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.
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.
Everyone looks ugly on video. Get over it.
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.
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
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
Privacy is a fluid concept: just because it’s in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s not private
WordPress.org is better than WordPress.com (see Thing 34)
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
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
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
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
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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