Lessons Learnt After 100 Blog Posts

This post is dedicated to my late partner Jackie, who I absolutely couldn't of done any part of this blog without. Life will never be the same without you, but I'm trying to make the most of every day for the both of us.

If you're reading this, this is blog post number #100! I can't believe I've written 100 blog posts and I've enjoyed almost every bit of it!

This blog was initially created as a way to document things that I'd created or looked into for when future me had forgotten and needed a refresher; and still stays that way at the time of writing. Making this blog a completely open source resource, from how the site is built to the content, was a deliberate choice as learning in the open both allows for others to benefit from your efforts at the same time and for others to recognise the demonstration & dedication to the craft and the community.

Here are the key takeaways that I've learnt after writing a blog post every week for 100 weeks:

Consistency

As long as you've got a steady flow of ideas to write about, it makes it so much easier to write. By also holding yourself accountable to a regularly schedule to publish posts, this gives you drive to get something out there no matter how good/bad it is, I've written some horrible blog posts but also written some that I come back to time and time again. To balance out the publish schedule and life, I've took to writing multiple blog posts and keeping them ready to go and having a break off writing. This allows for breaks between writing and lots of content being generated when the feeling comes.

Notes

Make sure to write down every idea that you have, whether it's be done before or isn't possible, keep this stash for when you hit a writers block (not if, but when it happens). Don't feel bad to cull things from this list if they no longer interest you either! Personally I use Google Keep with a list of ideas that I have for both larger projects (which can make up series of posts) or single posts.

History

One of the biggest benefits that having a record of how to do something or what my thinking was at the time, is being able to look back at it. Not only that but give it straight to someone else that might be trying to do the same thing in the future! Countless number of times I've had people come to me with questions on how to do something, and I can direct them to a blog post that I'd written which may help them through that stage of the problem they are facing.

Communication

I personally believe my communications skills have dramatically improved after writing blog posts, especially technical communication. If we were to go through my earlier posts to my most recent posts, you can definitely see improvements in both language, style and brevity. This goes for in and outside of written communication!

Employment

I can honestly attribute some of my career successes to this blog, both by having enough interest & requests that I started my own freelancing business to facilitate these requests, and in job opportunities that I'm found for through my writing. Writing blog posts both improve my technical knowledge in an area and improve my financial situation as well!

Simple

KISS, keep it simple stupid, is a motto that I attempt to write my blog posts in such a way that anyone (with no prior experience) can pick up and read the post and hopefully get the general gist of it. If not, I try to link to potential resources on the internet to fill in the background holes for the reader to understand the topic further.

Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words, if a blog post can be aided by a picture or a visualisation of the topic, this makes it so much easier for the reader to comprehend. This also draws more people towards the post and it'll be more interesting.

I hope that you've enjoyed these past 100 blog posts and they've helped someone, somewhere out.