Do You Find Blogging To Be Confusing?

Confused (Photo credit: Pixabay)

People were telling you to, “Do this,” and to, “Do that,” the first day that you began blogging.

And, now you are confused!

Now, I do not blame you for being confused, because a lot of these so-called blogging experts do not agree with each other.

Dear friend, the most that you can do is to take things with a grain of salt.

But, the God’s/Goddess’ truth is that you will never know what works for you until you give it a try.

I have experimented with various blogging techniques over the years; which is the reason why that I know what works for me.

Should You Blog Every Day?

Believe it or not, this is one of the most asked questions in blogging.

And, there is no rule that stipulates that you should publish a blog post on a daily basis.

However, if it is a genuine desire of yours to publish blog posts on a daily basis, then do so. But, please keep in mind, that you run the risk of burning yourself out.

In my article, 6 Ways To Prevent Blogger Burnout, I mentioned the importance of coming up with a comfortable blogging schedule.

Therefore, you should know if you are capable of publishing blog posts:

• On a daily basis.
• A few days in the week.
• On a weekly basis.
• On a fortnightly basis.
• On a monthly basis.

Now, it is most obvious that you should stay away from publishing blog posts on a daily basis if you are only capable of publishing blog posts on a weekly basis.

In my case, I publish blog posts on a daily basis, because I am quite comfortable with that blogging schedule and it is also done out of a sense of discipline (I have been posting articles that were no less than 1000 words since Renard’s World was launched).

So, my friend, it all boils down to utilising a blogging schedule that you are most comfortable with.

Should You Go Self-Hosted?

Now, it all depends on the type of blog that you wish to have.

I would recommend the self-hosted version of WordPress for those people who are interested in running a business-related blog (However, they must know what they are doing, because there is no room for mistakes when you are running a self-hosted blog).

If you lack the expertise to run a self-hosted blog you can:

• Lose everything if you fail to backup your blog.
• Get hacked; which usually happens when you take the security aspects of running a self-hosted blog for granted.
• Unwillingly spread malware on the internet; which happens when you do not update your plugins in a timely manner.

That is merely a handful of things that can go wrong when one is running a self-hosted blog and I do not want to scare anyone from going in the direction of self-hosted by adding any more negative things.

But, if you are the tech savvy type of blogger who knows what it is that they are doing, then by all means, a self-hosted blog might be perfect with you.

What a lot of people do not know is, that the Happiness Engineers handle all of the technical stuff on the WordPress-hosted blogs (WordPress.com); which is the reason why things go smoothly.

If you are running the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org), you are responsible for all of the technical aspects — it is up to you to make sure that your blog gets a clean bill of health.

Also, there is nothing wrong in setting up a blog on WordPress.com; it is ideal for those folks who are not tech savvy and wish to concentrate all of their efforts on producing content.

And, let us not forget, that there is the option to upgrade to a top-level domain on WordPress.com.

Should You Post Long-Form Content?

To be quite honest with you, it is not mandatory to post long-form content on your blog.

Just in case you are new to blogging and you have no idea what long-form content is, I would say that long-form content is an article that is 1200 words and over.

However, in regards to a business-related blog, I would recommend that you publish long-form content.

Why?

Because it is better for SEO.

In regards to personal blogs, you can choose any amount of words that you like (And, most personal bloggers would prefer to keep their blog posts short).

From a factual point of view, if you are capable of putting your point across in 750 words, there is no need for you to go beyond that word count.

Also, personal bloggers should stick to whatever word count that they are comfortable with (As a matter of fact, they should disregard the word count; doing so will allow them to have fun blogging. Whereas, sticking to a word count would make a newbie blogger feel as though they are undergoing some gruesome form of punishment).

Should You Blog Anywhere?

Now, it all depends on what type of blog that you intend on running.

If it is one that deals with business, I recommend self-hosting, because you are granted the freedom of doing anything with your blog from day one.

But, if it is a personal blog you are free to choose the following blogging platforms:

• WordPress.com
• Blogger
• Medium
• Weebly

By the way, it is also okay, to run a personal blog that is self-hosted (It is all a matter of preference and the types of things that you intend to do with your blog).

Most of the personal bloggers that I know are quite happy with WordPress.com.

For the record, I would not discourage anyone from setting up a blog on a blogging platform that provides a free service (But, they should make note of the fact, that there are limitations when it comes to free blogs).

There are no limitations where self-hosted blogs are concerned; but you will suffer the negative consequences of things going wrong if you lack the knowledge of how to run a a self-hosted blog efficiently.

And, I would like to recommend, that people read the Terms of Service of any blogging platform before creating a free blog; it would provide them with a greater understanding of the things that can cause their free blog to be terminated.

Final Thoughts

I do hope that I have clarified a few points for you and that blogging is no longer confusing (or not as confusing) for you.

I also encourage you to do your personal research on the things that I have mentioned.

The truth is that any person can learn the basics of blogging at the pace that is convenient for them.

And, please make an extra effort to learn about blogging from well-trusted and reliable sources.

By the way, if you believe that other people can benefit greatly by the information that is within this blog post, you are more than welcome to share it via your favourite social media.

And, thank you for hanging out with me on Renard’s World.

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