How to blog, win friends and influence people...
I was very fortunate to receive an award for my blog recently from the Cisco-sponsored IT Blog Awards. I also recently remembered an article I wrote quite some time ago for publication elsewhere that never made it to the presses. I thought it would be kind of appropriate to publish it myself to share what I've learned over the past 9 years or so of blogging. It will hopefully encourage others to sharpen their virtual pencils, helping them to learn, get their name "out there" and contribute to the wider community. Apologies for the length of the article, but I can't help myself when it comes to detail...sorry!
I
was originally motivated to set up my own blog in 2011 after reading the articles of
people like Andrew Von Nagy, Devin Akin and Keith Parsons. I was in awe of
their depth of knowledge, and the fact they were performing such a valuable
altruistic act, freely sharing their valuable knowledge and content.
I
was also starting to gain more real-world experience in wireless networking and acquiring more knowledge as I moved through my CWNP studies. While I didn’t
imagine I could ever demonstrate their level of knowledge, I was coming across
a few useful pieces of information from the solutions I was working on that I thought might be useful to others in
the wireless industry. I thought I’d try my hand at a few blog articles and
follow their example of sharing useful information that I might come across.
I
was amazed by the reception that I received when I tentativley published my first blog article! I got emails and tweets from many
people congratulating me and thanking me for my efforts. The real icing on the
cake though was the messages I received from my “industry heroes”: Keith, Devin
and Andrew. Receiving praise and support from those I held in such high esteem
and whose opinion I valued so much was a massive boost for me to carry on and
develop my blogging activities.
I
have continued to blog for around 9 years now. My frequency of creating
articles has varied significantly over that time, but I have found it to be
rewarding, challenging and incredibly useful.
Why Blog?
There
are some really good reasons to blog and share your knowledge expertise. We’ll
explore a few here.
Community engagement
One
of the biggest surprises for me was how blogging massively stimulated my
initial engagement with the general online wireless community. As a newcomer,
it can be quite daunting to make in-roads to an existing community. Putting
together a few blog articles and putting them “out there” is a great ice
breaker.
Creating
content such as blog articles stimulates interactions with other in the
community. Conversations around your content will stimulate unexpected levels
of engagement. Articles will often prompt others to share their similar
experiences and perhaps share additional information that they may have found
from their own experiences. Others may ask for further information to help with
a challenge they may be facing that is related to the content you have created.
These conversations are an inevitable consequence of publicly sharing your
knowledge and can become valuable sources of new professional relationships and
friendships.
One
pleasant side effect of having written a few useful blog articles is that the
first time you have cause to visit an industry conference, you’ll almost
certainly meet someone who has read one or more of your articles. It’s amazing
how often someone will approach you and say: “hey, didn’t you write that
article about a <insert subject> a few months back !?”. These comments
generally turn in to longer conversations, often ending in a few beers or some
food with a new acquaintance.
Overcoming “Imposter Syndrome”
One
of the challenges of becoming part of a community of knowledgeable
professionals is overcoming the barrier of not being “good enough” to offer up
your thoughts and opinions in the presence of so many others who may have a
proven track record and significant experience. This leads to a feeling of
perhaps not really having the expertise to be part of such a group and the fear
that you may get found out as lacking in your own level of expertise…you may
suffer from: “imposter syndrome”.
Putting
together a blog post is great way to build your confidence. You will generally
get people providing positive feedback or, at worst, constructive criticism of
your content. Putting your content out there and receiving feedback from your
peers is an excellent way of getting over that feeling of being the “new kid in
town’ and will generally solicit thanks or positive feedback from someone who
finds your content useful. It I worth remembering that although there may be
plenty of gurus and experts in the community who may already know the subject
you are discussing, there are many thousands of people out there who are just
starting out or perhaps only dip in to the world of Wi-Fi occasionally, perhaps
when they have an issue to investigate. I guarantee that someone, somewhere
will find your content useful and be grateful to have discovered it.
After
a few articles, your confidence will grow as you feel you have something of
worth to share with the world so that you no longer feel like the “newbie
imposter” 😊
A Useful Journal For Yourself
One
very interesting side-effect of creating blog articles is that they become a very
useful resource for you. Instead of keeping a set of private notes about a subject,
posting them up in a blog article means that the information is always
available via a quick Google search from just about anywhere. Posting an
article also ensures that you explain the concepts and context of a subject in
a clear and useful way. When you refer to that same article in a couple of years’
time, you’ll certainly thank yourself for having taken the time to properly
record your thoughts.
The
biggest surprise around creating blog articles is when your own article turns up
in a set of Google search results! This may sound far-fetched, but (as Keith
Parsons is fond of reminding us at many of the conferences he organizes), it’s
incredible how many times you may find an article you may have forgotten about
from a few years ago, or perhaps some part of a previous article is relevant to
your current area of interest.
Demonstration of Knowledge
Creating
blog content is also a great way of demonstrating the knowledge and expertise
that you have acquired. This can be very useful in situations when people are
“looking you up” online.
If you are applying for a new role
at work, perhaps a new job or are bidding for some freelance work,
demonstrating your knowledge and establishing yourself as subject matter expert
through your blog articles can be incredibly valuable.
A
good example of this for me personally is a series of blog articles that
I created about the 5GHz band in the UK. As information was difficult to find, I
decided to blog about it. Over time, I developed the articles in to a
comprehensive white paper about the subject, as I saw that the articles
received many hits in my blog traffic stats. Now, many people I meet within the
WLAN industry in the UK know me as they have read my white paper or found my
articles about the 5GHz band. It has become a great “virtual business card’
that sets expectations around my capabilities before I meet people and has
opened many doors of opportunity.
Creating Content
Hopefully,
by now you’ll be convinced of the many benefits of blogging as part of your
professional development and as a useful tool on your journey towards attaining industry certifications such as CWNE. If you don’t already have a blog you may be wondering how you might
go about creating your own content. (Don’t worry about having a web site or
blog site at this stage…we’ll come to that later. Remember: content is king
and should be your main priority).
Here
is the process I use to create content. Feel free to borrow as much as you like
from this advice, but you’ll likely develop your own methodology over time that
suits how you work.
What Should I Blog about?
Creating
blog articles can be quite demanding, depending on the subject matter that is
being covered. Personally, I have found that the subjects that are easiest to
write about are techniques, nuggets of information or discoveries that make me give
myself a mental “high-5” as I’m so pleased to have come across the
information. Writing about something that has given you a “buzz” and that you
feel really enthused about is so much easier to write about, as it’s almost a
pleasure to commit it to (virtual) paper.
If
you try to write about something that is quite dry and provides little personal
interest, the whole process will feel quite forced, will likely be boring and
is a project that is unlikely to get completed.
My
own personal technique is to write down ideas as soon as I think of them. I
will usually start a new note in Evernote or start a new Google doc. Starting a
new document gives the article some initial momentum to get started. I’ll
usually include the title, a few words about the subject itself and maybe a few
bullets about the main points I’ve thought about. I like to use cloud-based
note services so that I can pick them up from anywhere I happen to be when I
decide to add more content. The key is to get the idea written down as soon as
possible and capture that initial buzz of enthusiasm and the rush of
ideas. Once I have this down, I may return to it hours, days or even weeks
later, when time allows for me to craft it in to fully fledged article. I have
LOTS of the ideas sitting waiting to be picked up and turned in to fully formed
articles…now all I need is time to write them 😊.
Once
you get in to the habit, you’ll be surprised how many times you’ll think: “This would make a great blog article”,
or: “I bet not many people know about
this”, or “If I shared this, it would
save other people the many hours it just took me to figure out”. Write
those ideas down.
When Am I Going to get Time to Write!?
Getting
the time to write is definitely one of the biggest challenges to creating blog
articles.
I
personally find that writing needs a dedicated block of time without
interruption, which is quite hard to find for many working in our industry. I
would say that a useful block of time for turning ideas in to articles is at
least half an hour. This can obviously extend to whatever period you have available…or
whenever you get bored of writing. For me, the best times to write content are
on train or plane journeys; times when there aren’t too many other things you
can do. If writing at home I find that locking myself away (with no phone) for
an hour is the best way to get something done. I’ve also found driving to my
local coffee shop and spending an hour there quite useful too.
Trying
to write when being constantly interrupted is very challenging and will likely
make the task at hand difficult to complete and seem more trouble than it's worth.
Getting time to focus is going to make the process easier and very likely ensure
your content is of higher quality.
I
personally have a couple of rules when writing an article:
- Stop as soon as I get bored of writing it – put it down and come back to it when you’re in a better frame of mind
- When you think it’s finished, file it away and look at it again in a week. You’ll be surprised how many “what was I thinking!?” moments you’ll have when reviewing an article a week later with fresh eyes 😊
I’m
a great believer in not forcing the process and putting things to one side and
returning to the task when you are ready. The time-frames involved may be days,
weeks or months later. Remember: there’s no deadline, you’re not getting paid
for this; take your time. Enjoy the whole process of
crafting something that is going to provide significant value and benefit to yourself
and others. Writing can turn in to a laborious chore if viewed as simply a task
of being compelled to commit a few facts to paper. I personally get a real buzz
from the fact that I’ve started with a blank sheet of paper and taken the time
to turn it in to something of real value in which I can take pride. You
should take the same pride in the process and your creative output.
OK, I’m Sold – How Do I Publish My Content!?
Brilliant, you’re fired up and ready to go!
You’ve written your first article and you're ready to share your wisdom with the
world. How do you get it “out there”?
My advice, assuming this is your first
foray into blogging is to keep it as simple as possible. I would definitely
start by publishing on a super-simple free site such as Blogger.com (owned by
Google) or Wordpress.com (their free tier). It is very easy to get hung up on
trying to build fancy web sites, experiment with templating systems and try to
pepper your site with ads to try to generate revenue. At least initially,
forget all of that. Keep it uber simple and see if blogging is for you. Later,
once you have ten articles up and you are in to your blogging “flow’ maybe you
can get a little more fancy and branch out into a more refined home for your
content.
Trust me, CONTENT IS KING. The vast
majority of your visitors will hit your site from a Google search and will
spend just a few seconds to decide if your content is what they are after.
They’ll maybe hang around for a few minutes longer if the content looks
promising is helping answer their question. The color scheme and aesthetics are
very much a secondary consideration, as long at the content is readable.
I’d also consider sticking with a “big
player” for your blog site. I once went with a smaller, niche-player blog service who
subsequently decided to stop offering services and I had my site shut
down. The content wasn’t lost, as I was able to migrate to another site, but it
was nonetheless very annoying.
Longer term, you will probably want to host
your own web site if you get bitten by the blogging bug. But, my aim here is to
get you started…so, keep it simple and focus on the content, not worrying about making it look
pretty when starting out.
Bumps In The Road
By putting your content out there you are performing a noble service to your fellow professionals and the many people out there who are eager to learn. You are doing a very good thing that is to be celebrated and congratulated.
However…
There will be a few bumps in the
road. Some may be caused by yourself, and others are the result of some people
out there who obsessively have to nit-pick and find fault with everything they
read online (especially if they consider themselves some type of self-appointed
“expert”).
But, forewarned is forearmed. Be ready,
and look at ways to proactively mitigate some of the more common issues:
- Getting it wrong: we’re all human…despite our best efforts, we sometimes get things wrong. I’ve certainly had people provide feedback that some aspect of something I have written may be factually incorrect. This is actually a good thing. My approach is to verify the feedback for myself, thank the person and update my blog article accordingly. When I’m in this situation, I will often give the person a credit at the end of the article for their useful feedback. OK, it’s a dent in your pride and can feel quite upsetting when you’ve spent all that time lovingly crafting an article, but your post is now even better and has even more value to the community. Be happy about that 😊
- Check and check again: Its very tempting to hit that “publish’ button as soon as you possibly can once you’ve completed your latest masterpiece. But, take a breath and take your finger away from that mouse. Have you really read that content through checking for typos, grammatical errors and made sure you definitely took out that section you weren’t initially too sure about? I am a firm believer in letting content “rest”. Leave it a few days, and then come back and re-read it with fresh eyes – you’ll be amazed how many mistakes you’ll pick up that you skimmed over the first time around. This is a great technique if, like me, you don’t have anyone to proof read your content. If you do happen to have a friend who offers to proof read your articles, take them up on their offer! 😊
- Suggestions: You’ll often get suggestions of how to improve or extend the content of an article you’ve created. This may include some features or concepts of which you were unaware when creating the article. Again, this can feel quite annoying when you’ve spent many hours or days working on your content, only to be told that you’ve maybe missed out some key information. I treat this very much like the “Getting it wrong” scenario outlined above. Again, when you have the time, embrace the feedback and improve your article with the additional material (assuming it is correct, has merit and will embellish your article)
- Negative feedback: This is the one most people dread, but to be honest it is incredibly rare in my experience. You will get some people who will criticize everything from your grammar, spelling, opinions, (supposed) incorrect use of acronyms and terms, article length, article depth….the list goes on. This will often be abrupt, possibly rude or wrapped in passive aggressive verbiage of some type. My advice is simple: ignore and move on (easy to say…hard to do).
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now on
blogging. I hope it’s been useful and will inspire you to try your hand at
sharing your experience and knowledge with the community.
