11 Things I've Learned About Blogging
written by Sam Greenspan

I started blogging in May of 2001, back before blogs were blogs. I stopped blogging in November of 2006. Now I'm back. Here's what I learned...

1. I once dreamed of having a Blogger logo t-shirt. I've had better dreams.

   Blogging can really alternate between being a chore and being fun. It's fun when people would read what I wrote and talk to me about it. It's an incredible chore when you're sitting in your room at 3 AM, knowing you need to post something tonight because you haven't posted all week and the only thing you want to write about is how you're sick of "Law & Order: SVU" focusing so much on Mariska Hargitay's character's issues all the time so Ice-T just has to stand there with his hand on his genitals doing nothing... but you can't write that because you know no one wants to read it.
   
   
2. I didn't realize when I started this, but having a blog about your life is the single best way for people to keep tabs on you. As a result, some friends started calling my old blog the "World's Biggest Cover Story"... because half of the posts were lies to keep people from knowing what I was really doing.
   
   
3. When I started my blog, I figured I'd build an audience over time. After more than five years, my readership never really extended out of my friends and family. I'm hoping this time around, I can reach a broader audience. Like someone who doesn't know me.
   
   
4. Maybe this is me being stodgy, but I hate all of the blog accoutrements that everyone loves. I don't really like blog comments. I don't even know what blogrolling means. I'm not sure if I'm going to set up an RSS feed for this. I just want to write, and have people read it. I like participating in some aspects of technology while completely shunning others. It's called man's free will.
   
   
5. Blogging personal info is dangerous. The Internet is a big, permanent place. I don't need everyone knowing my intimate details. I even once got an angry e-mail asking me, "Why don't you ever write about how being a comedian gets you laid? Your blog sucks."
   
   
6. Sort of off topic... but being a comedian does NOT get you laid. Although it's probably slightly more seductive than being a mime.
   
   
7. I'd rather blog nightly than sporadically. I found there's a lot of momentum involved. And, if I know I'm writing something every night, I feel a lot less pressure to make what I write totally epic every time. That being said... I'm not going to blog every night. I got a lot to do. I have like 6 episodes of "Scrubs" and the last three "So You Think You Can Dance" episodes just begging for my attention on the TiVo.
   
   
8. Blogging software is more trouble than it's worth. At least for me. It takes forever to set up, it never customizes right and every time I want to tweak something I have to spend five minutes reacclimating myself to it. So I built this blog from scratch. Chef Boyardee was sitting there, but I decided to be the old school Sicililan woman who makes her own noodles.
   
   
9. I will never win any blog awards. Because The Man set up the system to work against the little, independent blogger like me. I'm like the Kanye West of blog awards shows. Just wearing less pastels.
   
   
10. This is my first post, and I'm already having trouble making it to 11. Why couldn't the domain name 8points.com have been available? Damn you, domain parkers.
    
    
11. All neurotic whining aside, blogging really is the best platform that a writer can have. Because no one can edit me or tell me what to do. And if I write something good, I can reach tens of millions of people. My circulation is already better than "The Economist".
    
    

This list was originally published on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 04:17:19 AM under the category Web & Tech.
It currently has View Comments.

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