The Blog of Brian Vertrees » Blogging

Rookie Blogging Tips

Brian Vertrees — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:13:21 +0000

As always, time continues to fly by, and for that reason I’m glad I finally had the gumption to start writing this blog over a year ago. Being able to sit down and share thoughts about business and life has been a lot of fun. There is something to be said about setting time aside to organize your thoughts and put them on the screen. I can see why some people even refer to it as being therapeutic.

While I’m still a rookie when it comes to blogging, I do have some tips for those of you who are thinking about it. Here they are:

1) Just start. The hardest part is literally just getting started – so get over it, and just start. Tons of free options abound for platforms (WordPress - my preferred platform, TypePad, Blogger, etc.), choose one and start blogging.

2) Have a plan. This isn’t hard either. My original goal was two posts per month, but ultimately revised it to one post a month. Other bloggers will say you need to post at least weekly to generate followers. If you have the time for that, definitely do it as I would agree that quantity does help. If not, set a realistic goal. One post a month should be achievable.

3) Pick a theme. My theme is business and how it impacts our lives, and it’s given me plenty of topics to write on. Pick something you are interested in and roll with it. Recently, a friend of mine started a great blog called “Get Caught Skiing,” which is a great topic and will allow him to target a specific reader base. For those skiers out there, check it out – Mike is one of the funniest guys I know, so in addition to being informative you will get a good laugh, like his post entitled “The Thuggie: Long, Comfortable, Good.”

4) Just Write. Kinda sounds like the first tip, but with a twist. My good friend who goes by the Twitter handle @cshams23 gave this advice to me when I started – just write. Don’t over-analyze your posts, especially early on. Just get the creative juices flowing and get something written. Once you have it done, proof for grammar, make sure it flows, and post that sucker. I typically write and review a post in one night, and then come back to it a day or two later for one last look. If it’s a topic that requires a more research, I will do that up-front before writing, and then may add in an additional proofing round just to make sure my facts are straight.

5) Queue Up Your Posts. This year I am trying to write my posts in advance – so in any given month I have two more posts ready to go. By writing in advance, I can schedule posts to go out on the same day each month (consistency for readers). I didn’t do this last year but really should have.

And there you have it. Blogging tips from a rookie blogger, just in time for you to start your own blog in 2011. If you already have a blog and have some tips of your own, by all means, please share in the comments section – would love to hear from you.

Expectations

Brian Vertrees — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:18:38 +0000

Before this blog begins in earnest, I figured it would be worthwhile to set a few expectations so that you have feel for my vision. Like anything in business, if you don’t set expectations and goals, things can go awry, so here is what you can expect from my posts:

Short and sweet. I’m not going pontificate forever – I will keep things as concise and interesting as possible.
I will post no more than once a week. I have a family, a full time job, and yes, a life, so I’m just being realistic.
I fully expect this blog to evolve as it goes, so expect some changes along the way.

There you have it. My quick summary of what to expect. As I mentioned in my first post, this is a journey that I hope provides an opportunity to share my experiences and to foster a community where we all can learn a thing or two.

A Journey Begins

Brian Vertrees — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:25:55 +0000

After several years of putting it off, I’m finally starting a blog. The adventurous side of me has been itching to join the blogosphere not just to voice my thoughts and opinions, but to better understand how communication is changing. We are in unprecedented times in regards to how information flows globally, and the best way to gain a more clear understanding is to actually be a part of it rather than sit on the sidelines and read about it. So, I’m jumping into the game.

Over the last several months I’ve been researching, planning and coordinating how this blog will work. For instance, what blog platform should I use, should I have my own personal domain or just use a generic one, and what in the world should my blog look like?

The biggest decision once I decided to move forward was what blogging platform to use. Obviously I’ve decided on WordPress. If you are researching what blogging platform to use - I can sum up why I chose WordPress in three easy points:

It’s open source (you can grow with it and lots of people smarter than me have built lots of cool features)
It’s easy to use
You can optimize it to your heart’s content (what good is a blog if people can’t find you online?)

In addition to figuring out the structure of the blog, I’ve been jotting down notes and ideas for what to write about - lot’s of them (ironically this was one of the biggest excuses I used in the past for starting a blog – that I would not have anything to write about). As soon as I committed to doing this blog the ideas started flowing, which doesn’t surprise me. The unknown is always a bit scary, but once you’ve pulled the veil back a bit you realize it’s not that bad.

Now that everything is up and running, the journey truly begins. Over the next year I’m going to blog about life experiences, business experiences and what happens in between. It should be fun – life is full of surprises, and as a marketer it’s those surprises that help lead to new ideas in the business world. This blog hopefully captures life at those points. Feel free to join the journey with me – the more the merrier.