A Very Skelliewag September
Another exciting month for Skelliewag.org has drawn to a close. It’s been great to see a number of new faces around the place and it’s a pleasure to welcome almost three-hundred new RSS subscribers into the community.
On a personal note, this month has taught me something I wish I had learned seven years ago: beginning your blog or website on something you ‘think’ will be popular (but is not necessarily your passion), or a topic you feel you can grow into, is one way to ensure you burn-out when the going gets tough.
As a blogger or webmaster you will experience periods of adversity and without a driving passion, not just for your topic, but for the site you are building, it will be difficult to pull through them.
I should clarify that this period of adversity, for me, was nothing too serious: merely a matter of being snowed-under with work. It’s not surprising that studying full-time, working two part-time jobs, five or more long blog-posts a week, blog consulting, simplicity reviews and guest-posts here and there would get the better of me eventually.
I’ve been quieter than I’d like in terms of posting and comments these last few days. To explain my absence, I have largely been writing the last 3,000 words of over 9,500 words of assessment with due-dates in the last two weeks.
I cite these personal examples not in an effort to make excuses (a more sensible person would have completed the assessment in small chunks rather than leaving it to the last minute, nor would they have taken on so much optional work!). Rather, to illustrate that any serious blogger or webmaster should expect to encounter periods where the tasks they’re faced with seem overwhelming.
In those situations, it’s only the passion you have for writing on your topic (and dedication to a great community) that will see you through. When attempting to make money online, build a flagship blog, or achieve any other goal, the long-haul will require that what you do is, at times, a labor of love.
Perhaps the most important principle in successful, long-term blogging is not just to love your topic, but to learn to love your blog — in the same way an author might care for their novel, or a painter might treasure a portrait as they add layer after layer of detail.
On a more practical note, I’m developing a considerable backlog of simplicity reviews. If you have a review waiting to be done rest assured that it will happen soon. I hope to cut a big dent in them tomorrow.
Another thing September has taught me: I really need to work on the ‘Done’ part of GTD!
My five favorite posts in September:
- 101 Essential Blogging Skills
- Why Simplicity?
- On Giving Yourself Away
- A ‘Simple Web’ Philosophy for Getting What You Want
- What Aristotle Has to Say About Stats and Subscribers
