant Father
June 24th, 2007 6:40 am
I kind of thought that:
“If I blog, they will come!”
This is so very far from the truth. It takes a lot of elbow grease to feel like you are getting anywhere.
Trew Life Advice
June 24th, 2007 6:50 am
Wish I would have read this post, and all the comments before doing everything that everyone feels shouldn’t be done.
*sighs*
- Trew Life
Greg Butler
June 24th, 2007 7:04 am
I wish I started on Wordpress and I wish I had spent more time networking with other bloggers.
Andrew Ferguson
June 24th, 2007 7:25 am
I wish I’d known how important post frequency was, as well as focused content.
Lisa
June 24th, 2007 7:45 am
Keep the posts short!
Rohit Rohila
June 24th, 2007 8:26 am
Great ideas everyone! I just started, about 2 weeks ago. One thing that I am doing though is writing about 2 weeks worth of posts at a time. That way I only really have to concentrate on my site twice a month. The rest of the time, I can focus on marketing, leaving comments, and things. That is a tip that I picked up from many bloggers.
desmondchui
June 24th, 2007 8:32 am
Nice one, Since myself still consider as a newbie, but i have learn and change lot from the first day i know what is blog
1)attractive title
2)Focus and write the blog
3)Put high search keyword
4)Do some traffic job
that what i learn from now
Mike
June 24th, 2007 8:41 am
I wish I had been smart enough to start the blog using a dedicated blog platform. Aspiring bloggers are hardly likely to make that mistake today, but back in 2003 when I first started 10,000 Birds, hand coding and WSYIWYG editors seemed like acceptable alternatives. Only as blog functionality became more and more advanced (and convenient!) did my initial choice prove disastrous. I’m still moving content post by laborious post from my old Microsoft FrontPage-powered siteto my sleek Wordpress-driven blog. Talk about learning the hard way.
Tara
June 24th, 2007 9:21 am
I wish I would have known that it’s really OK to get raw and blog from the heart.
When I first started my eclectic luxury blog (Good Luck Deluxe) seven months ago, I was all prim and proper and I held back a bit. My traffic was piddly then. Now I say whatever, and my readers can’t get enough my twisted logic. Maybe it’s because I tuck it in between diamonds, food, and gadgets.
My site’s repeat traffic increases the more real I am. My readers are loyal to me, and they go easy on me every 28 days. ;-)
I’m a happy blogger, and I have no complaints. I feel like I was born to blog. Truly.
I’ll be even happier when someone buys my blog, though!
Angling
June 24th, 2007 9:36 am
I wish that I knew what BLOGGING ment before I started. I thought it was a diary, a web log about me. I had not thought that it could be total self expression, a traffic builder, a voice, and finally an income. I was scared as a baby blogger, scared to voice my opinion, my experience.
Now blogging is a way to let others learn from my mistakes, its a web site, its fantastic!!!!
Sanix
June 24th, 2007 9:38 am
A very nice idea .. I’m a regular reader of yours but this post forced me to comment.. Here is the link to my answer about the question.
http://technodigits.wordpress.com/2007/06/23/if-i-were-to-start-blogging-again/
Principles Of Marketing
June 24th, 2007 9:49 am
Good Question,
I think its the simplest thing with me, back when I first started blogging I would create a blog about something like computer games but after working on it for a month I found myself branching out so much that I could not handle the blog anymore, I found myself no longer talking about computer games but I found myself talking about game programming, game development, game theory, all related to computer games but not the direction of which I originally wanted my blog to go.
Being a lot better at keeping on target is the one thing I wish I could have learned when I first started, heck I still make that mistake from time to time, for instance my Principle Of Marketing blog was meant to be about marketing in general, the history of marketing, marketing theory, how marketing can help you and your business but now after a month its changed to SEO, SEM, PPC, & other personal things.
So the one thing to keep in mind throughout the whole goal is to keep on topic, even if you do things like I have after a month there is still time to re-design your blog, if your site is lacking in traffic look at your target audience and ask yourself what your presenting to them and how are you presenting it, keeping on target will keep you organized and looking to the future.
Don
June 24th, 2007 10:10 am
Maybe I wouldn’t offer “freebies” on my site . . . I signed up for a couple myself to check them out and my bulk mail folder is now full of junk!
Andrew Boyd
June 24th, 2007 10:17 am
Hi Darren,
basically, what John Wesley, Bowrag, Lori, tejvan and Rami said.
And not to be too big a suckup about it, but I wish most of all that I’d read your blog (and Yaro’s, and Steve Pavlina’s) for about two months before I wrote my first post - but I guess that there are some lessons that are best learnt through error.
Best regards, Andrew
Vincent Ma
June 24th, 2007 10:42 am
I fortunate, in that I was pointed in the right direction when I wanted to start my blog. However, I still made the same mistakes as everyone else. I started on Blogger and after a month migrated to my own domain with WP.
The one thing I really, really wished I knew when I started was how important it was to carefully setup the permalink structure. I started with the default and realized I should have used something like category, postname. Saved by Dean’s Permalink Migration Plugin.
All the best,
Vince
Hobo Stripper
June 24th, 2007 10:51 am
I wish I’d known more about wordpress (and I still don’t know).
Other than that… I dunno… somebody take a look and tell me what I’ll regret later?
Rose
June 24th, 2007 11:25 am
About the thing that I only really regret is that I didn’t start adding Adsense sooner. Even now though everything is a learning process (like the replies have already said).
I really don’t think that I really regret anything about my blogs - except the Adsense thing - because no matter how long I have had my blogs I’m still learning.
James Lim
June 24th, 2007 11:43 am
I wished that I had known about blogging much earlier so I could start much earlier than I had now.
Apart from this, I wished that I knew about how to market my blog more effectively right from the start so I wouldn’t have wasted my first few weeks….
Bret.
June 24th, 2007 11:53 am
I wished I had just focused more on producing content on a regular predictable basis. I’ve gone through a week here and there where I just didn’t have time to post. If I had a reserve of posts to draw from I could have filled those low stops with something ready to do. I feel that the dry spells had a negative impact on my slowly growing readership. I would highly recommend to all new bloggers to create a stock pile of posts ready to fill the dry spells and to just focus on establishing a good routine for creating content. Once you have that, go ahead and start to focus on other aspects of your blog.
Michelle
June 24th, 2007 12:02 pm
@ 60 in 3. Don’t feel bad about the name of your blog. I have no idea what it means, but it sounded cool enough for me to click on your name the last time I visited this site.
Me, I wish I had hired someone to do the graphics and tweaking of my blog’s code *before* I went live. It looks awful.
Rebecca
June 24th, 2007 12:15 pm
I wish I had been a blog reader before become a blogger, but all things considered I’m not discontent.
Investorblogger
June 24th, 2007 1:17 pm
I wish I hadn’t moved my old blog and reestablished a new blog at the old domain. I lost my PR5 rank doing that. Ouch!
Jason
June 24th, 2007 1:23 pm
Ad positioning. I went from placing my ads in yellow zones in the beginning, outside the content, then finally I found a code for positioning ads within the content. If only I had known the importance of ad placement in the beginning I would have made a lot more money!
Jennifer
June 24th, 2007 1:37 pm
I’m still new but I’m sure I’ll have regrets soon. I learned a lot from everyone’s posts. Just wondering why wordpress is so much better than blogger? Anyone? (I’m using blogger and obviously am not aware of what I am missing.)
Randy Hill
June 24th, 2007 4:55 pm
I’ve been blogging for awhile and I still don’t see the attraction of working with Wordpress. I have one of my blogs in Wordpress and the others in Blogspot. Wordpress is infinitely more difficult to use in my opinion. I know the advantages of having my own personal URL using WP, but I truly hate the app! Is that so wrong? I’m sure someday soon I will eat all of my words in this post. ;P
Randy Hill
June 24th, 2007 4:58 pm
Jason - would you mind sharing how to position ads with content? Does that create any ill will with readers, or do they even care?
Beth at Morning Glories
June 24th, 2007 7:38 pm
I started my blog 15 days ago. Before I “jumped in” I had done a lot of blog reading and research. And I had previously started a blog that went nowhere because I didn’t have enough content since I wasn’t as involved with the topic offline as I planned to be. Then I did extensive planning for another blog (which I still may do because I think it’s a great concept), but I just haven’t felt ready and I’ve followed that instinct. In the meantime, I got involved in a new hobby that I developed a real passion for and decided to transform my defunct blog into a new one in that topic area. What has surprised me the most is how easily the content has flowed and how absorbing it is to work on the site. I can’t say I regret that path I have taken, because it has taught me what I needed to learn, but I wish I knew:
1) If you are passionate about your topic you won’t have to “construct” content, you just have to “shape” it.
2) It’s really fun.
3) It can take up a lot of time, but if you’re passionate about your topic it’s time spent in an area that you care about and that gives you life.
4) It’s a great way to be part of a community in a topic area you love.
5) There is ALWAYS more to learn that you eventually will look back on and say “I wish I knew (or did) that earlier!”
Cindy Sue Causey
June 24th, 2007 10:19 pm
Realizing I’ve been blogging since *at least* 2002, find myself regularly wishing I had consciously predicted blogging’s future the way I’ve recognized other trends before they were.. Health plays a prominent role so I just don’t kick myself as hard as I might otherwise.. ;)
Cyber hugs..
Janette Toral
June 24th, 2007 10:32 pm
Hi Darren. Here’s a blog post I prepared in response:
http://blogging101workshop.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-do-i-know-now-about-blogging-that.html
Thank you for this!
Jason
June 24th, 2007 11:23 pm
Randy
“Jason - would you mind sharing how to position ads with content? Does that create any ill will with readers, or do they even care?”
I wrote a little about it here. http://payperclickinternetadvertising.net/node/15
See ya,
Jason
Jason
June 24th, 2007 11:25 pm
“Does that create any ill will with readers”
You see Darren doing it at the top right of his content.
Jason
June 24th, 2007 11:32 pm
“I’ve been blogging for awhile and I still don’t see the attraction of working with Wordpress. I have one of my blogs in Wordpress and the others in Blogspot. Wordpress is infinitely more difficult to use in my opinion. I know the advantages of having my own personal URL using WP, but I truly hate the app! Is that so wrong? I’m sure someday soon I will eat all of my words in this post. ;P”
For some reason I can’t stand Wordpress. I use Drupal.
Margie
June 24th, 2007 11:33 pm
Just because someone else has written about it does not mean you should not write about it too, because your post may offer information or insights that the reader has not encountered before. There are several hundred Battlestar Galactica blogs and when I started this job I was extremely concerned about duplicative content, which meant when big news came out I missed some opportunities to offer comments/posts on major developments … a definite error.
Also, I wish I would have known that creating a blog post can be like an appellate brief, sometimes you just have to wade in. Start with an idea or a link and research and let it grow as you find more info, edit out earlier stuff, etc. Just wading in is more productive than staring at your blank screen in fear! And when you get done, after a bunch of “drafts” you usually have something decent.
Then, save your post for later or post to the future and reread what you wrote after you walk away from the computer for a few minutes. It is good for catching stray words or odd coding that will embarrass you later.
junger
June 25th, 2007 12:25 am
“If you build it, they will come” does not apply to any type of Web sites or communities.
Sue
June 25th, 2007 12:40 am
For those wondering why blogspot is so wrong, it’s not very configurable. And unless you know a little coding, that bar across the top is a distraction. Finding a good theme is next to impossible, and I at least, would like my theme to match the content. I have one personal blogspot blog, but the others I have started are using wordpress.
The other thing I would do differently is not put a blog on wordpress.com. There is really no configuration with it unless you pay, and if you’re going to pay, you’d be better off having your own domain, your own site.
I still have one on there, but I now have four other blogs, all on my own personal domains. None of them make any money, or even get much traffic yet, but they are very focused (like one for haunted lighthouses as a companion to my hauntedlights.com site).
And wordpress is very easy to work with, and very customizable. I love it. I’m still learning all its features, but you can’t go wrong with it.
zool
June 25th, 2007 1:02 am
whoa too many comments…
how I got this many visitor…
I’ll got 2 blogs but only one in English .. Coz I’m not good in this language .. But still learning …
Terra
June 25th, 2007 1:27 am
I wish that I’d skipped over the whole free blogger to wp.com sites and just gone straight to my own domain. I’m just started the planning for a launch of my own domain, based on part on my personal blog and the one that I write professionally for - I’m finding so many bumps along the road and feeling semi-anxious about the launch already and it’s still quite a ways in the future!
Rhys
June 25th, 2007 1:59 am
I’d
- Move to my own domain sooner.
- Move to wordpress sooner.
- Monetize sooner.
- Do better to keep hold of readers.
- Try not to be so sparodic with my postings.
Joanna Young
June 25th, 2007 2:06 am
What do I wish I’d known… still finding out!
Probably not to agonise over blog writing. It’s best just to keep turning them out, even if that means some are lower quality (in your mind) than others. The pieces I think are gems are not necessarily the ones readers like, link to or comment on. There’s no point fretting over it. Your readers are always right… or at least there’s always something to learn from their reactions.
By the way I’d find it useful to hear your views Darren on the question of links opening in a new window (comments 28 and 30 here). I was tutored to set them up to open in a new window so I didn’t lose visitors, but I see other people think it’s ’spammy’. Discussion of pros and cons would be useful. (Apologies if it’s already on this site somewhere - I’ve not looked yet)
Joanna
Brandon J
June 25th, 2007 2:44 am
I still wish that I didn’t concentrate on the money part of it. I have less than one hundred readers and I can tell my site isn’t very “sticky”. Most of my deicions are financially based and I wish I could just write content without worried about how much money I’m making.
The same thing as the other 70 some odd posts above me basically.
Brandon J
Money for Military
Zen Zoomie
June 25th, 2007 2:57 am
I wish that I had started earlier instead of just thinking about it. It took a swift kick in the pants to get me to finally stop thinking & start doing, but I finally have.
chris
June 25th, 2007 4:08 am
These are all great comments. My buddy got me into WP before I got too far along, and my website is hosted. So, I think I’m on the right track. Any feedback is appreciated.
http://www.40hourstogo.com
Rob Schaumer
June 25th, 2007 4:36 am
I wish I had never taken a break. I was feeling drained and took a two week break. That was in December of 06. Six months later I am just getting back into my blog. My traffic dissapeared my momentum was lost. I guess in a way I get to start from the beggining again.
1.BE passionate.
2.BE real.
3.BE consistent.
DON’T do it just for money.
DON’T be a sellout.
DON’T stop blogging.
pearl
June 25th, 2007 5:22 am
I started blogging recently and am learning a lot from this blog from each post. My biggest regret is that I didn’t keep up with all the free blogs I started years ago. Had I kept up with them and stuck with blogging even when there was no traffic, I would have been in much better shape today, knowledge wise!
Dana
June 25th, 2007 5:45 am
I’m not blogging professionally, or anything, but I do wish I had a better idea of what I was doing when I started. I didn’t really know what a blog was and mostly just started it to see what it was all about.
My purpose has changed a couple of times, and my url is not something anyone could remember if they tried. Probably not the best for maintaining a readership. But I have known some of my readers since the very beginning…a little over two years now!
Danielle
June 25th, 2007 7:21 am
1. Read blogs. I wrote my first month’s worth of posts without reading another blog. Once I started reading blogs, I learned about the importance of layout and text formatting from my own reading experiences.
2. Less is more. Concise and clear writing captures a larger audience. Too much flashiness in blog design take any from the content. Catergory tags should be kept to the minimum keeping the “feel” of a blog more focused especially true for personal blogs.
3. Memes increase your audience. The weekly memes such as Wordless Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen and Manic Monday can be consciously utilized for your own niche and bring a wider range of readers to your blog. I have gained a fair amount of “regular” readers through utilizing memes.
4. Audience Interaction. This should be the first guide toward good blog writing. Asking questions on a theme encourages your blog to evolve into a community.
Steve
June 25th, 2007 7:35 am
Modelling. True excellence in any area requires an ongoing effort to model others who are already the best at what they do. I started modelling a little late, but nonetheless it’s a very powerful tool.
Model your way to success….
Stephen Martile
http://www.stephenmartile.com
Personal Development with NLP
Dean
June 25th, 2007 9:47 am
Get started.
Get yourself a wordpress blog (hosted if you are unsure on tech matters however self hosting is not that hard) and start a personal blog.
You will learn by getting wet, you will make “mistakes” we all do, but you learn by doing.
The blogosphere is quite forgiving but each day you delay you fall further behind.
There are plenty of great resources to get you started, so read a couple and start. Feel your way around then up the ante.
Identify your niche, register an appropriate domain, self host wordpress, pin your ears back and go.
hacker not cracker
June 25th, 2007 9:53 am
I wish I knew that Wordpress what lightyears better than Movable Type.
Trula
June 25th, 2007 10:10 am
I’ve always had my own domain name, but I wish I had started using a blogging program from the start. From 02-05 I hand coded my blog, every single entry on it’s own old-school html page. Ultra duh!
I also wish I focused my initial blog with a theme instead of writing about everything all on one blog. I have since set up different blogs for the topics I write about and link them to my books and/or zines.
Time is the biggest factor for me now in making my blogs profitable but I am confident it’s going to happen!
K
June 25th, 2007 11:53 am
I guest blogged daily for 2 years,
yes, you read that right,
daily for 2 years,
before getting my own domain.
Loved the online buddy
I was guest blogging for
but still, it feels nice to have my own place.
Patsy
June 25th, 2007 11:57 am
I have learned so much from other bloggers. I am fairly new to blogging (3 months) but I must admit I have the blog fever!
Several things that come to mind that I wish I had known when I started…
1. I wish I knew how important commenting on blogs is. I visited tons of blogs in my learning process and I just recently started commenting.
2. I could have benefited more if I knew how to use AdSense effectively.
3. Most of all I wish I had done more research on technorati and tags.
Thanks for a great blog!
Squib
June 25th, 2007 3:27 pm
I began with too many blogs, each of which represented a component of what I enjoyed writing about. After awhile, I discovered that I was writing primarily about two things all of the time, poker and politics, so I merged my blog into a single entity and found my niche.
I wish that I had realized this much earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time.
Also, it is important to know your reasons for blogging. If it is commercial, then traffic is very important, otherwise it’s nice to be read but it’s not necessary to be read by the thousands to have a successful blog.
Chandra Mohan
June 25th, 2007 4:54 pm
Just a month into blogging and focussed more on cheap ppc for getting visitors as I underestimated networking, and did not focus on getting link back and other automated features provided by wordpress. I am now focusing on these aspects and hope to do better.
Chandra Mohan
Ankur
June 25th, 2007 5:13 pm
Well I wish i had considered ad placement an important task in Adsense….just by making a slight change in my ad location …i have seen my revenues growing 6 times.
Alvin
June 25th, 2007 6:51 pm
I’m quite new to blog. I always regret for what I do not know when I started. If I knew it earlier, I would be saving much of time.
First of all, I wish I knew how important is a domain for a blog. I cry for it… If I knew it earlier, I would be in a better domain now instead of SUBdomain.
Moreover, I also wish I knew how powerful is email-subscription. Email subscription could bring me back lots of old readers.
Sreejith
June 25th, 2007 8:57 pm
I wish I knew Problogger when I started blogging. I find real utility with Darren’s advices.
I wish I knew what Social Media is, when I started blogging.
tanya
June 25th, 2007 10:33 pm
I wish I knew that it takes so much time. It’s different when youre in school - you have that time, but with a full time job and two blogs at which I “should” post daily - I’m tired all the time.
I also don’t use Wordpress - I use Movable Type and I have no regrets about that. I don’t mind all the Wordpress love, but I’m just throwing something else out there that’s pretty good too. I think MT is more customizeable if you dont want to rely on a free theme (in my experience), but I am jealous of all those cool WP plugins.
sara
June 25th, 2007 11:38 pm
I wish I had known about Wordpress when I started my website. I was posting all my content as separate pages, and any time I wanted to change the design of my site I’d have to go fix each page individually. Now Wordpress makes it a lot easier.
I also wish I’d looked into all the different hosting sites out there instead of just going with the first one I saw. Now as my website’s growing, I have to keep watching my bandwidth and other stats. I don’t want to switch hosts because my site will be down for a few days and who knows how loyal my visitors are.
Online Cash Flow
June 26th, 2007 2:53 am
Hey Darren: Posted a little answer and explanation here: http://www.onlinecashflow.org/2020-hindsight/ - Take a look!
Laurie Harshbarger
June 26th, 2007 3:46 am
I wish I’d started out using WordPress.
Antonio Howell
June 26th, 2007 4:35 am
There are about 5-10 very successful blogs that use blogger and other free blogs like for example (seth godin, postsecret, etc).
They are not on wordpress and still have tons of readers and subscribers.
I think that content is what makes the blog not the platform.
So to answer the question: I wish I would have started blogging in 2001 instead of 2006.
-ah
Chris @ Martial Development
June 26th, 2007 5:14 am
I wish I had known that your choice of niche will affect your contextual ad revenue by a factor of 100! And that certain niches can therefore never, ever be profitable with Adsense!
That critical fact gets too little attention in the advice of certain pro bloggers (I won’t name names ;) ).
Catherine, the redhead
June 26th, 2007 6:08 am
Like you, I tend to believe hindsight is always 20/20, so looking back is often a waste of time. However, with that said I would have started with my own website in the beginning. I used AOL, and I know, I hear the laugh-coughs, but I have a huge group of Irish friends there and needed something simple to use. I was very ill at the time and the simplicity of AOL allowed me to focus on writing. The writing helped me get well, and I gained experience with writing on a regular basis. Once I was sure of my content I began to think of branding. I purchased my website name, migrated the blog over to the new site and never looked back. I wrote for two years on AOL and did once wonder where my branded site would be today if I had started with it in the first place … but then again … would I be well?
Catherine
eye prefer paris
June 26th, 2007 7:04 am
I wish I would have known how hard it was to make $$$$. would have maybe started another kind of blog.
Eternalsoul
June 26th, 2007 8:13 am
Just started a while. I got a long way to go and learn marketing techniques. As of now, I have zilch income but blog with a passion. I guess that is important for starters.
BenQ
June 26th, 2007 11:49 am
Not to ever worry what friends and family think!
Basically…
I wish I would’ve known straight from the beginning not to be scared to blog about certain subjects. I was very worried when I started my blog to write about subjects like shamanism & personal experiences about taking psychedelics.
I was so worried about family seeing these posts and now, for the greatest irony, after ‘coming out’ with my blog, I was shocked to learn that no one in my family even visits it, save for that one and only initial visit, their response of which was “Wow, this is a REAL website.” (Followed by an Unspoken thought: “And I don’t have time to read it.”)
LintCollector
June 26th, 2007 4:23 pm
Like Vincent in comment 51, I wish I’d used a better permalink structure from the beginning. I accepted the WorPress defaults and have post URLs like:
domainname/wordpress/archives/118
If I were starting again, I’d set defaults to something more meaningful and search-engine friendly like:
domainname/title-of-blog-post/
I know it can be changed during the life of a blog, and there’s a plugin to redirect old links, but it would have been much better to use a better structure from day one.
betshopboy
June 26th, 2007 5:17 pm
The one thing I’ll do differently if I could start my blog all over again is to get my own domain name and host the blog on wordpress instead of my current blogspot platform, with subdomain name.
Blogging with subdomain will always be a poor cousin to blogs with own domain name, no matter how “killer” your blog posts are.
Leo
June 27th, 2007 10:07 am
Have a Brand Identity to your Blog.
…and make sure that the brand (name) you choose is conected to your blog´s theme.
Leo Pallotta
My Rock Channel
July 2nd, 2007 12:23 pm
1. Have a catchy name for my blog. Due to the nature of my blog (rock music), a funky (maybe some sarcasm) name will rhyme a lot better in the rock music sphere. Only my 2 cents.
2. Identify and further understand my niche market before jumping in.
JB
July 3rd, 2007 4:25 am
i wish i knew how to make my comments “do” follow when i started. and i wish i knew how much this would encourage other bloggers to link up to my postage and participate in discussions on my blogs.
Toby
July 3rd, 2007 2:28 pm
Took me months before I knew how to turn on and use trackbacks.
DaveLu
July 10th, 2007 2:18 pm
If i had to start again. I’d go with wordpress, and from day 1 dedicate time to leave valuable comment on blogs that i liked or visited. Visiting a blog and not leave comments is unproductive. Becoz 50% productivity comes from the social aspect of blogs and another 50% for knowledge building.
Leave a Reply