And Other Things

A Three-part article series on

1. Blog; Blogging and Bloggers 
2. An Article on Articles 
3. And other things... 

Part 3. And Other Things… 

the Little things. (idiom) 

The unimportant matters, the minor concerns. This term dates back to the ancient Romans, or perhaps even further. Writers have deemed little things either as too trivial to make a difference (Ovid: “Little things affect little minds,” repeated by Disraeli and Oliver Goldsmith, among others) or as being the building blocks of important matters (Browning: “We find great things are made of little things”). 

Having dealt with the basics of the technicalities and the particularities, what else do we have left here? (In the context of blogging, successfully, I mean.) Well begun is not necessarily half done especially so when you’re not sure what the end goal is! Before we continue; I really do hope you’ve read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. If you’re still here, please have a blog as you continue reading. If you don’t have one by now go ahead follow the steps in ‘Part 1: Blog; Blogging and Bloggers’ and come back. I’m waiting. 

Done? Okay, then let us continue. I offer five of you readers the opportunity to work with me as we learn together the ropes of blogging our way to success. Without forgetting of course that ‘Success is a journey and not an end!’ To be a part of those five. Just hit me up in the comments with as many reasons as possible why you think this is for you! First come first serve basis only. 

What do I mean when I say ‘Well begun is not necessarily half done especially so when you’re not sure what the end goal is’?  

In the context of blogging, most writers don’t necessarily know where they’re headed. Sure they may or may not have a general idea of what they want out of the blog for themselves during each phase of blogging. [This is another interesting topic which we’ll come back to in a later article perhaps.] What happens when why you’re even here is almost vague, to say nothing about what you’re doing here. In the beginning, many of the bloggers joined the community purely because it was new and it was trending. I joined Blogger in the ending days of the Blogger craze back in 2015 I suppose. It wasn’t until much later in 2018 that I actually came back to it. Here, during this long period of absence, there was a lot I taught myself. I posted a little here and there during October 2018 and went on a hiatus once more, but this time to learn Blogging itself and to deal with other ‘IRL’ situations. Keeping my personal experience in perspective, what can you deliver? 

For casual/informal Bloggers, when your reason to blog itself might shift from time to time. It is not reasonable to expect consistency in the theme of what you’re posting either. So how do you deal with this? There’s, of course, the crash and burn of it, you start a blog, try it out, doesn’t work, delete everything. Run! And make a new one next time whenever you’re ready for round 2. Or, just go back to learn again and try again. Like what I did!  

How can you deal with the variability of the theme in your blog? 

Actually, this is more a question of what can you do than how, because the how is the Blogging itself. So let us look at it like this. You make a Blog have a goal in mind. IRL things take over, the project gets sidelined. You lose control over things at the blog. You have two choices now ‘Crash and Burn to try again’ or ‘to learn some more and then try again’ [I don’t believe in giving up on anything for long]. If you are anything like me and don’t like giving up, take short term goals. IRL things are always gonna crop up anyway. [Why you are always going to have problems in life is another fancy topic I’ll write an article upon later.] 

If we have to look at short term goals to deal with the issue of variability in the theme, it would be best to stick to an even more generalised theme for all of your various short term goals! Consider this as an insider tip. Have a generalized or overall theme and then proceed to have individual paths for each short term or side goal you have in mind! What this would look like is: ‘It is a blog related to cooking where they post tips for buying the best ingredients or making the best pudding’ here the cooking part of it is your overall /generalised theme and what you say in each post is a short term goal you researched and wrote about! This, in my opinion, is a lot better than one day deciding to post the best recipes out there and then screwing up somewhere only to have to stop it mid-way, or something else. 

A blog about cooking which has both a little of your best personal recipes and tips to get the best ingredients, if possible to match with the said recipes, is a lot better than two failed blogs focusing solely on either. Remember the variability can and must contribute to versatility in your life. Otherwise, each new problem would become a roadblock for you instead of adding a new skill to be learnt or lesson to keep in mind. A ‘talented’ person that can sing and play the guitar as well as s/he can code a program while being a doctor only means that they had that many places where they needed to prove themselves. 

What else? 

When you have a generalised theme and multiple side projects in the form of short term goals going on for you what more would you need to know or need to do? To do it, itself, of course! And somethings you’d need to watch out for are; Your site settings, Posting patterns, HTML-proof text, etc… 

Go thoroughly through each and every setting in your blog. Get masterful at using every command and tool within your blog. Your knowledge becomes a source of your inspiration. You can only be inspired about things you at least vaguely know of. With increased proficiency equating to heightened insight! Use everything at your disposal to learn more about the 5w1h of blogging. Only you are responsible for improving as well as appreciating yourself. And if the only person you need to impress is yourself make sure you’re doing one hell of a good job at it! 

Posting patterns are crucial to blogging, doesn’t matter what you say as long as you say it at the same time every time! This gives your blog a sense of ‘I knew it right from the start feeling’ as long as you keep delivering routinely even if what you are delivering is something mundane it will come in use some or the other time. [Still, don’t forget to stick to your overall theme.] Basically, it is okay to add ‘where to get the best stove’ to your cooking blog but not ‘how insects mate’. Geddit? 

HTML proofing your text means to make sure your blog’s posting tools match well with wherever you’re writing or copy-pasting your written work from. I say this because most writers, including myself, that write online use writing friendly software which need not necessarily be a posting friendly tool. Long story- short: when you copy-paste from A to B your formatting and a lot of other stuff are bound to get haywire. An example: I call my cat Minnu. I cannot come to your house and call your pet Minnu as well, that is considering you have a pet and they are a cat in the first place! 

And Other things 

Newer and better tools are always bound to crop up in the market. These could either be related to blogging tools or related to what you’re blogging about at the very least. No one can know everything at least not always. So don’t stop learning and researching. 

Also if possible try and ‘Focus more on the impact of what you’re doing in life, than what you’re doing itself, this will help to give you more initiative and purpose in life!’ A lot of what is happening around everyone doesn’t make any sense so if what you’re selling is ‘Meaningful’ a lot of people would be up for grabs, Mudassir guarantee. 

Hopefully, by now I have you roped in enough to the world of Blogging to say: Hello fellow Bloggers. The Cybermen appreciate your upgrade! Hehe. 

PS: Offer valid only till stocks last. Be among the first five, to go from being a commenter to a blogger today! 

End part 3/3