• Home
  • My Favorite Topics
    • Blogging
    • Business
    • Career
    • Cars
    • Consulting
    • Epic Life Quest
    • Iceland
    • Marketing
    • Presenting
    • Productivity
  • My Life Quest
    • Future Achievements
  • About Me
  • My Recent Photos

The #SQLNewBlogger Challenge from Ed Leighton-Dick

8 years ago
blogging, branding, writing
16 Comments

Today is the day you stop being afraid.

sqlbits_topic_board
SQLbits Speaker and Topic Board

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:

  1. 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.
  2. Ignore the look/feel/theme. Stick with the defaults this month – focus on the content.
  3. 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.
  4. Write down 4 facts about that topic. Jot down 4 simple sentences with a fact. These are going to become your blog post titles.
  5. 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.

blogging, branding, writing
Previous Post
How Do You Measure Your Career?
Next Post
Sentences To My Younger Selves

16 Comments. Leave new

  • Mark Wilkinson
    March 24, 2015 8:07 am

    Between this and Paul Randal mentoring 54 people this year, I dare anyone to find a more supportive community than the SQL community.

    Reply
    • Brent
      March 24, 2015 9:06 am

      Mark – yeah, it’s really exciting and fulfilling to be a part of the community and keep giving back.

      Reply
  • Edwin Sarmiento
    March 24, 2015 9:53 am

    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

    Reply
  • Andrew Notarian
    March 24, 2015 1:36 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Brent
      March 24, 2015 4:48 pm

      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!

      Reply
  • Marjan Tabatabaei
    March 24, 2015 5:22 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Brent
      March 24, 2015 5:44 pm

      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.

      Reply
  • Randolph West
    March 24, 2015 5:35 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Brent
      March 24, 2015 5:45 pm

      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.

      Reply
  • News About PASS For Week Ending March 28, 2015 | PASSWatch
    March 30, 2015 2:06 pm

    […] The #SQLNewBlogger Challenge from Ed Leighton-Dick by Brent Ozar […]

    Reply
  • New SQL Blogger Challenge! | Ryan Ackerland's Blog
    April 3, 2015 12:59 am

    […] in honor of all those who have helped me along the way. And it’s not every day that you get an offer from one of the best in the business to review your work! […]

    Reply
  • Hello SQL Server world! | gorandalf
    April 5, 2015 4:50 pm

    […] for a long time and I guess I just need a little kick that eventually came from Ed Leighton-Dick, Brent Ozar, Kevin Kline, Andy Warren and many other members of the SQL Community. I’m deeply grateful […]

    Reply
  • Getting Cluster Nodes through T-SQL | SQL Sanctum
    April 7, 2015 9:01 am

    […] participating in the many SQL Blog challenges this month, and I’d like to thank each of them for the push and community support they […]

    Reply
  • NorthernDBA
    May 8, 2015 11:20 am

    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 😉

    Reply
    • Brent
      May 8, 2015 3:05 pm

      Congratulations, glad you’ve started! You’ll find that it’s very rewarding. Good luck on the journey!

      Reply
  • Blogger
    July 21, 2018 3:05 am

    Useful blog post.Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS, a 1964 Porsche 356, a 1971 VW Type 3 Squareback, and more.

profile for Brent Ozar on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites

© 2021 Brent Ozar, all rights reserved. Privacy Policy

  • Home
  • My Favorite Topics
  • My Life Quest
  • About Me
  • My Recent Photos