Photo by dingbat2005

A long time ago, when I had just graduated and was starting off in my career as an engineer, we relocated into some new offices and on the wall was a sign which said:

“The only certainty, is Change”

It struck a chord with me, that Life is beset with Change, and we have to come to terms with the changes that go on around us and adjust our own worlds to live comfortably in the space we inhabit.  In a similar vein, my browsing journey across the blogosphere led me to some inspiration which has made me want to change the complete look and feel of the Technical Articles blog, because I realised something important.  So, please bear with me, and join me as I recall the steps to this decision which will set the blueprint for this site from now on.

In the Beginning

My blogging journey started in September 2008, as a need to create a web presence, and to look at how I could make money from this.  I had heard about blogs, but never really looked into them or got unduly excited about the phenomena.  Basically, I knew how the internet worked, and I knew I had to:

1. Get a Domain Name
2. Get some hosting space on a web-server
3. Put up some web-pages for people to visit

In essence, those fundamental steps apply in all cases, the challenge is in the detail and to what extent you want to do this.  I was n’t in the market to compete with web developers, but I soon learnt that you could very easily create a professional web-presence by using some Content Management System (CMS) platform like Wordpress.

In parallel, with sorting out the mechanics of doing this, I had to think what my website was going to be about.  I had worked in the Telecommunications industry, and had some good technical notes which I could write about, and make available to people, that’s really where the idea for the name for the site came from.  Also, I had now got interested in ‘blogging’, and ’search engine optimisation’ and how people promoted and sold things on the internet.  So, this hotch potch of things became my ‘raison d’etre’ for the site.

Technicalarticles.co.uk is launched

After all the preparation, the site was lauched in the beginning of October 2008, and I submitted it to all the search engines, and was really pleased with what I had done.  Great!!!  Now what!!!

How was anyone going to know about my site?  Yes, I’d got my site optimised as best I knew, and after a few days, when I did a search in Google and put my full site address in, it was able to find it.  But, if I did a search for something general, like ‘technical articles‘, it was on the 6th or 7th page.  This was after I’d added in some decent content and optimised this with key words.  This is when the fever set in!!!

I got this notion, and I’m sure most beginners do, that I had to write at least 3 or 4 posts a week, to build up my content and make Google’s indexing of my site more relevant.  I became, more and more stressed out trying to generate content and trying to meet my own self-imposed deadlines.  I could n’t keep up the original postings, and so I settled for doing at least two posts a week.  In between, I would spend time promoting the blog and building up awareness.  But it was becoming a chain around my neck, rather than something I enjoyed doing.

I was learning a lot, new ideas were flooding in and before I knew it I had become like the sorcerer’s apprentice, having so many things running that I could n’t keep all the plates spinning.  I imagine this experience is n’t new to me alone, everyone who gets the blogging bug, is enthused by it and sets off on a high.  We’re all flooded with good ideas and taken off on different directions and routes.  In my case, I was starting too many different projects, before I’d really got the first one established and bedded down.

Writing to a Purpose, the importance of Quality Content

I had to stop chasing all the hares, they were leading me all over the place.  It was time to re-focus, and look at what I was doing and get one thing right.  I began to drop all the other spinning plates, and keep one running, because it was time to ground my Self, to go back to the essence and find a new purpose.

When I started Technical Articles, I had the vision that it would be a magazine style web site rather than a blog, and I had settled for a theme that allowed me to do this.  As I wrote my articles, it was great to get the feedback from people who visited, and that’s when I realised the most important thing people visit your site for is because they like what you have to say.

It was the words, my own experience and the sharing of it that mattered to people, not how glitsy the site was.  It took me a long time to realise this, and I’m glad I realised it soon in my journey.  It’s not important, whether people come and go, it’s important that people come and stay, and want to keep coming back.  They want to bookmark your page, or subscribe to it in some news reader, or be notified of updates or new postings by email.  And, I don’t mean lured into signing up for a newsletter so you can get that free e-book which will make you rich overnight!  No, no, and no again.  Try and remember this next bit, because it’s taken me sometime to realise this:

Good content is not about QUANTITY, but about QUALITY.

So, if what you’re writing about is the most important thing, then remove all the other clutter from your website.  You want people to focus on your words, not the distractions.  A lot of whitespace is good, I find it easier to read an article.  That’s why I’ve completely remodelled the website on a different concept.  The focus, now is clearly on what I’m writing about, some easy navigation to help you find your way around, and lots of whitespace!!

Conclusions

The beautiful photo above is entitled Dawn in Donegal, and signals the Dawn of the new Technicalarticles website, and a change in direction.  I will still be writing about the same things, but my focus has changed from just generating a large quantity of content, to providing some quality content that people will value and will want to come and read.  And, that is the new blueprint that I’ll be following.

So embrace change when it happens, because it is a time to grow.  Having read this article, take time to review your own efforts, take a good look at what you’re doing, and think hard about what makes your website or blog stand out from the crowd.

Above all, make a difference.

Daniel Hunt

Futurepost:  In my next article, I want to share a video from Stanford University with my readers, for anyone who is into making money, this is a must watch video because it is so inspirational and is one of the reasons I have made the changes to my own website.

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