A new website, a new attempt at a blog
I've attempted to blog numerous times. This shows that I really feel like I want to express myself, but I've never been able to keep it up. Do you feel the same sometimes?
Start a new website, start a new blog!
This blog post serves as an introduction to my new website, and will try to analyze the problem of not knowing what to post, or how to post it. In other words we'll try to build up not only the motivation, but a solid understanding on how to proceed from here.
I don't know what to write about
This one is probably the most tricky one, and it's one that I've struggled with for most of my attempted blogging careers. No matter, I'm sure we can come to an agreement here, or more importantly, you can come to an agreement with yourself.
There are things that you like doing, even if you think those things aren't anything to brag about. That's fine. I myself like being productive, doing things, creating new things and having fun while doing so ... OK, that last part is sometimes a bit stretched, but for the most part it's true. And one might say sure, that should give lots and lots of different topics to talk about, but it's still not that easy. I worried about the most simple things like
Am I going to find things to talk about every week?
Or things like
Do people even care about what I have to say?
So let's tackle these.
Am I going to find things to talk about every week?
Yes. When I was thinking about writing blog posts, I was in that one moment. And most of the time I couldn't come up with what to say in precisely that timeframe. But that's not how it's going to work. So I told myself I'd write down things that I could do to liven up my blog life, and here is a small subset of the list that I've been able to just randomly throw together over the last week.
- An introduction to myself, split over multiple posts. For example, how did I get into coding? How did I start music? Who influences me? What's my workflow? What do I wish I had more help with when I started?
- What makes an audio game From the perspective of an audio game developer as well as an audio gamer, what do I think makes an audio game worth playing?
- Coding tips Where do I begin with Node.JS? How do I effitiently use NPM? What is React? Can a blid person design frontends to a website? How about coding on the mac? What IDE's are there, and how do they stack up against each other?
- Write a funny little story about how Mosquitoes annoy the crap out of me
- Why, in my own words, I think the Apple Homepod failed
- Come up with an artificial intelligence aftermath scenario
- Self-driving cars, what's in it for someone like me who can't see?
Most of these are completely random, and I've come up with them at the most random times of the day. Some in the shower, some while I was walking to or from work, others while sitting around or watching a youtube video or reading an article on the internet that I had my own thoughts about.
Granted, this is a list very much specific to myself, so it won't apply to you. However, I'm sure you have your own thoughts and ideas, and if you've thought about starting a blog then there's no reason why you shouldn't put whatever idea it is into words.
Does anyone even care about what I have to say?
Are these the reasons you write a blog? If so, there are ways you can insure that people will care, but before I dive into those, my two cents on the topic.
I think it is important that you not only keep the potential audience in mind when writing a blog, but also yourself. Writing a blog post can be a great way to solidify your ideas and thoughts in your head, and it forces you to re-evaluate them from the perspective of telling a story of sorts. You're trying to tell potential people that might want to listen about a thing you have in mind, so you have to put this thing into words. Putting these things into words causes you to think hard, sort them in your head, and generally get a better understanding of them in the process.
A wise, old latin principle states
Docendo discimus
This roughly translates to
The best way to learn is to teach
I love this saying. I think it is absolutely true, and pretty much re-enforces what I said above. In this day and age, knowledge is so vast and pretty much infinite that the best way to learn yourself and help communities grow is to teach. You get to see things from another's point of view, and that can sometimes help you better understand the thing that you're trying to learn. Also, teaching someone means you must gain a better understanding of what it is you're trying to teach, and if you add two and two together you realize that this means you have to learn.
A blog can help you do this by giving you an infinite amount of people that you could potentially teach. Sure, it's not the same as teaching an actual person, however it is far more than just learning quietly by yourself.
but I really am mainly in it for the exposure
Right, ok. Fine. That's cool with me. Here are some things that I could dig up.
The internet is an amazing place for discovery. And generally, people are influenced by outside action or interest into wanting to know more about different things. You can actually utilize search engines on the web for this and figure out what terms are usually associated with different topics and what people want to know.
One way to figure out what people are searching for is Google Trends Simply pick something that you're interested in, see what people search for, and go. Look up a topic or keyword, find out more about it, put your own twist on it and there you go, you've got an article.
but not only just the Google page displays trends. As you might be aware, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube... They all have a list of things that people look for the most. If you want to gain as much exposure as possible, this is probably as good a place to start as any.
Of course, another way to figure out what people read is to find very popular blogs and see what they're doing. Of course, don't leach, just be inspired. Let that information take you where it will.
Or, you know, you could just write jokester articles. Humorous, funny things. I wanna read them. You should totally send me the link to your blog! Especially if this helped you any.
What about length?
Nah.
No but seriously, that shouldn't matter. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes not as long to explain yourself. So at the beginning, don't focus on that. Just write, and when you feel it's done, it's done. Like this post. Right now.
Conclusion
Wow, I actually didn't think it would even be this long. To be honest, I'm a bit surprised. It feels good to let all of that off my soul. Let's see if we can learn to blog together! Or something.
This doesn't mean I'm gonna keep writing about ways to write your blog though. Nuh-uh. You have to figure this out yourself. But you can do it. I believe in you.