I wrote the below excerpt back in early December 2021, and today is New Years Eve. A little bit has changed since then, I haven’t really thought much about the blog. Life happens. I still do think it’s a cool idea for me though, and most of the points I made below still stand. I think success in this really just comes from hitting it at multiple angles. First off, putting out a lot of longer content on a consistent basis is the most important item. From there, I can pay someone on Fiverr to make it a better site and improve the SEO while I continue to learn on the side. There really is potential there, and I know that once I am invested in something and have a goal in mind, I am unstoppable. I just needed to find that passion.
12/05/2021:
I don’t know where to start with this. I don’t ever expect it to get a ton of views, I don’t intend on going anywhere with it, necessarily. But, I am going to blog consistently for all of 2022. I am going to blog for my own experimentation, interest, intrigue, and documentation. Of all things, how did I land on blogging?
The extended alone-time created from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 changed my mindset on a lot of things, it allowed me to rediscover a direction for myself. I began taking a slew of LinkedIn learning classes, applying for several jobs a day, teaching myself music production, engaging in several networking calls a week, essentially trying to find a way to get an upper hand on others and advance my young career.
While doing research about self branding and career advancement, I came across the idea of creating a wordpress website for myself. I wanted the site to include all past and future blog posts of mine, my references, my college coursework, my professional/career achievements, a bit about me, and some lifestyle recommendations of mine.
During the pandemic, I began posting several articles a week to my wordpress blog. The topics ranged included healthcare, sports, self care, lifestyle, personal experiences, and more. While traditional blogs have a common overarching theme, I decided to just write about a bunch of unrelated topics that I found to be interesting. The blog was for me, it was a place to get my thoughts down on paper. I did not plan to be consistent with it at the time.
The pandemic also allowed me to rediscover the enjoyment of reading that I used to feel as a child. A common theme that I have come across within my recent reading is the importance of writing down goals. At the very basis, my goal for this blog is consistency. I want to post 1-2 blogs per week for the entire year.
Why blogs though? I mean, I never considered myself to be a tremendous writer, but others seem to think I have a knack for it, and I do kind of enjoy it. Writing is a way to reflect, it is a way to express, and it is a way to learn. Beyond this, it is a way for some to eventually generate income. This comes from consistency, unique content, SEO/website optimization, and a little bit of luck. But, it also comes from simply getting started.
I know that I can do it, too. If anyone that actually knows me happens to read this ever, they probably know that I used to do some writing for a few different sports publications. They are all on my LinkedIn too. I probably wrote a total of 60 articles, and one even got featured on Yahoo Sports through The Hockey Writers. I only did it for about a year, too. It has been like 4 years since I did that, I cannot imagine where I would be in my personal and professional life if I had not stopped doing it.
That past success and future potential leads me to this point. I’ll never know what this can become unless I try, and follow up that effort with consistency. If I publish 2 articles a week for all of 2022, that will be 104 articles. Throughout that time, my writing will get better, and so will my SEO optimization and my marketing. I fully do not intend on marketing this website and blog for at least 6 months, I want to build up the content first and make the website look more professional.
Success in something like this cannot and will not come overnight. It may never come at all. But realistically, it will take up 3 hours per week, at the minimum, and it will help to keep my brain and writing skills fresh. If I have posted over 100 articles and am still struggling with content and getting page views, I can re-evaluate. I will have learned a lot in the meantime anyways.
Matt Morrow 