braindump of Blogging Workshop (Frustrated? Curious? Looking for ideas & suggestions? Come talk to an editor!) as hosted by Chris Massey at Pablo's Fiesta in room 103

Kevin Miller has been blogging at his company's blog quite a bit. Kevin doesn't finds it fulfilling and feels like he is writing documentation for future self. He is interested in blogging not of work but struggles to find "traction" with his ideas. Chris Massey has five lies of blogging and three how tos. Another guy at Kevin's right gave up on blogging at some point. He did create a mailing list for other programmers to make ideas exchanges and he found that more rewarding. Guy at my left dabbles in blogging. He started a specific topic and did thirty or forty postings and doesn't know what to do next. Chris Massey is going around the room. Next guy is vaguely interested. Next guy started writing a post and then asked himself "who really cares what I have to say" - Chris suggests this is the most common thing to blocking others. The Internet is a really big place. Next guy asked "how do you keep the ball rolling so it is a common thing to do" -Next guy frustrated by spam at comments and looks to a lack of legitimate comments as a lack of legitimate feedback. Next guy struggles with scope and how to jam an idea into something that may be articulated in a few hours in lieu of a novelette. Last guy is interested in SEO and ranking for long-tail-searches. Chris Massey is to go throw five lies: 1. is easy - takes discipline 2. it's hard - it's not it's just words on the Internet 3. I've got nothing interesting to say - 4. "What's the point?" what am I going to get out of it. Perhaps for a tech blog you can pull an audience in.  5. I can't write. Writing isn't necessarily easy. It's like coding. You can learn to reformat things. Like coding, you will get better at writing the more you do it. Three rules: 1. What am I saying? 2. Why am I saying it? 3. Who am I saying it to? If I discovered a particularly nasty gotcha in a CI script who and I broadcasting a fix to? Do you in scope give links out to prerequisite knowledge or bake all prerequisite knowledge into the blog posting. Who are you writing for and why will define scope. Who are you writing for is another issue and writing for future self versus others should be determined. Cadence and discipline is important. Maybe you should write a post every two weeks without worrying if it's good. If you're not sure of what you want to say... do associative writing and just put words on the page and see what falls out. Don't be paralyzed by indecision. SEO interest guy says the comments should drive what the next blog post should be! Chris suggests the guy at my left should ask himself what he wants to get out of the 20 or 30 posts he wrote on a tabletop game and abandoned. He got started on a community site where there were a lot of other gamers. He had an itch at the time to explain a rule system that had a lot of possible interpretations. Chris, don't try to force a blog posting. This leads to apathy and burnout. Chris asks the guy at my left, did you enjoy the act of writing. Chris feels the guy at my right could try to fork into other game-related subject matter. Kevin wants to hone his ability to persuade. The guy to my left was informed in his first effort by a strong knowledge of what he wanted to write. Chris thinks its important to have some consistent theme on a blog. Don't write about something you don't care about. Kevin wants to find a nontechnical topic to blog off in the name of a worklife balance. People don't expect a manicured treatise. Haters are gonna hate. You're always going to find someone who will take a swing at you. Chris suggests turning off comments if you are ruffled by negative comments. Guy at Kevin's right has expressed an opinion such as Microsoft hasn't innovated in ten years and has people point at some one small thing that undermines his bigger point. Chris says this is called bikeshedding. Guy at my left likes the ribbon bar in Microsoft's design such as that of SharePoint and Outlook. Chris suggests that out should try not to care too much when someone disagrees with them. The one guy who disagreed with you is perhaps not representative. Guy at my left suggested that posts should be crafted as discussion starters, example: How much has Microsoft innovated in the last ten years? Chris prefers the informative voice to the discussion voice. Couch opinions as opinions. Bad code and bad writing isn't a problem but being defensive and not acknowledging it is. Professional actors acknowledge stage fright. We are all weak in our ways. See if you can acknowledge it publicly. Chris suggests that the intention to blog puts you ahead already of the vast majority of peeps in terms progress. Not even Scott Hanselman has your connect, others may have said similar things but yours really is yours. Your collection and presentation of ideas is unique. Different people have different topics. Do not underestimate yourself.