Why You Should Blog
I’ve long stressed that you should have your own little piece of the internet, although I’ve been a bit louder about it lately. If you’re creating any sort of content, having a place that you control means your hard work doesn’t get lost if someone else pulls the plug. Yes, that six tweet thread on how to make the perfect mojo pork is content. I usually say it doesn’t need to be a blog, but I wanted to share a few thoughts on why you should at least consider it.
Share What You Learn
Take a moment and think about how many times you’ve searched for something and ended up on somebody’s blog. Did the question become how many times per day does it happen? These shared lessons can be invaluable to more people than you assume.
If you’re like me, one thing that you might struggle with is questioning if something “deserves” a blog post. If you’re giving it any thought, make the answer yes. It’s a big hurdle I still work on myself, but it’s one you don’t get over if you don’t try. It doesn’t need to be deep and technical, it doesn’t need to be something that’s never been written about before, and it doesn’t need to be a 30,000-word work of art.
Learn What You Share
While I’m a sucker for a good turn of phrase, I swear this isn’t as forced as it seems. When you write about something, you get into the fine details. If I’m writing about a technical topic, I like to dig into the documentation for references, and every time I end up learning something new.
The other benefit is that it forces you to sit down and really think through the topic. As they say, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” When we write to teach, we look to distill information to its simplest form so that it can be as clear as possible. Through this, we’re forced to clarify aspects that we may have previously glossed over.
Pen to Paper, Fingers to Keys
With anything in life, the best way to get started is to get started. Pick a topic that you’re interested in and write an introduction to it. It may be something you already know well, or it may be the motivation to learn something new. If you do give it a shot, I’d love to see what you write!