Get Started Blogging #3: Writing Content

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We’re now into Lesson #3 in our Quick Guide to Blogging. In Lesson #1 we looked at how to get started blogging, and what it’s worth. In Lesson #2, we examined some of the different choices bloggers who want to get started blogging have.

In Lesson #3, we are going to have a look at writing that first post, what you can blog about, and so on…

Writing that first post

When you sit down to write your first post, no doubt your head fills with the countless blogs and examples of great articles that you have read in your excitement to get started. You sit down to draft your first blog post, and bam! all those thoughts and ideas that you have been collecting just evaporate leaving you staring at your monitor, and your fingers poised over the keyword. “What on earth am I going to write now?”

Step 1: Put your keyboard away and get out your pen and paper.

There are a lot of bloggers who fail at the first post. So let’s make it easy: you’ve probably got a simple idea of what your blog is supposed to be, but you may not be sure of what to write – try listing. That’s it: simply list all the ideas you have on a piece of paper for that first post. Spend five minutes simply listing the ideas. After you’ve reached the time limit. Stop.

Step 2: Examine your list.

You’re going to look through your list of ideas to see if you could find something you could blog about. The criteria should be simple, too: can you write 100 words about it? Do I feel comfortable to write about that? Once you’re done, see which of the topics you feel more strongly about.

Step 3: Choose your topic and write 100 words.

Your first post needn’t be long, the whole point of blogging is that you get into the habit of writing your ‘journal’ on a daily basis. So, write that 100 words or so. Don’t forget to hit ‘Save’ so that you can return to your post later. It’s amazing how many people forget to do that, then there’s a power cut, an accident, or you just close your window. Woops! It’s gone! – I know I had to rescue a post from somewhere else once!

Step 4: Edit it, esp. if your writing is weak – do pay attention to spelling and grammar.

It’s worth checking your spelling or grammar. If you’re intending to be serious about blogging, you will need to put more emphasis on this. Nothing is worse than a blog that is carelessly written. Really. But it’s crucial: you should only edit the text when you’re pretty satisfied with WHAT you want to say. If you try to edit as you write, you will find that you don’t write very much.

Step 5: Hit “Publish”.

Re-read your post once you’ve checked the grammar, spelling and so on. Then hit that button. Don’t dilly-dally. Hit it. Once you hit that “Publish” button often enough, you will stop feeling self-conscious such that pushing the ‘Publish’ gets easier. You’ve got no idea how many great writers have got novels stuffed inside their disk drives, in old parchments, in notebooks, … great writers who never had the confidence to publish their writings. Hiding your posts in your ‘Drafts’ section will ensure that you get NO recognition, NO traffic, NO comments, and NO readership!

Finding other content

Publishing content may not come easily at first, most likely you will want to stick to short posts until your comfortable with the technical side of things at the very least. In the meantime, you can post a wide range of intermediate posts, while you struggle over your longer postings. This is a short list of things you can post without much work. As you get more confident, you’ll find it easier to add extra comments.

  1. Picture of the Week from snaps that you have taken yourself.
  2. Video from YouTube on music, products, or whatever.
  3. Quotations from people you are interested in.
  4. Buzzes for sites and products you like.
  5. Good Reading for articles that you thought worth reading and sharing.

These are some samples for content. Of course, if you are interested, download my top 20 money making feeds and see how the top 20 bloggers deal with this, what they post, and what works.

Look out for lesson 4 soon, which looks at some ways to get traffic for your blog and which ways are a waste of time in this regard! I’ll be posting this shortly.

Photo of the Day: On the Walk to Tamsui

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It’s not often that we see contrasts in Taipei, but in the walk on Saturday, we came across this sharp contrast: traditional setting in the front, modernity rearing its head behind!

In the foreground, there’s a large pond filled with bullfrogs. In the middleground, a family house that’s been there for years – who knows? There are other even older settlements now abandoned in the area, including redbrick farm houses in the traditional Taiwanese style. In the background, three towers from the Shang-Hai Community that was just completed, which is selling for approx. NT$300K per ping. If I remember rightly, this is probably what the farmhouse would have cost when it was first built in the ’70s.

Traditional Family House in Tamsui

Tamsui was, in the words of one friend, just rice fields, trees and farmers when Tim first visited our area in the early ’80s. Since then it’s been transformed at least twice, with electronics factories; and now, residential units. I’m in the search for early photographs of HongShulin and Zhuwei from that period. There’s not much online yet.

Buzz: How did you choose your hosting company? 5 Things I’d Do Differently Now!

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For those starting up a blog or online business or website or community website…, the first consideration typically given is cost. Most of us are paying for our online plans out of our pocket. Having hosted for four years on several hosts, and a free-host for many years previously, I’ve come to look back on my initial concerns with the benefit of hindsight!

Of course, reading up on such things beforehand is always going to be nearly as good as 20/20 hindsight, and web hosting tutorials are always helpful! A good ratings site can help but you need to find one that offers unbiased, detailed, and critical reviews to help you decide which host is appropriate for you.

webhostrating dot com

These are five things you will need to remember that I wished I had known five years ago when I started looking…

  • 1. Be sensible in your expectations: Don’t choose plans that offer unlimited everything (usually something will not work so well, and it could be crucial to you). It’s better to purchase a plan with clear limits so that you know when you are approaching those limits without unduly taxing the shared server, and drawing the attention of your webhosting admin who asks you to upgrade or close your account.
  • 2. Find a responsive company. I approached a well-known company with a sales query that took three days and a follow-up email to persuade them to answer my ticket. Can you imagine how long it might take them to get my server working again, if it was out? So give the likely candidate a quiz.
  • 3. Choose several companies: If you are hosting several sites, choose several hosting companies so that you can compare and contrast the features, support, and stability. It might cost a little more at the outset, but it is something I wished I had done. Split the sites up initially. When you figure which host is better, then use that host for the more important websites.
  • 4. Find a coupon: When you sign up for many webhosts, you will often see the place for a coupon code. Use it. You can save a truckload of cash on many hosting companies for the first year. This will help ease your financial burden as you try out the different hosting companies. Of course, the really cheap sites may not have any coupons because the deals are just spectacular.
  • 5. Find a GOOD host: Cheap hosting can be good, expensive hosting can be good, too – if the hosting company is good. Finding a good host is more difficult than finding either an expensive or a cheap host. Both ends of the market include companies that have terrible reputations.

Of course, you could just go to a good review site for your initial overview of the market. You’ll find many of the top hosts listed there once the site formally launches.

This post was originally to be sponsored but unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to the required non-disclosure that the advertiser wanted, as a result I’m now removing all the links. Steve who was talking to me a few months ago about this was quite ‘shocked’ at the quality of most review sites for other products, filled with spurious reviews, and testimonials. Since he was also looking for good hosting, he is quite skeptical about the value of 99% of the hosting websites out there. Perhaps he is right.