I created my first blog in the March of 2012 when I decided to start a blog dedicated to pro-wrestling. I created my first blog on Blogger, which was just a free blog with a .blogspot.com domain. In September of 2012, I bought a top-level domain for my blog. I did & still do a lot of stuff with Blogger. It’s hard to believe but my interaction with WordPress was in April of 2013 when I decided to move my pro-wrestling blog from Blogger to WordPress. In less than a year, I’ve done a lot of crazy stuff with WordPress.
I’ve learned a lot in my short blogging experience of 2 years. So, I thought that I should share top 10 things that I’ve learned in 2 years of blogging.
Simplicity Is Awesome
I see tons of blogs everyday and some of them are just not so user-friendly. They’re full of pop-ups, sliders and more flash things than they should have. The main focus of your blog should be the content, not the sidebar or any useless part of your website. People search & visit your website for the content, not to play a flash game in the sidebar of your website. The best example of simplicity is Google. What do you see when you visit Google? Just a simple search box.
Your website should be light as a feather, not heavy as a wreaking ball (Video sucks, but the song is great though). 47% of users expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less. 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. So, more simplicity = less load time!
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci
Sliders Sucks!
I don’t use content sliders on this website, because SLIDERS SUCKS! Folks at Yoast recently started to design some amazing WordPress themes, but none of them has a built-in slider in it. You know why?…because sliders sucks! According to WeedyGarden, only 1% of your audience actually click on a slide, which will most-likely be the first side.
Sliders just waste some space of your website, and slow your website’s load time. Did I mention about the load time?
“Our themes don’t have sliders… Because sliders suck”. – Thijs de Valk
Quality Content Is The Key To Success
I’m not world-class writer but I try to improve my writing skills as much as I can. Writing is an art and the writer is an artist. An article of 900 words with some useless content is not a quality post, but an article of 50 words with something really useful is quality writing. Always remember to write something unique & useful. Cat videos = quality content.
“Writing is an art and the writer is an artist.” – Hardeep Asrani
Copying Is A Bad Karma
This is a common mistake done by almost every new blogger, including me. Copying someone’s word without giving him credit of his hard word is bad. It’s just not about search engine writing, but steeling someone’s content is a crime. Copying in the present can ruin the future of your website. So, don’t just copy someone’s content. If there’s something that you wanna copy so badly, then use the content in your website as a quote and don’t forget to give a backlink to the original writer.
“Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That’s just copying what someone else did.” – Sebastian Bach
Helping Helps
Blogging is not just about making money or gaining views. It’s about helping each other with your content. Your content should be useful for your audience. If your content is useful for your audience, then you make a lot of money with your content. Only your satisfied users and customers will invent in your projects and products. Don’t you think education should always be free?
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” – Napoleon Hill
Write What You Like, Like What You Write
Blogging is about writing about your things you likes. My first blog was about pro-wrestling, and I’m really proud to say that. If you’re not so proud to talk about your blog, then it’s not for you. Writing about pro-wrestling & WordPress makes me happy and I can write about these topics all day long. If you opt to write about something out of your box, then you’ll soon get bored with your own work. Your blog’s niche should be a part of you, and things that you love.
“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” – Marc Anthony
Failed Attempts Are Just Some Funny Stories For The Future
I love to laugh on all the crappy and useless blogs I created in these two years. I have created some crappy blogs about free PSDs, free PDFs, funny images, free self-made flash games, lyrics, CSS/HTML files, and more. I also had a YouTube show in 2011, which really sucked! All those attempts were fail but I learned a lot from those projects. Don’t worry. You’ll fail a lot before finally achieving your dreams.
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” – Bill Gates
Making Money Is Not Everything
I really get upset, literally upset, when I see people blogging just for money. I understand that you need money to survive in this bitter-sweet world, but money is not everything. WhatsApp’s $19 billion deal made a lot of app developers upset, but they were happy when the CEO of SnapChat revealed that he rejected Facebook’s $3 billion offer because “there are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this.” Earning money from your blog and blogging for money are both different things.
“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” – Henry Ford
Good Links Don’t Change, People Do
When I migrated my blog from Blogger to WordPress, I opted to change the permalinks structure of my website and it was a huge mistake. If necessary, never ever change a link. Changing a link is like changing your address. People (search engines) will have a tough time finding your new home.
“A cool URI is one which does not change.” – W3C
Learning Something New Is An Investment
Nobody is born smart. We all learn from our parents, teachers, friends, family, TV, radio, pets and every single element of this world, right? So why hesitate in learning something new? Learning something new can help you in your future, because knowledge never goes waste. I made a lot of money from the things that I just learned for fun.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi