How I got into blogging

Eric asked me in the comments of The face behind the blog how I got into blogging. He is interested in blogging himself and is a bit of a writer.

One of the great things about blogging is that it is super easy to get started. There are so many free blogging platforms out there that you can just pick one and start writing. I do not suggest you go that route though. If you truly care about what you are writing about you should sit down and decide on a domain name.

HMTK.com was never meant to be a blogging domain but it became one last July. Well, it sort of became a blogging domain about a year earlier but I only wrote one post and then deleted the blog software a few months later. I was not yet ready to blog.

In July of 2006 I got the urge to start writing again. I started by writing a few simple and short posts and then moved some fiction pieces over from my old Geocities page.

Early Posts

• The Adventures of Gorf
  
• Raising an only child at dinnertime
  
• A tale of many cats
  
• Netflix
  

I was mostly posting for the fun of it and not thinking to hard about what I was writing. My traffic numbers were still low. By low I mean "me, myself and I" were reading the blog. Slowly some of my friends started showing up and reading the blog entries, some even left comments!

Around the same time I started to get involved with the social bookmarking news site known as digg. A short time later one of my blog posts hit the digg front page: The Three Letters. Yes, I know it is a re-hash of the old communist joke but I though it was funny. Some people agreed while others just left nasty comments that I had to delete.

What I also found interesting was that many people took the content I wrote and published it on their blogs. I have no problem with this because I publish under a Creative Commons license that allows for this. I do have a problem when people republish and do not follow the license.

So, back to your question of How did you start with your blog? I just started. I loaded up a blogging package called Serendipty (don't do that, just use WordPress from the start) and started writing. I did not expect to become popular and I thought I would just do it as I felt the need and probably stop at some point in the future. My numbers were real low until I began joining other blogging communities.

Yeah, it's kind of a lame story but it's true.

As for tips and advice for you:

Steve's blogging tips

• Write what you want to write - Even if no one else reads it you will be true to yourself.
  
• Don't be a digg chaser - Trying to be a breaker of news and thought is hard. If you are original in what you have to say and you have even the slightest grasp of the English language you will do fine. Don't sell out for empty traffic.
  
• Don't add advertising until after you have traffic - The only thing worse than seeing single digit traffic numbers is seeing $0.01 in your AdSense account for 6 months.
  
• Read the bloggers guide to etiquette - It's good to know the basics before you press the publish button.
  
• Leave comments on other blogs that are similiar to your own - By being a part of the greater blogging community will help you build relationships and attract more visitors.
  
• Guest blogging - This works on both sides. Offer others to blog for you and offer to blog for others. It helps expose both audiences to something new.
  
• Have fun - If you find writing becomes a chore, stop.
  
• Don't worry about traffic numbers - The quickest way to kill your blogging career is to obsess over your lack of traffic. If you write it, they will read it.
  

Any more questions?