Blogging Advice
Blogging is an area where some advice might be helpful, even if you’ve never considered blogging.?
I enjoy blogging. How well I do it, well, opinions may vary.?
If you don’t mind writing or if you actually?like?writing, perhaps you should consider blogging? Assuming you have something to say.
So the following blog shares some of my somewhat-organized thoughts and advice about blogging.?
Why Do Blogging?
Blogging is a great way to demonstrate and share knowledge, and to enhance a resume. Well, I think it enhances a resume – opinions vary on that. It also shares knowledge with the community, which is always a good thing.?
That assumes you stick to tech topics you actually know something about, or have a good perspective to share. Or non-tech topics where you think you have something fresh to say.?
Blogging is also a way to increase your visibility (community, potential employers, etc.). It is a way to get your name known (a good thing unless you’re trying to hide). It may help you get your next job. Unless of course your blogs cause people to say “oh yeah, that obnoxious clown”. (Definitely an impression NOT to make!)
There are other ways of sharing: audio or video blogging or discussions. You may find them more to your taste, or do them in search of perhaps a wider audience.?
I may be a bit old fashioned, but I prefer the written word.?
Why? It is a lot faster to consume.?
Audio and video generally contain a lot of extra talking, with social and other content. That makes them more personal, and maybe more interesting – but takes up time. I can’t often afford to take up 30 or 60 minutes of my own time listening to or watching other people’s opinions, bad jokes, comments on baseball, etc. Even if they are more entertaining!?
Good audio podcasts or video also takes more prep time to achieve good results. Yes, as you gain experience with the format, the prep time likely drops off somewhat. And if you are just having a conversation, prep is probably more building a list of questions and topics.?
The written version might take only 5 minutes to read! And probably stays more on topic!
Your experiences and preferences will of course likely vary.
When blogging, you do have to know your subject well, and be able to write reasonably clearly. It may not show, but I often have to go back and do some research or fact-checking. There are sometimes “darn it, I thought this was going to be an easy blog to write!” moments. Concerning the researching part, I keep coming up with questions I can’t answer from what I can get to online. Vendors who hide documentation behind registration / support walls don’t help. In general, the amount of written documentation and level of detail does seem to be decreasing. Perhaps vendors view it as a cost item they can skimp on.?
It helps to be correct about your subject matter. Most of the time – nobody’s perfect. I’m sure I’ve published some incorrect things. Nobody has let me know about them, so I have no idea where I made mistakes. That’s life! (And experience suggests that when you start patting yourself on the back and telling yourself “well done”, that’s when an embarrassing blunder is likely to show up in something you published.)
So do your best, re-check lab results, get someone more skilled to review the blog, and in general do what you can to make sure anything you write is technically correct.?
By writing a lot, and reading about good writing, your writing will improve. I hope mine has! Having someone review and mark up your writing can help. Especially if you are writing in a foreign language, for instance English, if your native language is something else.?
Having said that, you’ll probably find that you pretty much must do the checking yourself – others tend to be pretty busy.?
LinkedIn is a great way to get started posting. The process is very simple, their editing tool is simple and has minimal features (a good thing, in this case).?
I draft in MS Word (too many years writing in it) then paste into LinkedIn, touch up section headers, add images, and proof-read, then post.?
There is one caveat: I do get the feeling that LinkedIn articles aren’t very visible in google search. I once tried some unique keywords in Google search and my LinkedIn blog that I was looking for with didn’t show up. Maybe I didn’t wait long enough before searching. In any case, some Google search optimization might be advisable.?
There’s the whole problem of self-promotion (or blog promotion) without being obnoxious. Now that I’ve suggested that topic, you might start thinking about what you consider acceptable versus obnoxious blog or comment posting behaviors. If you read a variety of blogs, you should have a good idea of which, if any, you found annoying.?
What to Blog About?
As far as topics to blog about:
Be aware that blog size limits make things too terse (in my opinion) and, for lab work, hard to reproduce. And clearly I don’t believe in the 800 word or 1-2 page limit some people say blogs must not exceed. That may irritate some people. They haven’t contacted me, so I plan to keep doing things my way. Those irritated can just ignore my blogs.?Yes, 800 words max may apply to marketing and similar blogs.
You’ll also notice I try to be chatty, not doing overly formal writing. That makes it less like work, and I happen to think less formal style may be more readable.?
Picking Topics
One of the harder parts of blogging is picking topics. I’ve watched some of my peers, and most people seem to start out with topics that are far too big.?
You need to pick fairly small topics. If you don’t, you’ll end up writing 10-20 pages. Writing that will take a long time. And you then have to figure out how to chop it up into smaller chunks. That can be made to work, but it’s a lot more efficient to pick a small topic, for example something you might whiteboard with your co-workers.
This is where starting with an outline can help. More than 3 or so headings = too long, break it into several blogs. If you look at my Internet Edge or SD-Access series of blogs (on netcraftsmen.com), you should see how I had to carve the overall topic up into smaller topics.?
Like many things, as you write blogs, you’ll learn as you go. In particular, learn what’s a good-sized topic.?
Blogging Tips
The following tips apply to blogs. Some may help with professional / work-related writing as well.?
Of course, people’s preferences vary. My focus for blogs is more about good / adequate quality, and saving time. There’s never enough time! So I draft and organize, clean up, add diagrams, and review, but also try to keep an eye on the time consumed, and not over-do things.
Having said that, your first blogs will probably take a fair amount of time. You’ll get faster with practice.?
Style:
Writing tips:?
Try to follow the old recipe:
Diagram tips:
General advice about writing and diagrams:
Conclusions
Go forth and blog wisely. May you soon obtain many readers!
Comments
Comments are welcome, both in agreement or constructive disagreement about the above. I enjoy hearing from readers and carrying on deeper discussion via comments. Thanks in advance!?
Hashtags:?#NetCraftsmen #CiscoChampion #TheNetcraftsmenWay #Blogging #Writing
Twitter:?@pjwelcher
LinkedIn:?Peter Welcher
Selected again as a Cisco Champion for 2021!
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