Ten things I’ve learnt about blogging
To celebrate 100 posts, I’m taking a leaf out of Paul Bradshaw’s blogbook (1000 things he’s learnt about blogging) and reflecting on what I’ve learnt over the last nine months. A small thanks to Paul, as he’s certainly one of my top five blogs I check every day, and from whom I have learnt a fair bit about the task.
1. Links, commenting, networking is everything. As Paul says, writing is a bonus. I’ve learnt a lot from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger about the occupation of blogging. But it’s also critically important not to fall into what Geert Lovink, in his book Zero Comments, terms the ‘nihilst impulse’ of the blogging in-crowd. Keep extending.
2. Saying serious things requires serious time, e.g. don’t confuse Ofcom regulation over representing scientific fact, with ideas of censorship
3. Posts need to be either provocative or, preferably, useful.
4. Blogging under your own name can have serious consequences for your online reputation - both ways. Think about your URL and whether or not you really want to promote your name.
5. It’s easy to forget that other people aren’t as immersed in both the medium and your subject area. Neil Gavin from the University of Liverpool has written a book chapter, to be published next year, which argues convincingly that there aren’t that many people seriously looking for climate change information or environmental journalism online. Sobering, but realistic, and important for always pulling back every now and then, thinking about the first time user.
6. I need to learn to do short.
7. Don’t get hooked up on the stats rollercoaster. Again, ProBlogger was good on this. Blogging is what you do, not who you are, but do prepare for a blogging emotional rollercoaster.
8. Your RSS reader(s) are the other half of blogging. It’s where you stay up-to-date and relevant.
9. As Adam Curtis says, bloggers can be bullies. But then that’s not because they’re bloggers. And Geert Lovink again: ‘the web is not a place apart’.
10.The most important thing you can be online is unfailingly polite.
11. There is a lot to learn about yourself and your profession through writing a blog.
(And always overdeliver.)
Tomorrow I’m going to look at the things I’ve learnt about blogging about climate change.
