What I Have Learned from Blogging

January 25, 2011 in Blogging with 13 Comments

When I started blogging I had no idea where it would lead, or what I was doing. I have been blogging for over a year now and still am not 100% sure on either of theses two things.

I do feel more comfortable blogging. I know my way around WordPress. I have gained a better knowledge of this by following Tentblogger. I cannot thank John enough for sharing his vast knowledge on the subject of blogging and WordPress with his readers on a daily basis.

Over past year I have learned quite a few things from blogging. Here are some of the things that come to mind:

Community/ Connections: Blogging is all about community and creating community. It is pretty cool when you sit back and think about it. You will also make lots of connections through blogging to people all across the country and world. Some of who you may never meet, but still feel like you have!
Writing: I have come to enjoy the time that I blog daily. I find that just sitting down and writing to be therapeutic almost.
Coding: Through the starting of the blog I knew a bit about designing websites, and writing code. Since starting the blog it has spurred a even greater interest in it. The blog has even lead to a design gig that will allow me to reach my income goal for the blog in the first month of the year.
Cash: Like I mentioned above my blog has allowed me to generate some side income. It is not why I started, but it sure is nice. Cannot complain about that.
Back-up…Back-Up….Back-Up: I cannot stress this enough. Back up your blog and your blogs database. In the early stages of my blog before I knew any better my blog was hacked a couple of times and let me just tell you it feels awful to loose everything. Security is very important.

There are just five things that I have got out of blogging in the short time that I have been doing it. I am sure that I will think of more things in the future and will revisit this topic, because blogging just seems to spur my creativity (…there is another one).

What do you get out of blogging? Share in the comments!

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13 Responses to “What I Have Learned from Blogging”

Michael January 25, 2011 at 12:01 pm #

I love the community aspect of it. That’s definitely my favorite part. It’s nice to extend the relationships that have formed from blogging into phone calls and face to face meetings. I have not made any income through my blog and I doubt that I’ll ever be able to and that’s cool with me, although it would be nice if it opened up a door for opportunity.

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- Adam January 25, 2011 at 12:38 pm #
  
  I would definitely have to agree with you on the community Michael.
  
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ThatGuyKC January 25, 2011 at 2:17 pm #

I have fallen in love with blogging in the last 4 months. I started over a year ago, but failed to engage in the community, and focus content among other things.

Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned so far. I’m hoping to learn about coding and have my blogs be self-sufficient in 2011. Any resources you could recommend would be great.

I’m saving up for a copy of “Digging into WordPress”.

Diving into blogging after finishing Dave Ramsey’s financial class isn’t recommended.

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- Adam January 25, 2011 at 2:38 pm #
  
  Funny! I took Dave’s FPU through our church last year and it was awesome. We have kind of fallen away from some of it, but we are looking to get back on it next month. Christmas kind of messed us up a little….
  Digging into WP is great. A lot of in depth stuff. I have it in pdf on my ipad. Good reference though. Would highly recommend it.
  For html and css I us W3 Schools a lot. Lots of great info there. (http://www.w3schools.com/)
  Having my blog become self sufficient was one of my goals when I started blogging. Now it has been self sufficient for about 3 or 4 months now.
  
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- Craig Allen January 25, 2011 at 2:41 pm #
  
  I can attest to the value of DIW. Even if you go with the PDF, you get free updates which rocks. CSS Tricks was the first site that helped me get serious about learning all that stuff, and ultimately pointed me toward WordPress. Good luck!
  
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  - Adam January 25, 2011 at 2:43 pm #
    
    Yea I love WordPress and I am building all of the sites that I work on these days on it. It is so customizable!
    
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seekingpastor January 25, 2011 at 2:29 pm #

The community part is great–knowing that there are others with similar interests, hopes, and dreams helps me to stay the course.

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- Adam January 25, 2011 at 2:39 pm #
  
  Totally agree!
  
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Craig Allen January 25, 2011 at 2:44 pm #

I agree with all 5 points. My first monetary goal is to become at least self-sufficient. Still figuring out how to accomplish that!

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- Adam January 25, 2011 at 3:01 pm #
  
  It took time for mine, and a lot of patience.
  
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David Guion February 4, 2011 at 7:29 pm #

I’m still trying to figure out how to make a blog into a community. I’m also working on developing a Word Press site and find the learning curve very steep. I kind of stumbled on to this page following a link from another blog, never expecting that I’d find a link to some help with Word Press. The Lord is good. I pray you’ll meet your blogging goals.

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- Adam February 4, 2011 at 8:54 pm #
  
  Thanks for stopping by David. Blogging communies develop over time and it definitely does not happen over night. Have to be patient with it. Checked out you blog. You have some good content. WordPress is the way to go!
  
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