1000 things I've learned about blogging

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1000 things I've learned about blogging

To mark 1000 posts on this blog, I thought I’d reflect on what I’ve learned since post #1.

UPDATE: Now available in German, Spanish, Hebrew, and Portuguese.

UPDATE 2: I’ll be posting further ’1000 things’ via Twitter – you can find them with this search or this RSS feed.

Blogging is not ‘writing a blog’. Blogging is linking and commenting. Any writing is a bonus.
Regular posting is important…
But quality posting is even more important. Spending a week or more on a single post can be one of the most important things you ever do.
First knowledge, then analysis, then ideas.
A picture is worth a thousand words. More importantly, a picture is worth a thousand words in two hundred countries. The fact that readers don’t need to speak English to understand what you’re communicating can make a word-free post – or at least one with a good image – your most successful one.
For similar reasons, video works. It may not be search engine-friendly, but if people can embed it the word is more likely to spread.
When video meets conversation, good stuff can happen.
Everyone looks ugly on video. Get over it.
Online video is not online TV
Podcasts work better when there’s more than one of you
It takes time. Sometimes years. Persistence counts.
Being early matters
A big idea travels far
Pingback/trackback is a wonderful thing, a form of distribution news websites are still struggling to match. What can be more interesting than someone who is interested in you?
Cliques and old boys’ networks exist in the blogosphere too
We are too fucking Anglo-American
Language is a massive barrier (but having multilingual friends helps – see updates at top of post)
BASIC principles matter
Social bookmarking makes researching a post much easier
The best reason to blog is not to show everyone else what you know, but to find out what everyone else knows
RSS is one of the most undervalued technologies in the world. Once you understand what to do with it, you can bring the world to your desktop, your mobile, and your blog, and vice versa.
A blog doesn’t open doors for you, it just gives you the idea to try knocking.
When people Google you, it saves a lot of time explaining things.
Blogs are just one part of a social media ecology. Half the stuff that used to go on this blog now goes on Twitter; more goes on Delicious; and some on Flickr and on Seesmic.
Don’t get me started on FriendFeed, Plurk, Jaiku, etc.
Humour is effective, but not everyone will get it
I seem to like linking on verbs
Streaming live video from your mobile is a pretty amazing thing when you think about it
Streaming live video from your mobile uses up your battery quickly
Web browsing on your mobile also uses up your battery quickly
If you’re moblogging an event, bring a power lead, an extension lead – and a spare phone
The N95 kicks iPhone‘s ass
(But I’m prepared to be persuaded otherwise)
WordPress plugins are addictive
Firefox extensions are addictive
Signing up for beta web services is addictive
I don’t really care about Twitterspam
A simple, fun idea can be around the world in minutes
If you want to campaign against something, you already have the technology
If you want a service, create it yourself
Google is the biggest popularity contest in the world
When you realise you don’t have a readership – you have a community – then you also realise you can mobilise, and get things done.
Technology is easy; community is hard
Meeting in person is important: I read blogs by people I’ve met much more often than those I haven’t
Geography still matters
Birmingham has a lot of bloggers
Liveblogging and Twitter-blogging are not the same thing
Privacy is a fluid concept: just because it’s in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s not private
WordPress.com is better than Blogger
WordPress.org is better than WordPress.com (see Thing 34)
Content is not king.
Conversation is king.
Conversation is the kingdom.
We shouldn’t try to be the media
If someone is sending you a press release about something, you shouldn’t blog about it
As a journalist, blogging is a good way to rediscover the joy of journalism
Blogging is also a great way to rediscover how great having a good editor can be
Do what you do best and link to the rest
Blogs aren’t worth dying for. That’s what family is for.
Setting yourself a maximum number of posts per day is a good idea
Setting yourself a set time to look at your RSS subs every day is also a good idea
If you rely on third party services, prepare for the rug to be pulled from under your feet
If you publish the comments widget high up on your blog, more people comment
A blog without a comments facility is broken
A site that has comments, but edits or buries them, is not just broken, it’s malevolent.
Leave posts open ended if you want people to comment
Leave a post at the top of your site for more than a day if you want people to comment
Being transparent about your sources is not only good journalism, it’s good distribution.
The search engine optimisation industry is the new snake oil. I can tell you all you need to know about SEO in five minutes
Although it might take me another five hours to answer the resulting questions
If you expect to make lots of money from blogging, you are either naive, stupid, or Robert Scoble.
If you expect to make lots of money from blogging, don’t expect to make it through advertising
Being read by a few, key, people can be worth more, professionally, than having lots of visitors
Being frequently linked to can be worth more, commercially, than having lots of visitors
Beware advertisers bearing text-based gifts, or generous offerings of ‘free’ articles. Understand linkspam
Be aware that you have an ego
Be aware that everyone else has an ego
Unconferences are great
There’s only so much talking you can do. Sometimes you have to do something.
There should be more money available to do something
Ideas aren’t a problem. Knowing which ones to pursue is
Only 10% of Americans read blogs
But 26% of Americans write blogs
How does that work?
Blogs are far more ethnically representative than mainstream media
People may not trust the print and broadcast media, but they trust online news even less
The 1-9-90 rule
Rushing off a blog entry just before bed is a bad idea
Rushing off a blog entry hours before your wife goes into labour is not a good idea either
Some news travels faster than an aftershock
People don’t need managers to organise them – just connections
When I can record a video comment straight from my mobile phone, I’ll be a happy man
Don’t underestimate the power of corporatisation
Don’t underestimate the power of big corporations
Don’t underestimate the power of governments
If, after all this, we have to go back to living in caves and eating rats, it’ll be a real shame
Lists have become the biggest cliche in blogging and the most shameless tactic for getting to the top of delicious/digg/reddit.
But people still read them.
Have you bookmarked this yet, by the way?

1000. I can’t count.

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Comments

1 FionaC says:

Wow!

-so what about Plurk,Jaiku etc
Posted September 5, 2008, 3:41 pm
2 paulbradshaw says:

Don’t ask me.
Posted September 5, 2008, 3:42 pm
3 Happy says:

At least one item made the lightbulb go off. Thanks for the flash of inspiration.
Posted September 5, 2008, 4:22 pm
4 Adriana Degetau says:

I totally agree.
Posted September 5, 2008, 4:31 pm
5 Daniel Davies says:

Thank you for sharing this, as a relatively new blogger its been nice to read and a fair few of your points made me go ‘oooh yeah’. Little bit of self-reassurance and some food for thought, good post =)
Posted September 5, 2008, 4:42 pm
6 Adam says:

Thank goodness you stopped at 100. I looked at the headline in my reader and though “I hope that mad b*stard didn’t do all 1000″…
Posted September 5, 2008, 4:43 pm
7 sarah hartley says:

Go on, give us the rest of the list
Posted September 5, 2008, 5:18 pm
8 Adam says:

Are you trying to drive the poor man insane, Sarah?
Posted September 5, 2008, 5:20 pm
9 Michael Neumayr says:

Great stuff and very funny. Talking about fact 17. I translated the whole thing into German.

http://www.nachrichtenfluss.net/2008/09/1000-dinge-die-ich-uber-das-bloggen-gelernt-habe/

Maybe somebody would do that with other languages.
Posted September 5, 2008, 10:55 pm
10 rampantheart says:

I am all whoa!This post must have taken helluva lot of time!LOL!:P
Posted September 6, 2008, 9:21 am
11 Pedro Morgado says:

Fantastic post.

Pedro Morgado, Portugal.
Posted September 6, 2008, 11:26 am
12 tom kern says:

wow,now that is some powerful things to think about.
Posted September 6, 2008, 12:04 pm
13 Eric says:

great list – thanks for sharing
Posted September 6, 2008, 6:26 pm
14 Mark Evans says:

Sounds like you’ve learned a lot over the past 1,000 posts. Good to see some thought, reflection and good advice!

Mark
Posted September 6, 2008, 9:26 pm
15 shawal says:

A huge nice list, when first come in i wonder, the list is 1000 but why the page a shorts….

I wonder why???

hihihihihiii…

Good list and nice reading.
Posted September 6, 2008, 11:44 pm
16 gmasatasquirrel says:

What a Jip! I was all prepared to sit here and read 1000 reasons =) As somewhat of a new blogger, it’s sucks to know that there isn’t much money in it, but very good to know that others like you encourage bloggers like me to never give up! Thanks.
Posted September 7, 2008, 12:29 am
17 Lex dePraxis says:

Hey, great and funny list.
Posted September 7, 2008, 2:17 am
18 Andrew Slominski says:

I can’t count either, so you’re in good company. Thanks for the advice! I was getting really bent out of shape recently with not being able to get anyone else to contribute more to my site. I also felt a need for a post-a-day, no matter the quality of the content. Thanks again.
Posted September 7, 2008, 3:23 am
19 Bill Bennett says:

Crikey, I’ve only learned six things about blogging.

http://tiny.cc/ZGgbb
Posted September 7, 2008, 4:58 am
20 ~Kat~ says:

Quite a few gems in there. And a few that made me smile. Especially #1000. Good job!
Posted September 7, 2008, 6:16 am
21 elizabeth says:

you’ve given me lots of ‘food’ to feed on.
Posted September 7, 2008, 7:10 am
22 Navjot Singh says:

Great List. At first even I got scared of the number 1000, but after reading 99, I think I could have managed for the rest of 901 points too!

Come on…we need rest of 901 points too.
Posted September 7, 2008, 9:33 am
23 Tal galili says:

Beautiful, thank you!
Posted September 7, 2008, 4:36 pm
24 Anthony says:

Very interesting !

I must admit I forgot some of the things you said, And I will refocus on them
Posted September 7, 2008, 5:34 pm
25 Sarbjit Singh says:

Thank you for the wonderful post.

I have not written 100 posts yet this made me learn all this early.
Posted September 7, 2008, 5:42 pm
26 Traci V. says:

Thank you so much for sharing your expertise – fantastic information!

I especially enjoyed the comments on WP plugins.

Traci
Posted September 7, 2008, 10:27 pm
27 Euphrosene Labon says:

Re #64 – what happens if most of your comments are emails (as are mine)… not still broken, eh?

Euphrosene
Posted September 8, 2008, 4:41 pm
28 Dr. House says:

Dude it is ultimate list. I am first time here but you have really good stuff.
Posted September 8, 2008, 10:11 pm
29 ...tom... says:

…
RE: # 58: Do what you do best and link to the rest

So linking to this post would be a _good_thing_..??

…tom…
Posted September 9, 2008, 12:28 am
30 Malcolm Bastien says:

I totally dig how it feels like there’s a conversation going on even though your talking in numbered points.

…and I honestly dedicated 20 minutes to sit here and look through 1000 points.
Posted September 9, 2008, 5:56 pm
31 steven says:

Good, really liked it.

But this: 64. A blog without comments is broken, may be not.

There´s a spanish blog called Microsiervos, they deleted the comments some years ago, and they´re the most famous spanish blog, the most read one.
Posted September 9, 2008, 6:05 pm
32 Anne says:

@ # 63 – Yet your comments are still down here

Thanks for the tips, they seem pretty down to earth and were interesting to read. I’ll be sure to keep them in mind with my blogging endeavors…
Posted September 9, 2008, 9:49 pm
33 Hye Munar says:

Ooops, where is the rest of the list? Thanks for sharing these by the way, these can help me in blogging since I am a newbie blogger.

Just a little comment about “a blog without comment is broken”. Isn’t it “a blog without visitors is broken”. Thanks ;0
Posted September 10, 2008, 4:26 am
34 Adam Singer says:

“# Only 10% of Americans read blogs
# But 26% of Americans write blogs”

That isn’t possible, if 26% write they at least read their own blog, which counts !
Posted September 11, 2008, 3:10 pm
35 ...tom... says:

…
Adam S: “That isn’t possible, if 26% write they at least read their own blog, which counts !

…smalllol…

Are you sure..?? I have read some posts (including my own) that make me wonder..!!

…tom…
.
Posted September 11, 2008, 3:35 pm
36 DJAx3L says:

Great article.
Posted September 12, 2008, 1:58 pm
37 Jashpal Mall says:

Paul,

1,000th post – what a feat – I’m inspired, so much so – I’m considering to finally start my own blog… watch this space – or should I say watch my space, blog, twitter, rss, etc!

M
Posted September 12, 2008, 9:22 pm
38 paulbradshaw says:

@Gmasatasquirrel @Navjot and @Malcolm – I will continue to post ’1000 Things’ via Twitter – you can find them at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=+%221000+things%22+from%3Apaulbradshaw or subscribe to an rss feed at http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=+%221000+things%22+from%3Apaulbradshaw

@Michael thanks for the translation! Have updated the post to include a link higher up.

@Anne re: comments widget – the recent comments ‘widget’ is in the second column at the top of the page – that’s different to post-specific comments which are also displayed at the end of each particular post.
Posted September 15, 2008, 10:12 am
39 cendana says:

I got this link from Mike of http://ourtable.wordpress.com I’ve only started this a month ago. Thanks to this list, I’ll know what to do (whether I actually do it is another matter, of course)
Posted September 16, 2008, 3:04 pm
40 Luciano Mucelli says:

Nice post. I’d rescue what I consider the best ones.
http://prixma.com.ar/2008/09/rss-imgenes-y-calidad-la-clave-del-blog.html
Posted September 16, 2008, 4:57 pm
41 Khristofferson Silveira says:

Great post. I translated it to brazillian portuguese here:

http://ksilveira.blogspot.com/2008/09/1000-coisas-aprendidas-sobre-blogar.html
Posted September 19, 2008, 11:06 pm
42 The Worst of Perth says:

What about posting while drunk?
Posted September 20, 2008, 10:03 am
43 Ian Hutchinson says:

Nice addition of humour at the end there dude..
Posted November 9, 2008, 10:48 pm
44 tiaras says:

Found this post really interesting, some great points made here. Thanks
Posted November 26, 2008, 7:25 pm
45 caca says:

see thing (99)

Yes
Posted February 2, 2009, 2:52 am
46 ALEXANDER says:

REALLY A SUPERB INFORMATIVE POST.THANK YOU THANK YOU VERY MUCH.BY THE WAY HAVE A LOOK ON THE FOLLOWING SITE.
—————————————————————
blogging for a living
Posted February 4, 2009, 12:46 pm
47 otimização de sites says:

I´ve learned blogging that I can understand better my costumers and also give them information about my services faster and cheaper.
Great post!
Posted March 19, 2009, 1:51 pm
48 Picken says:

gr8 resrch bro
Posted April 8, 2009, 11:48 pm
49 CLAT Guru says:

It was fun reading this hundred points..

And Yes.. Conversation is the King.. Content must be the queen alleast..
Posted April 20, 2009, 11:50 am
50 Beamer says:

Oh, poo! I wondered how you’d ever get to 1000! And I was hoping you would. Great post! All 99! I liked “Do What You Do Best And Link To The Rest”. I’ll remember that one.
Posted April 24, 2009, 3:24 am
51 cherie Corey says:

I was glad it wasn’t 1000, but disappointed only 100. Maybe you can spoonfeed it to us a little at a time? I’m a newbie and trying to be like a sponge..
TY 4 some gr8 advice
Cherie
Posted June 5, 2009, 3:46 am
52 Tony V says:

This is outstanding! Thank you for your lessons learned on blogging!

Tony V
Posted June 5, 2009, 4:35 am
53 Phaoloo says:

It’s a biggest list of things about blogging I’ve ever read. Thanks for your time to make this list.
Posted July 17, 2009, 6:09 am
54 website copywriting says:

Now, THAT is a great list. I gotta disagree about “Content is NOT king”. Content IS key to a successful blog. Like your post–it’s awesome content. That’s why you got so many trackbacks and commenters.
Posted July 21, 2009, 4:31 am
55 Tiger says:

OJB??? What kind of name is that first of all. Second, who the heck cares who you are or what you think…and supposedly you think
Posted July 23, 2009, 6:42 am
56 Do Follow Blog says:

My favorite is “Google is the biggest popularity contest in the world”

This is probably one of the nicest post I’ve seen for a long time.

Content is not the king,couldn’t be more true,i often notice some crappy posts on some blogs with thousands of comments but you know how it is for some can be crap for others gold.

Loved your post,saved on delicious.
Posted August 25, 2009, 5:21 am
57 AllanMer says:

Your site is very useful and nicely done!
Thank you very much for your work.
Posted January 15, 2010, 2:40 pm
58 christbirawan says:

thanks paul, your post help me to generate my mind to make a valuable posting.
Posted February 16, 2010, 2:02 am
59 MARICIA says:

OMG! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this list from the top, right through to the bottom. It was absolutely delightful … and I really have to agree with all the experience, the concepts, idealistic manner behind it all. LOL at 1000. Love lists!!! Thankyou. Blogging is a great way to go!
Posted March 16, 2010, 7:05 am
60 MARICIA says:

OMG. Thoroughly enjoyed reading the lists and LOL nearing the end to 1000. Really great pointers. I want to blog now! Wonderful humour!
Posted March 16, 2010, 7:12 am
61 MARICIA says:

OOOPS!!! I apologise for repeating myself. Couldn’t see my comments anywhere. Now it’s repeated. Is that a sign that I will be an annoying blogger not knowing where it all goes?LOL. STOPS HERE!!!
Posted March 16, 2010, 7:14 am
62 Raisa says:

I really thought the list would go up to 1000. What a catchy title!
Posted March 23, 2010, 11:16 am
63 Hispanianet Gonzalez says:

I lost with that of 1-9-90%…What’s that?

Well you didn’t arrive to 1000…but a hundred is lots of things to learn!je,je
Posted April 14, 2010, 9:38 pm
64 Paul Bradshaw says:

Click on the link. The 1-9-90 rule is that, of people visiting your website, 1% will be active contributors, 9% occasional ones, and 90% will just read.
Posted April 15, 2010, 7:56 am
65 steve (subscribed to comments) says:

I think that ‘family over blogs” sums up the deal. + WP roolz
Posted May 14, 2010, 3:39 am
66 Mellaly says:

Thoroughly enjoyed reading the lists and LOL nearing the end to 1000
Posted May 29, 2010, 12:15 am

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