Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development

Tag: Blogging (Page 6 of 8)

Yet Another Blog (Gotta Go Your Own Way)

This blog has been discontinued and you can read more about it in this post.

The idea of starting another blog seems daunting especially when I try to write for this one on a daily basis. But to say that I enjoy writing is a bit of an understatement.

The other caveat is that I try to be pretty focused on the type of material that I write about on this site. I’ve made some mistakes with this blog, sure, and I’m working on rectifying that especially over this next month.

Several things have come from this blog, though. For example, I get tweets, emails, and other forms of [sometimes creepy but maybe just kidding] messages about how I run my business, how I manage my time, what applications, sites, services, and so on that I recommend.

All of those topics are fun to talk about, but they don’t fit in with the whole idea of “a perspective on professional WordPress development.”

So what am I supposed to do when there’s more that I’d like to write about but don’t have a place to do it?

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Do You Even Bother with a Personal Blog?

So here’s a short digression from the usual run-of-the-mill WordPress development post for you:

Do you maintain any type of personal blog?

The reason I ask is because, as if it isn’t evident enough, I’m kind of a fan of this whole blogging thing. But the idea of managing any type of personal blog is something that comes with a set of choices. I’ll talk more about that more in a minute.

I think it gets a little more complicated when:

  • You have friends and/or a following who are also online.
  • You have kids you want to share things about but don’t want to share photos of them because of reasons.
  • You care about data ownership, so you’re not willing to necessarily share the information on other publishing platforms.
  • And other reasons (or maybe not depending on who you are).

Yes, I have a personal blog and no I don’t really use any other social networks (though I have accounts, they are basically placeholders). Furthermore, I don’t normally promote those posts anywhere else.

I publish, and it goes into the ether than is The Google.

Part of it because I ask myself: Who cares? After all, this site is the one I write for the most and that I enjoy writing for the most.

That’s just me, though.

But I’m specifically curious how you deal with aspects mentioned above when it comes to blogging that’s not directly related to some aspect of your profession and whether or not you’d like to do it or not.

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Advertisements via Postmatic

Advertisements are one of those things that I’ve always been careful about introducing because I don’t want them to clutter the content or feel too, you know, intrusive as it relates to reading this blog.

To that end, I’ve generally kept them pretty minimal in terms of what’s allowed to display on this site.

People get their content in so many different ways now (email, Twitter, etc.), and the landscape seemed to have changed for some once Google killed Reader. Then again, some of us still use a reader (what’s up, Feedly? :) for the majority of our content.

For those who read this site in your browser, you’ve no doubt noticed the advertisements in the sidebar. As stated, they’re minimal by design:

  • No animation
  • No sound
  • No attempt to be more intrusive than the content itself

This is because so many advertisements on the web are obnoxious. At the same time, running a site and promoting content from other companies and individuals within the WordPress economy is something I want to do.

It also helps the site to be self-sufficient in that it covers the costs of what’s needed to run the site, so that’s something I greatly appreciate.

As of today, I’m adding a similar setting for advertisements via Postmatic to display in the footer of my emails.

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Praise in Public, Reprimand in Private

“Praise in public, reprimand in private” is a phrase that I heard years ago (and I can’t remember who I actually heard say it first), but it was one of those things that stuck with me.

When you hear phrases like that, I think we often consider things like parenting, leadership, managing a team, or something similar. But do you ever think about it in terms of blogging, tweeting, or what we share online?

For anyone who works online the majority of the day and is engaged in some form of social media, I think we’re used to seeing people both praise and critique others be it via tweets, blog comments, and so on.

And sure, there’s something to be said for “calling people out” for whatever reason, but I think there’s something to be said for also handling some of that stuff privately.

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Introducing Shorter Blog Posts

In a previous post, I began talking about how one of the things I wanted to begin doing this year is to introduce shorter blog posts.

Notes

Because the truth is with the amount of information coming from other blogs, Twitter, and whatever other social networks and news sources you read, odds are that this site is one that can also be easily marked as read or thrown into Pocket oblivion never to be read again.

And I’m perfectly okay with that! But if I can make any changes on my end to help mitigate that, then why not?

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