Blog (Durnit!), Getting Started

Introduction

I got some cool responses to my post Blog (Durnit!). This includes at least one blog, Adventures In SQL, by David Levy (Blog / Twitter), started as a result! Wow, how cool!

Reading comments and email, I realize I left out one important part, where to…

Get Started

First, you need to decide whether you’re going to host your own site or pick a site at which to blog. I recommend starting on one of the free sites – just until you get your sea legs. There’s a ton of free sites out there, but three stand out:

• Spaces at my.live.com
• WordPress 
• Blogger

Of those three, I’ve heard more positive things about WordPress than the others. I’m not an expert on these things, so please take any recommendation from me with a grain of salt.

Caution, Steep Grade Ahead

I know blogging looks easy, I used to think it was easy too. It turns out blogging is work. It’s fun work because you get to decide what to blog about, but it’s not all fun and games. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking blogging is easy: we’re reading the blogs of brain scientists like Brent Ozar and thinking “Look at all he writes! That can’t be that difficult?”

Blogging can be daunting. Don’t be fooled (as I was) by looking at the quantity and quality of content on someone else’s site. One mark of someone skilled at their craft is they make it look easy.

Some Advice

Again, Brent Ozar offers some great advice about getting started in his post Building Your Blogging Momentum. I can’t recommend this post enough. Brent’s advice to “schedule your posts to be published at least one week after writing” is a proven way to build your writing stamina.

Conclusion

Get in the game! Start blogging!

:{> Andy