(Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes)
Do you love it? I mean really love it?
Overall, I love “blogging.” The whole process. Writing, publishing, checking links, doing research, the whole thing.
But I find one part of my practice as a blogger very difficult. I know I should go back through my older posts to edit, adjust the wording, check to make sure the elements of a successful blog post are all present… but I never seem to make enough time to do it right.
I should. Maintenance is part of the process. Remember the Zen saying:
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
And there’s a lot more. Dealing with server issues, WordPress and theme problems, commenters, your social network, so much to do.
Getting it done requires the practice of mastery.
What is the Practice of Mastery
At this particular instant (21:47 Pacific Daylight, March 24, 2010), I’m not feeling all that enlightened.
My passion isn’t engaged.
Frankly, I’d just as soon be watching Heidi Klum tear into hapless wannabe designers on Project Runway reruns.*
But, I committed myself to a regimen of daily posting. And I have a commitment to Carlos Velez to wrap up my responsibility for his Pre-writing Challenge. I owe Bert Padilla a set of screenshots on WordPress installation [Done].
So here I sit, sifting through the details of this article, started six months ago… on the practice of blogging like a Master.
In Mastery – The Keys to Success and Long Term Fulfillment, George Leonard identifies masters, people at the top of their art or profession, and how they achieved mastery.
The answer is simple, and hard.
Masters practice.
They do the things they do, over and over, for the simple pleasures of doing them.
Leonard notes that short periods of rapid and extreme growth are often followed by long periods of very slow growth, or possibly even slow decline, until another rapid growth spurt occurs.
I’m now on another long plateau of competence. This happens more or less on schedule, as Annabel Candy notes in Getting Over the Blogger’s 6 Month Itch.
How does this relate to writing for a blog?
Blogging as marketing… or basketball
In Can you practice marketing?, John Jantz proposes marketers practice marketing with the same mind set that Larry Bird practiced free throws, over and over and over, again and again, every day.
What kind of drills could we do as writers? As bloggers? I can think of a few things:
- Choose a different post every day and check it for grammar, spelling and accuracy.
- Check the simple SEO items such as title element and meta description on a different article, every day.
- Check for broken links.
- Review your overall site plan. Are you taking daily steps to achieve your goal?
I have these and more daily recommendations listed out in my Whitepaper #1: Maintain Your WordPress Website Using 9 Point Daily Checklist. (I just sent a copy to every subscriber on my Weekender list in appreciation for helping me on Facebook. Sign up below or top right.)
Now I’m ready to expand this little paper.
What more is there to consider as a “daily blogger?”
How are you practicing your craft?
Here’s a deal for you: teach me a new daily practice, and I’ll credit you – with a link – when I revise Whitepaper #1.
And stay tuned for the upcoming Blog Maintenance Challenge…
Check it for “grammer”?! That was bait, right? Yes, I’ll bite. ; )
.-= Alison | Quest for Balance´s last blog ..Remaining Calm in Stressful Situations =-.
You are a sharp one. Eagle eyes! Heh… there’s a back story on there too.
I just DM’d you to alert you to the grammer faux pas.
Alison and I have got your back.
And I’ve been proofreading all day so I choose to ignore your grammar at the moment.
This article was lucky to get out of the gate at all. Pretty well fried tonight.
I’ll do a http://website-in-a-weekend.net/wordpress-whitepapers/ww2-publish-polish-fast-blog-post-publishing/ after I get some sleep.
Beth will probably give me a rash about it. Again.
Thanks. I really appreciate your discretion.
Ok. I don’t have a daily maintenance tip but I have an example. I do regular maintenance on my site, play with the copy etc on a good schedule, but in that maintenance it never occurred to me to re-test my contact form. It worked when I put it up. But at some point (in an upgrade, adding a plugin, ?) it stopped working and I don’t know when.
I don’t know how many submissions I missed, but it was at least 3 because those people actually bothered to email me when I took the contact form down.
Of course it’s always the one thing that you look over or miss that breaks.
.-= Erica Cosminsky´s last blog ..Modern Uses of Transcription =-.
Mind if I add this to the Whitepaper? It would be perfect!
Of course. Let me know if you need more details.
I missed the grammer/grammar thing, but after my last “catch” {ahem} I have learned that you always seem to have a point and that I am a bit out of the loop. See, now I’m back to not answering the question for fear of being wrong and everyone knowing it. And I worked so hard to overcome [not really]. ;) {shaking it off}
Actually, and I’m coming clean here, that one slipped under the radar.
Great tips. Thank you for the pep talk. These are all simple ideas (and not revolutionary), but when you apply it to blogging, it really makes sense. Brilliant analogies and explanations.
When you were talking about masters and basketball, I was thinking about guitar. The analogy holds true. Practice to get better because you like to practice. Do it every day. It’s obvious to me now that i need to be practicing every day with blogging (and guitar).
Thanks for the mobile theme, too.
.-= Bill Selak´s last blog ..Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk =-.
Bill, the mobile theme is a direct result of pressure from Eleanor Edwards over at http://giveabrick.com/.
She would be delighted if you showed your thanks directly!
Funny video over there right now.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Why the Apple iPad Will Make Me More Productive =-.
Awww, thanks Dave :D
Only thing is, we’re GiveABrick.com ;) He found us all the same and sent me a lovely email (to which I haven’t yet replied so Bill, if you’re reading this, thank for your email, I will reply today :)) Made my day :)
Fixed, thanks.
Hey Eleanor,
Glad to hear it. Lots of people ignore mobile browsing, but it’s becoming more important every day.
And yes, I found giveabrick.com. I just googled it. That .org tricks everyone.
.-= Bill Selak´s last blog ..Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk =-.
Dave, we’re both accursed!
In your website I see the work of a flawed genius. Every genius is flawed; I had no need to complement the noun with that adjective, however bear with me while I explain further.
In WIAW we have what in my mind can only be described as the most comprehensive, invaluable and selflessly devoted set of WP tips, philosophies and strategies available in one place on the internet.
No higher praise needed.
And if it’s a miscellany and scavenger hunt you’re seeking, then what’s here needs no map.
When I come play at WIAW, I know I can be teased to the brink of delirium with articles of the greatest quality and each in itself a thinky meal worthy of a last supper.
My problem is in finding things. The adjunts, the complemetaries, the tie-ins. I have no Search I can carry out (and believe me, you have more than enough content to justify it, and you’re amply savvy to offer a ‘but have you thought of…’ type alternative should the voyeur crave something that doesn’t exist here by title).
We’re both authors, and as I explained at the traps, I fall under the same spell of being exquisitely trained as a copywriter yet not thinking about the web. That’s as in ‘Charlotte’s’ rather than the dub dub dub.
I think you, I, and every other internet scrawler, could do with a pep talk on how to structure a blog roadmap. Not a sitemap – unless you can show me one that’s genuinely useful – but a user-centric, totally UX guide through the abundance of fine writing and instinctively great advice.
I trust you receive this in the spirit it was intended: to espouse my interpretation of your site and efforts as among the top 5 I have EVER experienced virtually. And to seek you among the successors to today’s highly coveted blog authority greats, many of whom are ready to take a back seat through burnout or an obsession-to-the-detriment-of-content ego polishing.
.-= Dave Thackeray´s last blog ..You: Do New Now =-.
I’ve been thinking about that myself. Two challenges:
1. Time to actually to the work.
2. I have to do all the work myself, and a lot of it I have to teach myself as I go. Everyone preaches outsourcing… dandy when your cash flow supports it (subcontractors wanna be paid). My cash flow supports insourcing.
One more challenge: design work. Designers are – apparently – in ultra high demand right now. I could fill this site with free or inexpensive writing, and I’m certainly expected to give away most of my writing (here and elsewhere), but design is way, way expensive.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..The Starfish Principle – Trying counts as success =-.
Dave, the biggest challenge but for the 0.0054% (that’s empirical – I just ran a quick SurveyMonkey with the 67 million bloggers here in the UK) who make good dough from their efforts.
You’re forever telling me – rightly – that I need to promote myself more to turn pixels into pennies. But the only way this is ever going to work is if you offer a user experience so remarkable and effortless in execution that you, and your visitor, don’t even have to think how to get what they want.
You have the cache, so turn it into cash. Umm, that may be a bastardised version of the headline of my article upcoming here… but it wasn’t my intention to shamefully self-promote. Now look what you’ve made me do!
I swear the majority (86.043%, according to the earlier-quoted research) lose faith in their blog because of three factors:
1. Lethargy.
2. Lack of filthy lucre.
3. Next fad.
If we can all acknowledge that the only way to overcome these three obsessions of humanity, is to commit to the good of all (and that goodwill in return will repay all efforts invested) then I think we’ve pretty much sewn up the game of life.
.-= Dave Thackeray´s last blog ..You: Do New Now =-.
Totally agree.
Here’s my last attempt at design: $1200 for a basic site, and I had to use their customized WordPress template, and they kept all the art. As a writer and software developer, I’ve given up all IP rights to my work for 15 years. As designers, I commission work and I don’t get the project files? No, I don’t think so, that doesn’t work for me. Not any more.
Two previous attempts, both designers didn’t finish the work. I just paid them to make them go away.
Software is a different story. I’ll nail a sub to the wall on a software delivery. I *know* how to do that right.
So, I’m teaching it to myself as I go.
I’m in it for the long haul, Dave. I’ve worked for 30 years, and this website is all I can show the world. Everything else is owned by other people. That drives me far, far harder than making money.
With maximum respect, Dave, I think you’re obsessing over the style.
What you have here is everything you need to drive lit dynamite into the side of an industry that’s in dire need of fresh thinking, aka yours.
When we talk UX I’m simply referring to pathways and funnels. Just like you’ve done with your whitepapers. So easy to find, razor-sharp on the definitions and rationale for purchase.
When it comes to the core content though it can often be a different game entirely.
When I mentioned Search, I meant it. “But what’s the point of Search? How will my community know how to find what they want?”
And therein lies the answer. One multisyllabic encounter.
Community.
As your community, they know what lies within your site sates their hunger. They know their needs are accounted for. I bet by running a simple ?s hunt in Google Analytics a few weeks after installation you’ll find the majority of queries are appeased.
Don’t be afraid of extending your remarkability. Let simple be your guiding star.
I’ll be your guinea pig. In the next iteration of WIAW, f I can find it, you know you’ve struck gold.
And don’t fret about design.
You’re on, man.
Here’s one for you:
Go back over your posts and check for references to future articles/phrases you can link to other posts in your blog.
Just to make things easier again ;)
Also if its design you *want* (not saying need) I could help, or I have a friend who’s just starting out but does some amazing things (2-3 clients already). Let me know.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..The Elf Blacksmith =-.
Shoring up links is definitely part of Blog Maintenance Challenge.
I’ll be in touch about design work, thanks.
Ohhh, that’s a great point. Especially when I have >1 website which could interlink. *adds to to-do list*
Thank you!
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..Holidays Without Travelling =-.
No problem Ricky, glad it helped :)
And sure, let me know Dave (could have sworn I’d already replied, ah well); can’t wait for the maintenance challenge too.
Hey Dave,
I just want to say that I not only love blogging, but I love it to death. Seriously, when a giant shoots our planet to bits and pieces, and I’m still alive, as long as I can access my blog, I’ll be happy as hell !
I have some daily habits as well:
I copy before I write my own stuff. Training. I pick my favorite lyrics, usually poetic ones, and copy their style which I will then use in my own writing.
And I only partially check for mistakes – I usually write a little faster, and I want my audience to feel a certain passion and fire when reading my blog. I write like a talk, only cooler !
.-= Mars Dorian´s last blog ..Why YOUR Brand Changes the World =-.
Mars, warming up is good. I should do more of that, in fact, I think I will because I’m stuck like crazy trying to finish off what I owe Carlos.
I went a little tangential on the Pre-writing challenge, which worked for me, but didn’t quite fit the model.
Time to spew some words.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Why the Apple iPad Will Make Me More Productive =-.
Oops got so distracted I forgot what I was actually going to write which was that this fits in with “chop wood carry water” in that as well as the big after-WP-upgrade sessions where I check everything, I plan to check one thing on the list every day – so slowly making my way through the list and starting again at the top when I get to the end. I’ll just add it to my daily maitenence list.
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..How Do I Use An iPhone Web App? =-.
Checking one thing per day is an excellent idea.