I picked up my Surface Go and opened WordPress while I thought about what to work on next. I flipped through the app’s menu options until I landed on statistics. That is when I noticed the total number of posts on Techbloggingfool was sitting at 299.  Wow, had I really written that much?

I started this blog out of curiosity more than anything else. I remember wanting to learn more about how public websites worked. I thought about how much I have learned from other people’s technical writings. I wanted to continue the tradition and add what I have learned to the mix. Thus, Techbloggingfool.com was born.

I had expected to write a handful of posts and to spend enough time with WordPress to figure it out. I thought if I made it a year, I would be doing pretty well. I figured if a hundred people visited, it would be enough to claim success. That would be enough to learn how web analytics worked.

Six years later, I’ve got more than 350,000 views from a quarter of a million people. According to IP GEO location, someone from every country on Earth has visited the site. While those stats aren’t even a tiny blip compared to most tech blogs, it is far more attention than I had ever intended to attract.

Now that I find myself writing the ubiquitous “How I got this far” post.  it’s surprisingly difficult to define why I keep writing well after my original goals were accomplished.  I occasionally refer to some of my own articles from time to time, almost like a notebook of sorts. I also point at the blog during job interviews as proof that I can deliver on the promise of “good documentation.” I don’t think either of those are the real motivation though.

I have to say that my favorite effect from writing the blog happens when I find out that I helped someone.  Getting feedback that my instructions or the way I set something up helped a reader accomplish their goals is just one of the best feelings.

All tech is a complicated web of simple ideas layered on and linked to each other. Figuring out how the stack works can be difficult for all of us sometimes. I know how relieved I feel when I find the post or video that helps me move forward. It is fantastic to know I have helped others get that relief, too.

If you are considering starting your own blog, the best advice I can give is to stop thinking and start writing.  Using a host like WordPress, Square Space, or GoDaddy is a real labor-saver. They take care of the servers, software, IP and DNS info, certificates, patching, backups, and everything else that goes into hosting public websites.  They also give you the framework and tools that make creating your blog as easy as writing a Word document.

There are lots of resources for aspiring bloggers online. The KnowledgeBase section of your hosting provider’s site is a good place to start. I know that WordPress runs a blog about blogging, check it out https://wordpress.com/create-blog/. For the most part, though, I winged it.  It shows, especially in my early posts.

I have always tried to post a minimum of one article per week. I don’t worry about original topics like some pros advise. You can find dozens of articles that explain almost any technical subject. The originality in my writings comes from my experiences, personality, prose, and my take on the subject at hand.  Often, I write about solutions that I came up with when searching the Internet didn’t provide a satisfactory answer.

The most difficult part of blogging for me is the media creation. Text only blogs do exist, but they aren’t very engaging in my opinion.  Making pictures and videos to help visualize complicated instructions is time consuming no matter what software you use. I enjoy flexing my creative muscle but there are six posts in my queue behind this one that are finished except for the visuals.

As I sit here and finish the three hundredth post, I’ve thought of an idea of what to write about next. Who knows how long I’ll keep it going for? Thanks for reading. Subscribe in the WordPress App to get notified about new articles. Leave a comment or a like if something I wrote helped you out.