I’ve been blogging for years on and off. It’s how my writing expressed itself for the longest time, and it’s only recently that I’ve finally leaned into my enjoyment of the craft and written a novel. I’ve written five blogs, and a combination of good fortunate and technical tinkering means they are all still up on the Internet. They are all still alive and well.
Here are my five blogs in the order that I created them, and what I learnt from each of them. Every one was a teacher. I was the errant student who struggled to listen.
Onward to Glory
https://onwardtoglory.blogspot.com/
This was my first blog, and it’s borderline insane – perhaps not even borderline. On ‘Onward to Glory’ I’m pretending to be a retired colonel in the British army, navigating the modern world. It lasted two blog posts, both written on the same afternoon.
I’d forgotten all about it until blogspot emailed me a couple of months ago, threatening to shut it down. I showed it to my daughter and she thought it was hilarious – not because the writing is funny, but because of the level of madness it took to construct it. It’s very amusing for a thirteen year old to realise that her father was a delusional lunatic, and probably still is.
Lesson 1: Nobody cares
They really don’t. People imagine that other people care what they do, but honestly they don’t. What people care about is themselves, and perhaps their family and that’s about it. That seems cynical but it’s glorious and freeing. Do what you want, no-one is looking. The chances are that very few people will read your blog, so write anything. By the time someone is looking, you’ll either be quite good at blogging, or will have given up. Either one is good. I gave up.
Lesson 2: Give it a go
If you want to publish a blog where you are pretending to be a retired army officer/love struck werewolf/martian with a heart of gold – just do it. If you want to publish a blog on something more sensible, even better. Just do it. You can give up in an afternoon if you don’t like it, or carry on for years – I’ve done both. It’s all very low stakes.
Tech Splurge
https://technosplurge.blogspot.com/
My first serious blog. It’s a software development blog and it ran for over a year. I liked it, and at points I was obsessed by it. I got my first comment on this blog which was a heart stopping thrill.
Lesson 3: Stick to your subject
When blogging you should know what the purpose of the blog is and what subjects you are covering, and stick to those. Gone are the days where you could diarise your daily movements – unless you are an astonishingly well know celebrity, no-one will care about your choice of toothbrush. It’s OK to write the occasional personal post, but aim to keep the total volume of personal posts to 5% of your blog (my personal opinion) – otherwise your blog will be deluged by rubbish that only your mother would care about.
Lesson 4: Blog to a schedule, unless you are writing rubbish.
I’ve got mixed feelings about blogging schedules. On one hand, it’s good discipline to stick to a sensible timeline – I posted on Tech Splurge once a week. On the other hand, if it starts to feel like a chore then cut yourself some slack and take a break. It’s always OK to come back after a gap. Otherwise you will end up posting rubbish – and this is rubbish even your mother wouldn’t care about.
The death knell of Tech Splurge came when I posted a series of pictures of cats in boxes. When I read that back a few days later, I knew the jig was up. It was time to stop posting.
Code Buckets
My third and best blog. Another technical blog but a more focused attempt than Tech Splurge. The aim was that the ideal post should contain computer code samples, and those that didn’t should have a very clear link to the software development process. It was created to promote myself professional and I needed to be confident that I could show it to any prospective employer. Cats sat in boxes were definitively off topic.
Code Buckets is on a temporary hiatus now, that may become permanent. My spare time focus these days is on writing, rather than coding, so I’m posting here right now and I suspect that my passion will stay with my writing. Never say never though.
Lesson 5: Get a decent blogging platform
I moved away from blogger for this one and bought hosting and created my own installation. It elevated the blog significantly and made me love it even more. My general recommendations for a blog/website set up are
- Use WordPress. It’s a great blog platform that can also be used to create traditional websites. There are heaps of free themes and plugins to extend your site in the direction you need.
- Pay for your own hosting – don’t use WordPress.com – the managed variant of WordPress. Moreover, don’t pay for the absolute cheapest hosting package out there (unless you are genuinely church mouse skint). Hosting is reasonably priced and you’ll appreciate good tools and good support soon enough. I’ve use Hostinger for several years and I’m happy with the service and support offered.
Lesson 6: Take your time to create decent posts
This is the flip side to posting on a schedule and is much more important. Take the time you need to create really good posts that you are super happy with. Code Bucket posts typically required lots of research and a published code sample. A straight-forward post with code would take 6 hours or more to write. More detailed posts took days and that was fine. I posted a maximum of two articles a month, and some months I posted nothing.
Dhammapada Reflections
https://dhammapada.outside-looking-in.com.au/
This was my first writing blog. The aim was to post small pieces of writing inspired by verses of the Dhammapada, one of the earliest Buddhist texts and wonderfully poetic – it’s a favourite. It was a good idea and my first admission that I like writing just for writing’s sake. I didn’t have the time or mental capacity to do it justice, so it lasted just a few months. Also, my last post felt whiny and preachy. It was so dispiriting to read it back that I abandoned the entire thing. I may go back it though. It remains a good idea and longer pieces inspired by ancient eastern religious texts still has legs – a short story collection one day perhaps?
Lesson 7: Follow your passion
The previous blogs were all about professional development. This was the first passion project and it felt good. Pick something you love and write about it; not what you think is useful, popular or timely. Even if no-one else likes it – you will, and that’s what it’s all about.
Lesson 8: Be honest
Be honest. Be personal. Be courageous. Putting something out there that is a little secret part of yourself takes some doing. Worth it though and something to aim for. Pretending to be something that you are not, is a waste of everyone’s time.
Timothy Patrick Brown
https://timothypatrickbrown.com/
And now this. It’s a definite passion project. I’ve finally fully admitted that I love to write, and here it all is, in all its swirling unfocused glory. Let’s see what happens.
Lesson 9: Get a decent url
My personal website was originally on the url https://outside-looking-in.com.au which I thought was wonderfully smart – echoing neurodiversity and writerlyness generally. Unfortunately it didn’t say anything about the site – just my own clever cleverness. For a writer’s blog, I am the brand so the url should be the name that I’m hoping to write under.
Timothy Patrick Brown is my full proper name – but only my mum and one uncle (sadly departed) calls me Timothy. It’s Tim everywhere else – but timothypatrickbrown was the only variant of my name that had an available domain. so the God’s of the Internet have decreed that my author name will be Timothy Patrick Brown. I like it.
A few other url tips
- Try to get
.com. Your country’s top level domain is also fine (.com.au,co.uketc..)..netisn’t too bad. I’d stay away from any others. Even.orgis shaky – it will make you seem like a non-profit or government department. - If you are struggling to get a domain, you may want to consider hyphenating e.g. tim-brown.com would have been OK. Avoid them if you can though. Hyphens-are-second-best.
- Put it on auto renew when you buy it. If it expires and someone squats on it, you’ll have to pay a lot more to get it back.
- You’ll have to register with personal details. Some domains and some hosts come with built in privacy protection. If not, then either buy it as an add-on or change providers to someone who gives it for free. If you don’t, you’ll be spammed by people offering to built your site or do wonderful things with SEO. At Hostinger privacy protection is free for domains with
.com(it didn’t used to be) and.com.auhas privacy protection built in.
Lesson 10: Ignore the stats
I’m terrible for obsessing over the traffic stats of my blogs, but it really is a distraction. Comments are your real measure of user engagement. Far better to respond quickly and positively to comments, than to check stats twenty times a day. The traffic might not even be terribly important. For timothypatrickbrown.com it’s not the point. What I want is engagement from a few people – fellow authors, people in the industry and maybe arts organisations, and one day potential readers. And my dad; I’d like my dad to read this blog.
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
