Guardian Masterclass - My Blogging Story
Post on 29-Jun-2015
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My blogging story
Who am I? !
Mark Jenkins !
32, User Experience Designer !
I’ve been blogging for 7 years !
I love design !
I love messing around on the internet
So, why did I start blogging?
I needed a new challenge and was slightly bored in
my job…
…so I had some ‘free time’ to ‘tinker’ around
with the internet…
…I’ve always had a (very) keen interest in both electronic music and
street art and graffiti…
…So I asked a ‘techie’ friend
!
“What do you know about blogging and
WordPress?”
…his reply
“Give it a go!”
I bought some cheap web hosting…
…Read a guide to installing WordPress
…and that was it !
I WAS AWAY!
I started my first blog in December 2007 with some ‘free time’ over the Christmas period
And set myself a challenge…
My challenge was to
POST POSITIVE
So I continued to write
POSITIVELY
Reviewing music I liked
POSITIVELY
I kept badgering away with my blog posts
POSITIVELY
I never thought that my blogs would become
‘successful’ and be read by thousands of people
I started blogging purely for fun
!
As a place to write about what I liked
!
An ‘online diary’ of sorts
The months went on
One thing led to another
The blog became popular
I was invited on trips to Paris (3 times),
Amsterdam and Belgium
We were on the radio
I now run and write for two blogs and one for
my online portfolio
Friedmylittlebrain !Started in 2007 !Covers electronic and hip hop music !4 writers !2000+ Facebook Fans 1500+ Twitter Followers
UK Street Art !Started in 2008 !Covers Street Art and Graffiti !3 writers !70,000+ Facebook Fans 15,000+ Twitter Followers
And I started to use WordPress for my design work, helping clients to
get to grips with the platform
I’ve designed and set up WordPress blogs and websites for Time Out, Fallon London,
Shopcade, and my own company
What did I learn?
Once the blogs started to become popular I
became inundated with email!
Since the beginning…
15,738 emails !
to Friedmylittlebrain
11,234 emails !
to UK Street Art
Traffic
“When I started blogging, I hoped that I would get a ton of traffic
through search engines because all of the other popular blogs got a lot of Google love. The reality is you won’t
get too much traffic from Google because your blog is new…it takes years before your search engine
traffic kicks in.” !!
Neil Patel co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics
Design matters
The size of your !
Fonts Typography
Spacing !
are all small things that are part of your design. These elements can have a big impact on whether your content
will be read or not
Be Social
Build up your social media profiles and share links to your blog and blog posts to increase
incoming traffic to your blog !
This is one of the best and quickest ways to get new eyes on your blog posts
Be Consistent
I soon realised that by not being consistent, the
blog traffic dropped considerably
Some of my Google Analytics stats and what
they meant for consistency on UK Street Art
Example 1 !
4th April 2013 to 4th May 2013
6,325 Unique users 32,381 Page Views
3.8 pages per session 2.39% Bounce Rate
Example 2 !
4th April 2014 to 4th May 2014
4,546 Unique users 8,697 Page Views
1.73 pages per session 68.87% Bounce Rate
Example 3 !
1st Jan 2011 to 31st Dec 2011
130,516 Unique Users 407,684 Page Views
2.05 pages per session 69.52% Bounce Rate
Example 4 !
1st Jan 2013 to 31st Dec 2013
67,354 Unique users 158,000 Page Views
1.75 pages per session 71.41% Bounce Rate
Embrace Mobile
Mobile isn’t a bubble that is going to burst
Make sure your content is readable on various
devices
Did I ever get paid?
YES !
To date I have made £275 from Google Adsense
!Made around £1000 from sponsored articles
!So it’s never been a huge amount…
I’ve always blogged because I loved it.
!
Anything else was a bonus
How did I keep it up?
I blog when I want to
!My advice is to blog when you want to, not when
you feel you have to – it’s more natural !
There’s no rules on when you should blog !
Set subjects, What time, Which day !
Unless you’ve set those rules…
How has blogging changed for me?
New services and platforms
!Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the list goes on
!Social Media can be quite like a blog, a daily
update on your life, your business, your interests, with text, photos and videos
Has blogging led to paid work for me?
Indirectly, yes !
I always bring up my blogs, blogging and my involvement with Guardian Masterclasses at job
interviews !
I find it helps to show that I do have interests outside of Design and User Experience
!
Blogging in the future?
New platforms will emerge
People will continue to have things to talk about
There’s always someone out there who wants to
read about what you write about
10 Golden Rules
for writing a blog and building an audience
Be yourself
Above all, blogging should be fun !
Write about something you know and feel passionate about !
Write about what you want, as often as you want !
It’s easy to lose sight of what you’re doing and why. It’s useful to remind yourself of this often. A good test to keep coming
back to with your blog is !!
“Would I read this?”
Be specific
A common mistake of new bloggers is to try and write about everything. This can be confusing for readers who need to be
able to ‘get’ your blog very quickly !
Identify what it is you have to say, what makes your voice unique and different from everyone else
Be user-focused
The internet is one of the most democratising, useful technologies every invented – and yet it’s remarkable how
many sites dictate to or ignore the user !
Look at your site with a stranger’s eyes !
Why am I here? !
What impression am I getting? !
How do I navigate and find more content? !
What are my next steps?
Be concise
The average time spent on a web page is less than a minute, and many users leave after 10-20 seconds
!Structure your pieces with this in mind: write engaging introduction, put your most important arguments first
!Experiment and mix up your formats if they work for your
content: break up text with bullet points and pull quotes, try posts that are lists, video or photo only posts, stories and
links of the week
Be consistent
It doesn’t matter how often you update, but if readers come to expect a post every week, try to deliver – disappointed
readers may not come back !
If you drastically change the focus of your blog or change your opinion, be open and honest – explain what you’re doing
and why you are doing it
Be patient
Be realistic about what you expect from your blog !
Don’t expect it to be an overnight success !
Don’t expect your blog to make you a fortune, instantly !
Don’t always worry too much about the look of your site, this can be improved iteratively
Leave room to experiment - try different ways of writing
!Set yourself realistic targets and strategies for achieving
Be social
If you’re serious about growing an audience for your, then social media will be invaluable for you
!Use it as a tool to engage your audience and drive them back
to the fresh content you have written !
Make contact with other bloggers !
Get involved in discussions on related blogs !
Consider offering other blogs a guest post !
Encourage commenting !
If readers take the time to comment, reciprocate
Be clever
There’s a huge amount of information on the internet !
Look for ways to promote your blog that won’t cost you !
Be aware of other blogs in your area !
Ask yourself why you like or dislike them !
What can you do that they can’t? !
Why would potential readers visit yours over theirs?
Be brave
Blogging can be an exposing thing to do and criticism is a fact of life on the internet
!Listen to feedback
!Try not to take criticism personally
!Don’t be afraid of having a strong or controversial opinion
!You will find it fairly difficult to break WordPress
Try things out!
Be suspicious
Of anyone who talks for 45 minutes and tells you that there are 10 Golden Rules of Blogging
!––––––––––––––––––––––––
!The best blogging is eccentric and unexpected
!If you love what you’re writing, keep doing it
!The internet is a big enough place that
there’s an audience for pretty much anything
Thank you! !Mark Jenkins UX Web Lead !theluckystrike.co.uk @markjenkins
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