Good Decision/Bad Decision: Writing a Blog
Good Decision/Bad Decision
Today’s subject will hopefully be part of a regular series of Monday posts. As you recall, I recently started Gratitude Wednesdays. This series will focus on my past decisions to shed light on some financial wins and losses. My hope is to discover what I did right, and help others avoid my mistakes. Whether epic fail or triumphant victory, these were my decisions. The topic for today is writing a blog.
Have you always dreamed of being a blogger?
Good Decision
Although I am anonymous here, I have been writing a blog about medicine for years. In fact, back in 2006, I started an online art business. My brother, the resident tech guru in the family, told me that if I wanted my website to rank highly, I needed to have frequently changing content. So I attached a blog to the domain and started to write about art.
Boring!
My posts were uninspired. The topics blatantly salesy. My passion for writing a blog waning, I searched google on a whim to find medical oriented topics. I stumbled upon a blog by a guy named GruntDoc.
And my world was transformed. Ten years later, I will share just a few of the benefits I have enjoyed from writing a blog:
- Two books written
- Published countless articles in magazines and on other websites
- Paid to write for a medical website
- Invited and paid to give talks in exotic places like Dublin, Ireland (Become a subscriber and you will receive a video link to this talk about empathy and medicine from 2013)
- Met online and in real life countless luminaries, thought leaders, and downright nice people
I have nothing bad to say about writing a blog! Well almost nothing.
Bad Decision
I pretty much made every mistake a person can make in writing my first blog.
- Paid little attention to appearance
- Used a free blogging platform
- Never added images to my posts
- My proof reading was atrocious
- Had no idea what an email list was
- Included no internal links
The list goes on and on. But above all those, the biggest mistake was that I treated my blog as a soliloquy. I envisioned my writing as an online diary put out for the world to see.
These are the thoughts and feelings of a primary care doctor.
I left no room for two-way discussions. Often people thoughtfully wrote comments, and I remained silent. I neither acknowledged nor responded to what my readers had to say.
Not only did this not build readership, it spurned developing deeper connections with my community. This is by far the biggest regret surrounding my old blog.
Hopefully, with DiverseFI, I have learned how to be better!
In Summary
Writing a blog has been a life changing exercise in humility, community, and learning. Without making the decision to put words to paper, I would have missed out on all sorts of opportunities and even paid consulting.
My advice to you, if you have interest in writing a blog, is to take the plunge!
Fame? Fortune? Advancing your ideology?
Maybe.
Making friends?
Definitely
If you write a blog, What benefits have you derived?
If you have interest in learning about the blog I wrote about medicine please say so in the comments section or subscribe to this blog, and you will get an opportunity to watch my Ted-Style talk on medicine and social media.
Nice title – I couldn’t help but think of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly! Which yes, accurately describes my early blogging days. I had a blog in the 2008 era…I couldn’t keep up with social media (marketing), going to school for my MBA and working full time as a new manager supervising too many people. And ended up quitting it.
I smiled at all your list of mistakes (same as mine; I’m still making some too!).
My husband encouraged picking up the blogging thing again almost 2 years ago now. It’s been awesome being a working duo with it. My goal is for him to be able to quit his day job. So far it’s been a great activity we can do together…and helps save our sanity when we try to balance it all!
Interested in the blog you wrote about medicine – and your Ted style talks!
Thanks Mrs. Defined Sight. This is my third blog iteration. it’s really cool that you and your husband work on it together! I really love writing and this is a great outlet.
Thinking about starting – but concerned that I won’t have the time, inclination or energy to keep it going!
HH
There is only one way to find out. You have the website already!
Great post. I would never have imagined writing a blog a year ago, but I continue now for the exact reasons you mentioned. Opportunities arise, its fun, and you get to connect with some great people. As a relatively new blogger I still have a lot to learn!
Thanks Ob Doctor Mom. I first read your post on KevinMD and have been reading along on your blog. I’m amazed at what happens when you get an audience. Things start to happen. Thanks for stopping by.
Agree DocG. There are so many benefits to having your own blog. For me, it’s having a platform to express my thoughts and also to be part of a great community.
I agree. The only thing negative really seems to be if you get too caught up on stats and posting frequency.
I was able to find your TED style talk and I have so many thoughts and feelings about it. You speak of the walls that go up, supposedly protecting a doctor, or anyone, from pain and discomfort. There’s a Simon and Garfunkel song that comes to mind , “I am a rock”. A rock feels no pain and an island never cries.
Blogging and writing are foreign to me. Scary really. One of my goals is to help spread the ideas to people I know. And a bigger goal is to be able to chime in, like this, to be part of the conversation and to hopefully connect with this community. The TED talk, although describing issues that physicians face, is inspiring to me about blogging as well. Exposing myself and my failures, including writing — this can be a good thing.
Thanks for watching the video…and writing your blog too!
Your talk was awesome, really inspiring. I’ve found blogging to be great to get my thoughts out during this crazy transition to semi-retirement. It’s a big change for me and I’m still feeling it out. It’s also helping me be more creative (I think) as I tend to be pragmatic and practical.
Thanks for watching the video. Your blog topics are creative and interesting!
I love having my website. It is a boatload of work, though.
The struggle for me is just the grind. It takes time. And that’s okay, but you have to embrace it.
Blogs like yours keep me grinding away!
Thanks! Finding the balance between work and enjoyment is the trick.
I think three people have commented my blog helped them. So that’s worth it right there.
I have learned so much from reading blogs. I’m sure those are just the ones who commented. Probably many more.