Ask HN: I just started blogging; how can I improve?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18251503

by ElFitz • 8 years ago

18 28 8 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi !

So, after maybe over a decade of almost doing, half-heartedly doing it, starting and stopping, I've finally committed to writing and sharing my thoughts and experiences, and here it is: https://weekly.elfitz.com !

Subdomain is on purpose. I guess I believe it will contribute to commiting me to consistency ^^

It's just two posts, but I've never been so consistent in writing.

So, what is your opinion ? Your takeaway ? How could I improve ? What should I keep doing ?

Thanks, and have a great day everyone !

fundamental2• 8 years ago

Personally the content style isn't my sort of thing. It seems to follow the trend of having a light tone, lots of inline images, and other features which seem to make it into a 'medium-style' post (it's not necessarily bad, just not my thing).

What is your goal out of writing? If you can nail that down, then it should be easier to improve or at least see what needs improving.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

Oh. And here I was, afraid of making it too dry. I probably went over the top. Thanks !

On my goals... I'm currently focused on sharing what I've struggled with and a hard time finding a solution to, hoping to make it easier for others, and also establish some sort of track record, so I have more to show than just my resume or github repos.

Most of it comes from pet projects, things that most probably won't ever be used by anyone. Maybe this way they'll at least be of some help to someone.

fundamental2• 8 years ago

It's also possible that I'm just used to producing more dry material. Seeing as you're interested in talking about interesting problems that you have encountered, do you think that 1 post per week is going to be too much?

It seems to me that you'd have a bunch of material to start with, but it would be quickly exhausted. Looking at my own site I typically end up with about 2 posts a year, though if it was a higher priority I could see it being something like 6 posts/year (but certainly not 52).

As per the concern about broader interest, you can either widen the technical discussion somewhat (the approach I chose) or stick with trying to lighten up the discussion and focusing on providing more context for readers. It seems like your chosen approach fits your goals quite well.

Some of the other comments on this post seem to talk about optimizing the reach of your post, though IMO I think it's better to ask "How is someone going to find X and if they find X what do I want to convey to them". Knowing the goal of a particular piece helps frame it and it helps contextualize/flow ideas if you end up doing a series of posts on a single topic (which may very well happen if you're focusing on challenges in personal projects).

For a point of comparison here's two of my posts on technical pet projects: http://log.fundamental-code.com/2017/02/14/profiling-mruby.h... and http://log.fundamental-code.com/2017/09/02/total-variation-d...

afarrell• 8 years ago

For writing first drafts, I've found it useful to take walks while dictating to an app called Otter.

For editing those drafts, I've found that the guidelines in the book Style: Towards Clarity and Grace are really actionable.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

I'll definitely read that, thank you ! For those interested, it somehow is hosted as a pdf by duke https://sites.duke.edu/niou/files/2014/07/WilliamsJosephM199...

ecesena• 8 years ago

My recommendations for improving.

1) Make sure you can measure readers, and set yourself goals to grow. Seeing the number grow will give yourself extra commitment. I use Medium, and their weekly recap is also very motivating to me.

2) Develop your audience, either on HN, Reddit, mailing list, etc.

3) I personally write "keyword-oriented", meaning I try to state 1 or 2 points per post, and analyze the keywords to make sure what I see from keywords is consistent to what I was planning to say.

4) Good keywords, especially on titles, help with SEO. For example from your 2 posts: one is good, one is bad :) (not bad in general, only from this perspective). The are other techniques as well, but I like the SEO style, because I prefer to write to answer someone else's question. (vs, for example, collect click because of a catchy headline.)

5) If you lack ideas, one "trick" I've used myself is this one. Whenever you have a problem, that a single search on Google doesn't solve, but you need 2+, then write about it. Even if it's just 2 lines of solution, it'll make a good post and keep you in the spirit or writing.

My blog: https://medium.com/@0x0ece

To give you some numbers, last year I gave a presentation to my colleagues on blogging titled "how to get to 100 reads/article". Now I'm typically over the 1k, with 3-500 reads/week. From HN (which is my sole network for "advertising") I used to get 10-30 reads, now I grew to typically 100+.

Enjoy, and keep on blogging!

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

That's very interesting, and will give me a lot to think about. Thanks !

The trick is pretty much what I already do for inspiration, wether it's for apps (very time consuming) or writing, and it's a great one.

PeOe2• 8 years ago

I would recommend reading other similar blogs to get some input on how they do it. A content plan would be a good idea as well.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

Definitely should find some, even ask them. Thanks !

A content plan ? A plan for the blog's content or do the posts themselves lack structure ?

PeOe2• 8 years ago

It could be all at the same. You could have a column or a List for Ideas. You could create a calendar with day's that could be used for a special posting like "world Nutella day" (okay that might be not your topic but I hope you get what I was trying to explain. Or use the calendar to keep the focus of constant postings. On the other hand, a content plan can offer you a great timetable for your actual writing. Add tasks for "research", "writing" or "add pictures" until the article is published. You can also add a template for your article and its structure. So it's everything to keep your head in the game and focus on what's important.

ninedays• 8 years ago

As always in this case, I give the same advice : commit to it, be consistent and find pleasure doing it.

Starting a blog is even easier than ever now but too many times, people starts one and quickly stop writing. This is the rookie mistake.

You definitely think your voice/opinion has enough value that other people are willing to read about it which is really good.

Starting a blog is like doing a conference in an empty room. If the room is empty. you might not want to start talking.But if you don't talk, you'll know for sure that noone will show up. That's why, no matter what, keep writing and express your opinions because someday, someone will read your thoughts and will be grateful for it and you'll have your first fan and probably never know about it. That's the beauty of writing, you create a connection with people you don't know and most of the time, you'll never hear of them.

Warm vibes,

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

I really like your comparison. It's really on point.

Thanks for taking the time and for your kind words !

leejoramo• 8 years ago

I suggest finding someone to help edit your articles. This can be done in a variety of ways.

You could submit all of your articles for review prior to publishing. This is ideal for a business blog. However, for a personal blog it can be expensive and add too much time to your writing process.

What I have done in the past for my personal blogs is have a writer friend give me feed back on my already published stories. I will trade dinner or technical help for their skills. It is painful to have someone find major errors in a published story, but you quickly learn to self edit.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

I'll have to look around, see if any I have any writer friend. Or friend of a friend. I would never have though of it myself. Thank you.

Edit: And yes, it usually hurts ^^' But it's for the best.

agentofoblivion• 8 years ago

Seth Godin has some tremendously clarifying ideas on this subject. Step 1 is answering the question “What is this for?” If the point is to exercise a muscle, then show up and write week after week and don’t worry about if anyone is reading it, and how to grow...etc. That’s a distraction to what you set out to do.

I have done something similar. To make this point clear to myself, I do not use any sort of tracking, so that I couldn’t figure out traffic numbers even if I wanted to. And I don’t advertise at all or put effort into growth, aside from dumping a url on LinkedIn.

One really nice benefit of writing about technical stuff and lessons learned is that it’s a great resource for future you. Just yesterday I pulled up my own article because I forgot how to do something I used to know really well when I was in the weeds. If you take the time to write it up, you’re free to release it from your brain.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

It is a great resource for future me. But it's also a great resource for me today. I came out of writing about these two issues with significantly better understanding. And that's just great !

vram222• 8 years ago

My 2c:

First decide why you want to blog. That can drive the rest of your actions.

Think about who can be your target audience, if it is not a blog for anyone and everyone.

Write about what interests you and about what you think may interest other people. And write about what you know something about (unless the blog is just about talking about things that you did).

Add links to related content (in your posts), both in and outside your blog.

Use text formatting like bold and italics, but sparingly.

Might want to add relevant images now and then to some posts.

Final point: Stick to it for a while. Don't stop very soon, even if you do not see results.

I've been blogging for over 10 years now, at:

  https://jugad2.blogspot.com

I would not call myself very good at it even now. But even what I have done in these years, has been useful for increasing my visibility, and I've got training and consulting work many times, for which the clients say they got to know of me via my blog (or my published articles or my open source software projects).

Good luck.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

Makes a lot of sense, and it is encouraging. Thank you.

You just made me realise I have no idea who's supposed to read it; what I expect them to already know or understand. Even just for the writing itself it is essential.

vram222• 8 years ago

You're welcome.

dave84• 8 years ago

I'll say it since nobody else did: your punctuation is wrong. Question marks and exclamation marks shouldn't have a space before them.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

Haha! How can languages differ on something so basic and universal? It beats me, but I'll make sure not to make that mistake again.

efrafa• 8 years ago

Set up some syntax higlighter for your code samples, as they are super hard to read. Prism is a good choice.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

For some reason, I did find the lack of syntax highlighting annoying, but never looked further into it. Now, it's done. Thank you !

Edit: Done on typescript; still trying to get it to work with swift. It looks so much better though.

akulbe• 8 years ago

Keep writing.

Do it badly until you get better.

Listen to Seth Godin. He talks about this, often.

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

It's the second recommendation on Seth Godin. I'll definitely check out what he has to say. Thanks !

ElFitz14• 8 years ago

I really didn't expect to get this much nor such great feedback. Thanks a lot, everyone, for taking the time to go through it and give me all these pieces of advice, and even follow-up when I had questions. Thank you!

Ask HN: I just started blogging; how can I improve?

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