Blogger, by Terry Freedman
Every so often I read a blog post or a ‘commentary’ on Twitter by some self-appointed guru or other saying that blogging is passé. There are lots of alternatives, they say. The statistics don’t bear this view out at all. Many people are still reading blogs, despite the fact that blogging is nearly thirty years old, and there are lots of blogs to read — more than 600 million, apparently.
Now, you might think: given that there are more blogs than you’re ever likely to discover, let alone read, what can you add? Why should anyone read anything you have to say? As Woody Allen said: 80% of success is showing up.
I have no idea. But I do know that if you don’t write anything for public consumption, nobody will discover it and nobody will read it. And blogging is as good a way as any to put yourself ‘out there’ — better than most, in my opinion, for reasons I’ll go into.
Just before that, though, I’ve already set out good reasons to blog. Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that you don’t have to make your blog public. You can use a blog as a private journal for yourself, or close family.
What are the advantages of blogging, compared to things like Facebook or Twitter? And what’s good about blogging itself?
I think there are three big plus points of blogging.
Firstly, if you start a blog, and especially if you own your domain name, you stand a much better chance of not having the whole thing disappear. I’ve lost articles in the past because the platform they appeared on either went belly up or because the owners closed it or sold it. Fortunately, I haven’t really lost many of them because either I’ve written them in Word first or because of something I ask for (and usually get) when I write for a third party.
What’s that magic something? It’s simply this: I ask the person or organisation commissioning the work if I can use it myself after a period of time. That’s the idea of First British (or American) Serial Rights. In effect, you grant the organisation a licence to use your work exclusively for a bit, and then you can use it too.
This is a good thing to do because not only can you use it or (in theory) sell it again, it doesn’t just vanish. For example, last year I wrote blog posts for a company, and they agreed to let me publish them on my own blogs after three months. Just as well: the company have completely revamped their website and got rid of all the old blog posts (not just mine). Had I not taken precautions, my amazing contributions to the cultural life of the nation would have been but a memory.
I think of this as the difference between owning your own place and renting. Not a perfect analogy, but it has some merit. If you own your own place, you’re unlikely to be booted out (unless you don’t pay the mortgage, of course). On the other hand, if you’re in rented accommodation it’s much less secure in a sense. A landlord could announce that he needs to vacate the property because of a need to sell, or to allow relatives to live there instead.
The second thing I like about blogging is that I don’t need anybody’s permission to write what I like. As long as I keep within the law, I can write what I like. I don’t even have to worry about whether anyone is reading it, as my motive writing for the love of writing, not to make money from advertising.
Thirdly, I like the arrangement: reverse chronological order. That is, the latest articles appear at the top.
It’s surprisingly easy to set up a blog. If you need some hand-holding though, I’m running a two-evening course in November 2022. It won’t be a technical course. I won’t be showing people how to set up a blog in, say, Wordpress. The emphasis will be on the pros and cons of different platforms, what makes a good blog, what makes a good blog post — it’s to help people decide (a) whether blogging is for them and (b) things to consider if it is.