James Spillane
Recently I asked some of my favorite bloggers about the biggest lesson they learned in their first 6 months of blogging. The answers I got were fascinating, educational and often surprising.
This and next week I will run a series of posts sharing my findings, and today we’re starting with none other than Mr. Leo Widrich.
Leo is the force of nature behind the Buffer App, an indispensable tool in anyone’s Twitter arsenal. He has written for many highly regarded blogs and has probably had the highest creative output of any other blogger I know of in his first 6 months of blogging.
So, without further ado, let’s see what the biggest lesson was Leo had learned in his first 6 months of blogging.
This is what Leo had shared with me.
Learning What People Want
This goes back to the famous Paul Graham quote, that only a selected few can get printed on a t-shirt:” Make something people want.”
Within 6 months of blogging, I got a great feeling of what it means to build something that people want. Not just readers, but users, press writers and people of all sorts. It would be foolish to say I have an understanding of it, but I definitely tasted what it is.
For readers: Within my first 6 months of blogging, I could learn which types of headlines do best (list posts, HOW TO’s and completely crazy stories), which lengths of posts does the best, which layout of posts does the best and so much more. I don’t mean learning about it, but experiencing it, seeing which posts I wrote got more traction, whilst others don’t. This was amazing.
For press writers: Being a blogger helped me a great deal to understand what others want to write about – because I am a writer myself. Approaching the press for stories about Buffer became a lot easier, my pitches much more focused on them and their readers and the level of understanding – from writer to writer, much more casual and comfortable.
For users: As a blogger I learnt that no one likes to read announcements or pure facts about the achievement of you and your startup. So I started to turn everything into guides, HOW TO’s and actionable tips that anyone can use for their advantage right away. This post might be a great example to showcase this.
For myself: Lastly, I learnt what I wanted myself. This came mostly through my personal blog. Blogging as a form of personal development is my most recent discovery, but helped me tremendously already. Spilling my thoughts on a canvas, to shape and form how my brain works is one of the things I would have never discovered without.
So in short, if there is anything I would recommend, it is to start blogging.
There It Is
So there it is. Pretty amazing insight from the guy that did it all. I especially love the ending. You really just have to suck it up and start blogging.
- What is the biggest lesson you learned in your first 6 months of blogging?
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This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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As someone who is about 4 months into the first 6 months, I can tell you that the most important lesson I’m learning is to be as consistent as possible. Not even “as humanly possible” but more so as consistent as quality machinery. Fill your queue as much as you can with great content and schedule your posts for the times your analytics tell you is most opportune. Consistency is key.