I made a commitment to myself earlier this to only blog from experience. What does that mean? It means that everything you read here at wpdude.com is something I’ve done. No theory, no hypothetical situations, just things I really have experience with.
As a result I think my writing has improved, I think I can help you the reader and I’m definitely getting more feedback and shares when I blog from experience.
In this post I want to talk about what blogging from experience means to me.
People Want Real Not Hypothetical
I’ve been guilty in the past of blogging about things I’ve not tried, but things I’ve read about or know about in theory. The trouble is people see through the fact you’ve not done it. You cannot point to concrete things you have done and as a result I’ve found that those type of posts don’t resonate with people and I don’t get much feedback in the way of comments or share on social media.
Types Of Posts I’m Writing
I’m writing the following types of post now from my own experience:
Case studies – I write up real world problems I have solved on my own site or on my clients sites.
Plugin reviews – I’ve stopped writing plugin reviews for plugins I have not used for a prolonged period of time on my site. In the past I’ve been guilty of writing plugin review for premium plugins I’ve only used for a very short time in the hope of chasing the dollar. I cannot write about something I’ve not used in depth with any authority.
Online marketing strategies I have used on my own site – I love writing about online marketing, but I’ll only write about things I’ve tested here at wpdude.com. For example I don’t think I’ve ever written about any Facebook strategies here at wpdude.com. Why? I don’t actively use Facebook I don’t like the site very much in fact and I’m not interested in investing lots of marketing time there, contrary to what the social media gurus tell me. So no real experience, no blog posts about FB.
People Want Real World Scenarios
People want actionable information, not fluff and theory. They want to follow step by step processes that are know to work (in my opinion anyway). They want to be follow the example of someone who has done what they want to do and has real world results.
There Is A Lot Of Stuff Out There
There are millions of blogger out there all vying for attention, all spinning the same yarn, the only way I can see to differentiate myself is by telling my own personal story from my own personal experience.
What’s the point in adding to the info din unless it is with information you can stand behind?
Are You Blogging From Experience?
Are you telling your real story or faking it till you make it?
3 thoughts on “Blogging From Experience”
I really appreciate what it takes to be as honest and real as you have committed to be. I am such a newbe to all of this, (first time on a computer in ten yrs.- a yr. ago) that I know I will enjoy following your blog and learning from you. I am learning from doing my own blog and I am working on one for a newspaper as well. I wish I could just not use fb, but unfortunately it does have substantial merit in social media development. Complicates my world for sure. Right now I need to find a plugin for doing contests. The newspaper wants to run a contest where visitors vote on their favorite ‘positive’ article. Of course somehow it has to be tied into fb..somehow, yippee! I am using the latest version of WordPress, and my hosting account is through Arvix. Hope you may have some ideas for me..wishing you the best as well!! (p.s. This is my first time writing on a blog!)
Hi Traci
Thanks for your comment.
I cannot think of a plugin that will allow competitions with Fb integration.
Why not setup a custom page with a list of articles and have a like button next to the article, you can collect likes and manually process the users from facebook.
Interesting post, Neil… I do think there’s a balance in this, particularly as social media tends to create a blur between real and hypothetical. I believe we are in danger of re-writing the definition of reality, thanks to FB and tweeting. Unfortunately, the masses seem to enjoy watching (and helping) things go viral with very little fact checking. Like the previous poster, I find myself somewhat forced to use Facebook… but so far refuse to let it control what I do and don’t subscribe to the social media guru’s philosophy that it’s the answer to every marketing challenge. I do think it’s possible to put too much of self into one’s work… maybe?
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