First Month Review

I wonder if this might help?

As I sit staring at the screen and my keyboard after making yet another to do list I realise that tomorrow my little blog will be one month old. During this last 30 days I’ve learnt a few things, and confirmed some initial thoughts on what starting a personal blog would be like.

Writing your own blog is VERY different to writing for someone else. While I have set up a number of blogs and websites for clients and friends, I have found it to be completely different starting a blog for myself with my own name in the domain. Battling between what I want it to be versus what I ‘think’ it should be is the most challenging. I have learnt more about how  clients feel when faced with the proposition of getting a blog.

I have lots to say but can’t get it out of my head. I have a number of unfinished drafts that don’t make sense and that cover things that have already been said (better). Not so different from the few posts that have been made live. I’ve spent years commenting and advising in forums so my writing style is still at the stage that requires a conversation to encourage the flow of words. I know it takes practice to write and blog well but one of my flaws is not wanting to continue with something that I’m not naturally good at. I’ll consider that my 2010 challenge.

I’m less bothered about the ‘SEO’. Sounds bizarre considering I provide SEO but I started the blog as a shop window where people could find out more about me so why should I care what the search engines think or getting a ranks?

I really don’t like the design. I chose it for the wrong reasons. It was a hasty and impatient ‘that will do’ choice based on what I thought it ‘should’ look like; clean and professional. But it looks cold and boring. It doesn’t inspire me to write so I hardly think it will inspire anyone to read. I use custom templates for clients but I still feel I want to use a free template for my own blog to ‘give something back’ to those wonderful wordpress template designers but also to back up my belief that ‘free’ doesn’t always mean ‘crap’. I will spend more time searching for something more fun that reflects my personality.

Blogging about work is boring. While I read some really interesting work related blog posts I’m finding it a little tedious trying to write them myself. Perhaps it goes back to me feeling like I’m flogging a dead horse writing about something that has been done to death. Potentially, the more interesting material (investigative research, academic type posts) would be a good move but that takes time and, as mentioned earlier, good writing skills. I do want to introduce some more personal non-work related posts too but I think that will come when I am happier with the design.

I don’t like self promotion. You know how we all tell our clients to heavily promote their website address? When I added mine to my business cards, email signature and various other networking tools I cringed. I still cringe at the thought of people visiting and reading the blog. Perhaps that will go away. I hope so.

Coming up with an image for a post is tough! While sometimes a picture is a distraction from the actual content, a page of just words is incredibly boring. Choosing a picture that sums up the nature of the post is harder than I thought it would be and can take as long as writing the bloody thing. I realise that my pictures, similar to my writing, look better in my head and I should probably invest in some graphic design software but I’m starting to like my stick drawings and becoming reaquainted with paint.

I need another 4 hours in the day. I don’t know how others find the time to blog AND provide an ongoing service to their clients. Knowing how long it takes to read current industry news, research new ideas and then how long it takes to try and put something in readable format, where do the industry bloggers (who also provide the service) find time to fit it all in AND have a life outside of work? I was once an ‘eat, sleep and breathe’ SEO but as time progressed I realised that something had to give if I was to get back in the land of the living and not become a recluse. I don’t want to go back to that so perhaps the key thing here is ‘time managment’. I suppose there’s another 2010 challenge!

I’m a kiddy kipper. I’ve been online so long and am not easily dazzled by things anymore. But when I see someone has commented I get a little flutter of excitment that someone new to the social scene must feel when they get followed on Twitter. So if you do read this, please comment, even if just to say hello. You’ll make my day

This post was inspired by Lisa Barone’s recent entry Terror in the Blogosphere: I Haz No Blog Topic. I also read another post in 2009 where the writer openly talked about things she had learnt and things she needed to improve on. If I remember who it was I’ll add it.