Today is the day you stop being afraid.
For a long time, you’ve been telling yourself, “Yeah, I should probably start blogging one of these days,” but you’re afraid. Afraid someone else has already written about a topic. Afraid that your writing isn’t impressive enough. Afraid nobody will leave a comment.
Well, Ed Leighton-Dick is calling your bluff. His #SQLNewBlogger Challenge is a dare to publish one new post per week, every Tuesday in April.
If you’re a new blogger, here’s how I’d do it:
- Sign up for a blog at WordPress. Use your name as the site name, and during the signup process, they’ll ask if you want to use a custom domain name. You do, because yourname.com is a better long term bet than yourname.wordpress.com. It will cost you $99/year, plus the cost of the domain name registration. Do it.
- Ignore the look/feel/theme. Stick with the defaults this month – focus on the content.
- Pick 1 topic you’re going to write about. Pick a topic you already know well, something that you believe is completely boring to you, something you think everybody already knows. You’re wrong.
- Write down 4 facts about that topic. Jot down 4 simple sentences with a fact. These are going to become your blog post titles.
- Write one blog post per fact. Start by looking at ProBlogger’s 52 Types of Blog Posts for inspiration. If one of those styles calls to you, use it for all 4 – but I’d recommend trying 4 different voices, 4 different styles of posts for your 4 facts. Write them all in advance, and schedule them for publication on each Tuesday.
As each one goes live, if you want feedback, email me at BrentO@BrentOzar.com and give me the URL. I’ll give short, honest feedback about what I thought, and I’ll help publicize your work.
Go do it right now. Seriously, you have nothing better to do. You’re reading my blog, for crying out loud.
16 Comments. Leave new
Between this and Paul Randal mentoring 54 people this year, I dare anyone to find a more supportive community than the SQL community.
Mark – yeah, it’s really exciting and fulfilling to be a part of the community and keep giving back.
I’m not as good of a blogger as you so I would definitely appreciate your feedback 🙂
Also, BlueHost has a very good offer on WordPress hosting if you want to be very flexible on what you can do with your site. Offer ends on 31-Mar-2015.
http://www.bluehost.com
I still can’t believe you didn’t comment on my Epic Life Quest within 5 minutes of posting it. Don’t you stalk WordPress for mentions of your name? I will give this weekly thing a shot. I have many drafts.
Andrew – dammit, how did I miss that? The post is awesome, too, and I really like your goals. I’m going to rip off some of yours for my own. Nice work!
Why you do this Brent? Why are you so helpful for free?
You’re still keep being the top 1 in my “Favs of the month!” For about a year so far (just since when I know you!)
I will definitely need your feedback on my blog. I’ll send you the link soon. And hey, thank you soooo much for every single tips I learnt and will learn from you!
Yours,
Marjan
Marjan – HAHAHA, well, Ed was the big help this month! It was such a great idea, and I’m glad I can help pay it forward.
Hi Brent.
Looking forward to this series. I’ve written my first post, set for launch on 7 April 2015.
I appreciate everything you do for the community, and relish any feedback you’re willing to provide. I am making a note to point you at my blog in two weeks’ time.
Will you have SURPRISE I’M DRUNK! shirts for sale at the next Summit?
Randolph
Randolph – you’re welcome, glad I could help! And yep, I got my shirt from here: https://www.thechivery.com/products/surprise-im-drunk They have a ton of great stuff.
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I’ve also started blogging about sql server topics two weeks ago. (in German)
I’ve found my way to get topics to blog about right around in the community. Reading tweets, reading blog posts, reading comments… finding a lot of ideas, new interesting aspects
Yes it is real. There are so much topics already written about somewhere but i might be to write it in different point of view or something like this.
And yes, i’m having my first usergroup session as a speaker in the next week… I’m really excited how the “crowd” will react…
Give it a try … I’ll hope to see you @Brent on an upcoming event in this decade 😉
Congratulations, glad you’ve started! You’ll find that it’s very rewarding. Good luck on the journey!
Useful blog post.Thank you for sharing!