Shine With Grace: More Lessons Learnt From Blogging That Also Apply To Other Areas Of Life (And Vice Versa)

More Lessons Learnt From Blogging That Apply To Other Areas Of Life (And Vice Versa)

Published August 10th, 2007 in Blogs, Gratitude, Success, Life, Blogging, Thoughts.

My Lessons I Learnt From Blogging That Apply To Other Areas Of Life (And Vice Versa) post last week earned Shine With Grace record high readership and a whole new bunch of excellent blogging buddies, especially when Darren the Problogger grouped it into the first batch of the Reader Blog Tips. (Thank you Darren!) From this experience I learn some more lessons:

Don’t be (too) shy…

“Build it and they will come” is the biggest myth of the blogosphere. Even your writing may beat Shakespeare, the cruel fact is your blog can still have no readers if you don’t tell people that your star is born. Submit to the social bookmarking sites and search engines, join blogging networks, leave comments in fellow blogs, participate in discussion forums… Make yourself known.

The lesson learnt? In life and in blogging, just don’t be (too) shy - circulate, introduce yourself, participate, and of course, perform your best - and you won’t be short of opportunities.

Be a lucky person

I have to say that luck has played an integral part in my blogging journey. What I don’t lack from the very start is the stream of “blogging angels” who leave encouraging/insightful comments, review this blog with thorough research, point directions and give constructive advices… which paved a pretty direct route for Shine to follow.

The lesson learnt? Get lucky - and be grateful. Indeed I found that the more I appreciate the good things in life (and in blogging), more good things happen, more great timing I get hold of and more angels I bump into…

Interact and communicate

One thing I enjoy most about blogging is the conversations it generate. I jump to the sky every time a reader drops me a line, share his/her views, tell a story, recommend a book/post/site… I learn a lot from the comments here, as well as in other blogs. For many times through the discussions we dig deeper into the topics, or gain brand new understanding of the issues.

The lesson learnt? Everybody is unique and has valuable experience/knowledge to share. Meet people from different walks of life, talk with them, listen closely and you may discover a whole new perspective.

There is no failure, only experience

As I am so new to blogging, everything, including the blog platform, the layout, the topics to write, the blogging style, posting frequency… is all experiment. Slowly from the results of these experiments, I figure out what works and what doesn’t. You never know until you try it yourself.

The lesson learnt? We all need to try out a few things before we find out what works. It is a natural process and we learn over the course. Therefore, there is no need to take ourselves too seriously for there is indeed no failure, only experience.

Be generous

I love writing link post and sharing my experience - whenever I discover a great site I couldn’t help but bookmark it and feature it, and from time to time I share lessons I learn with my readers. I didn’t realise it at the very beginning but then I find that indeed everytime you share something really useful, even more bounces back. Therefore, never hold back your appreciation towards others, share a tip / an experience if you do think that they are helpful. People do appreciate it.

The lesson learnt? For me, it is always true that the more you give, the more you get. And, just give with no expectation of gaining anything back - and you will find that life becomes even sweeter and less stressful.

The RIGHT people count

I don’t know about you but I have been pretty obsessed with checking the statistics at the beginning of my blogging (and well, there was not much to check indeed…). Numbers are important, of course. But gradually, I also find that numbers only reflect part of the story - it’s not just the people, but the RIGHT people that count. I love it when the numbers go up. I am thrilled everytime an insightful comments is received.

The lesson learnt? Numbers can come and go - it’s the RIGHT people who stick. In blogging and in life, don’t just cultivate numbers, groom your target customers.

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Note: Cartoons adapted from gapingvoid.com

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6 Responses to “More Lessons Learnt From Blogging That Apply To Other Areas Of Life (And Vice Versa)”

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1 Matthew Blancarte Aug 11th, 2007 at 1:39 am

Nice article. Networking is definitely crucial to getting your name out there.
2 Michael from Pro Blog Design Aug 14th, 2007 at 8:33 pm

Great tips. One of the most important things for me is to be humble. I’ve spoken to a lot of bloggers who I really admire, and can easily imagine them as being out of reach. When you see how down to earth they are, your opinion of them shoots up further than ever before.
3 shine Aug 15th, 2007 at 1:20 pm

Hi Matthew and Michael,

Thanks for your kind words and glad that you found the post useful. I have to mention it (again) that blogging is such a great exercise - especially the chance to meet and chat with so many interesting people and learn from each other.

Nice meeting you both!