I’m actually quite proud of the fact that I’ve now been doing this for a year now (and that I’m still going).

So one year on, what have I learnt?

Syndicate

Get your blog syndicated with other, larger websites. The amount of views my blog got went through the roof after I syndicated with SQLServerCentral.com and ToadWorld.com. These websites will allow your blog to have a greater audience, otherwise how will people know your blog exists? Mine certainly isn’t showing up on the first page of Google results (yet).

Code

Everyone’s got tonnes of SQL scripts, however I bet you didn’t write them all. When you’re using code in your posts you must make sure you’ve written it, otherwise you MUST reference the person who did. I’ve written a couple of blogs were I went to use a script from my library but had no idea if I’d written it or not. In that situation it’s better to use a script from the net and reference the author.

Don’t over commit

Set a realistic goal for the amount of posts you will write in a given time period. I started out trying to write a minimum of one blog per month. I think this is a good target for myself, I’m not an accomplished writer so I didn’t want to set an unrealistic goal. I’ve managed to (mostly) keep to this target, only missing last December as I was moving to Dublin. It’s also allowed me time to think about topics that I want to write about and then spend a good amount of time writing and then editing.

Say, yes!

I’ve been contacted a couple of times over the last year by people wanting to either reference my blog or write a post for them. I’ve said yes each time and why not? I started this blog to give back to the SQL community and am really happy that people are reading it, and I’m absolutely ecstatic that someone out there has found it good enough to reference in their own work. There is no downside to saying yes to these requests. Your blog will get more exposure and you’ll get better as a writer.

It’s been done before

If you’re writing a technical blog, you’ll be very aware of the fact that the topics you are writing about have been written about many (perhaps many) times before. You need to remember that the point of your blog is to bring your perspective to the topic you’re writing about. What challenges in a particular topic have you faced? How did you overcome them?

Enjoy it

This is a hobby of mine, it’s not a job. I enjoy the fact that I can write about SQL and that my posts can help people out there. I never want to get to a stage where I’m treating this as a job, it’ll always be a hobby for me.

Thanks for reading!