5 Things I’ve Learned after Two Years of Blogging

Just two years ago (27/2/2014), I created the Conversion.vn blog when I suddenly felt like wanting to write something. At this point when looking back, I realise that it is one of the most appropriate, though temporary, decision of mine. This little blog has so far run a rather long way, and although not the website with the highest traffic, I am proud that it is bringing value to many people. And I realise that I myself also have learned and received a lot from writing blog. Here are five things that I’ve learned during writing for the conversion.vn blog over the past two years:

1. Rearranging knowledge

Source: freepik

Every day we acquire a lot of knowledge, on a variety of topics and in different areas. They lie there, fragmentarily and unconnectedly. We keep thinking that we comprehend them and will use them when necessary, but the fact is that we are rarely able to arrange it into a knowledge formation in our head to demonstrate it coherently.

For example, you know that:

– You can run banner display ads on Adwords

– Websites that make money with Adsense will become part of the GDN

But when suddenly asked how Adsense and Adwords are related, you may not be able to answer.

Blogging helps me rearrange my known but disjointed knowledge into a more transparent whole. When I tried to explain something by writing it down, I gradually learned how to make the connection between these discrete knowledge and turn them into a complete puzzle.

2. Understanding the basics and excavating related topics

Source: freepik

Sometimes you assure that you understand and master the knowledge which might seem to be very basic but when you need to point it out, you can’t turn it into words. Writing blogs sometimes makes me realize some of my basic knowledge gaps and thus I have to cultivate myself to fill these gaps.

Also, when you write and post something knowing that you have readers, you will feel the pressure that the things you write need to be correct (otherwise they will be badly cricized). This pressure makes you feel that you need to double check whatever you write and sometimes drill down into more than one topic to make sure you understand the core of the problem you are talking about. At this point I will have to force myself to dig deep and learn more about a certain topic whenever I write to ensure the highest accuracy of what I am doing.

When you master the basic knowledge and understand the problem, you will find yourself able to confidently talk about a problem without encountering any obstacles.

3. Training the determination and steadiness

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Have you ever started going to gym/doing excercises or diet? And then, being too busy makes you distracted and slowly giving up on those. You make a lot of excuses to start letting go such as “I’m too busy so I will skip today” or “what the hell, a little bit of this good will do no harm”. The excuses for this small invocation will cause trouble at later time. At some point you stop exercising/going to gym or diet because you think they are not important anymore. Blogging is no exception.

I am a busy person (because I try to keep myself like that), while blogging requires a lot of time and effort. There are some in-depth articles (such as the article about Google Analytics) that can take months to write, because it has to be amended, revised, rationalized, and edited. image processing, etc. Sometimes I’m too busy and feel like giving up for a while to do other stuff but then I remind myself that I need to keep the consistency and regularity of what I’m doing. Many times I determine to write an article to publish it the next morning and have to say to 2-3 am to complete the article and schedule it for the next morning post. Simply because I think if I don’t finish today, I will go too easy on myself and allow myself to set an excuse for not completing what I need to do.

Blogging has helped me to improve my consistency in what I do, whether it be work or other things in life. Thereby I realize that being consistent with what I do is the key to success and to move far forward.

4. Improve conversating and communicating ability

Albert Einstein once said: “If you can not explain something in a way that is understandable, then you do not understand it enough.” I feel that this is true and that is why I often focus on explaining everything as detailedly and clearly as possible in my writings.

There is a fact that three years ago, I was not a talkative person (except for when it’s about the topic I am interested) and my ability to express something was rather poor. However, since I started blogging, I have noticed that my language and expressions have improved significantly. Part of this may be from the (1) and (2) factors above. I somehow thinks that writing what I think has helped me practice better word formation and thereby improve my speaking ability. When you talk more clearly and coherently, you will do better in expressing your strengths and expertises thereby making people better understand what you want to present, which highly influences the result of a conversation / negotiation / sales.

5.Understand the value of sharing

Source: pinterest

The Conversion.vn blog was originally a personal blog where I kept the information and knowledge that I knew, but over time I gradually realized that sharing brought greater values. The value of sharing comes to both sides: the reader and the writer.

People who read blogs will feel that the shared information is really helpful, which helps them understand more about a topic they are looking for, to answer a current question, or simply save their searching time.

For writers, the benefits are not only the above, but also come from the joy of feeling that what they create benefits everyone and the community. The more shared, beneficial value you bring to the community and others, the more you will receive, such as the expansion of relationships and the opportunity to meet talented people, enhance the prestige in the industry, expand your opportunities.

Above are 5 benefits that I have got from blogging and I feel that these have been helping me better each day. And if it is possible, I recommend that each of us becomes a blogger, writes down what we like and know to help others who are also learning. And maybe like me, you will learn some lessons for yourself from blogging.

How to start blogging?

Source: wordpress

The first thing you need to do is to have a blog. Nowsaday, creating a blog is not difficult, you will need two things to create a website: domain (domain name) and hosting.

For domains, you need to think about what you want your blog to be. Some people will use their names to name the blog, some will use a name related to the subject of the blog. Once you’ve chosen your blog’s name, you can easily find domains from providers such as PAVietnam, MatBao or iNet, simply you can just go to Google and search for “domain name” or “domain name” with lots of choices. Please note that you do not actually buy a domain name, but just renting it and paying for it yearly.

At first your blog won’t have much access and also not much content, therefore you can use the cheapest hosting packages of about tens of thousands of VND per month. Then when the demand grows, you can upgrade slowly. Similarly, just by Google searching “hosting service”, there will also be a bunch of selection. There are some old and famous hosting suppliers such as PAVietnam, NhanHoa, VinaHost, etc.

Next you need to think about how you will use CMS (Content Management System) to manage all the contents, interface and everything else on the blog. WordPress is the best and simplest option for you. Searching for “WordPress Installation Guide” on Google will provide you with lots of articles on how to install.
Or if you feel that the above is too technical, then you can create a free blog at WordPress.com or Blogspot. They are all totally free and fast. This will help you save on the domain and hosting costs.

Or if you still want to have your own domain but do not know anything about technology, then you can find a website developer to help set up a simple WordPress website. The cost will not be too high, if it is, you should find someone else.

How do I write better on the blog?

Source: freepik

After having a blog, the next important step is blogging and here are some suggestions from my experience for better blogging:

– Being unique: How is your blog content different compared to dozens of other sites on the same topic? You can talk about the same topic but discover and write it in a different way. For example, conversion.vn focuses more on analytical contents and is more useful for users with detailed articles.

– Paragraphing for easier reading: no one wants to read an article of nearly 1,000 words that write in one paragraph. You should try to segment, use additional images to make your contents more readable to viewers. The articles on conversion.vn blog are typical examples.

– Blogging and writing are not the same: you do not have to restrain yourself to the writing principles as in school. Be comfortable writing in your language, it’s your personal blog anyway.

– Do not post instantly: after finish writing, you should not post immediately but leave it 1 – 2 days later to review. Maybe now you will see something that needs to be adjusted (in both grammar and style) that you did not notice at that time. Adhering to this rule helps me avoid a lot of errors in the article.

– Taking a little more care of the title: with the same content, if your title is attractive, you will have an additional 20% – 30% of the readers for it. Is it worth the care? Yes. I can spend 15 – 20 minutes just to list the different title sentences before deciding on a certain one.

– Following up and learning from experiences: You should at least set up Google Analytics to see how traffic is, which posts are most likely to get traffic and why so next time you can do the same things with later posts.

– Understanding what your audience wants: this is also related to the above idea. By keeping track of which content gets the most traffic, most interactive, you can better understand your blog readers and then know how to create more relevant contents later on.

– SEO, should be done but not everything: learn how to use keywords for each article, how to install and use SEO plugins for your blog to optimize the basic SEO elements. More instruction details can be found on Google, I think there are a lot there. But don’t let focusing on SEO impacts on the user experience.

– Having fun: if writing a blog is not making you happy then why continue doing so? Every time I post a new article, I always feel fantastic.

If you are a blogger, share your experiences below. If you’re looking to start blogging and have questions, please leave your questions in the comment section.