Seeing as how I've recently inspired somebody to get into this blogging madness, I figure I may as well take a little time to do one of these things about a few of the things I've learned over the years I've been doing it myself.
To be honest here, this is as much for my own good as anybody's, really. Most of these are things I need to be reminded of every now and again myself, after all. And this is after having done things like this for quite literally decades now. I have a little trouble believing that myself every time I write or say that. But anyway, here are a few things I've learned in the time this stuff out.
First off is having a schedule of some sort or another. A good number of the content creators of various sorts that actually do this sort of thing for money, if not for a living, have a schedule of some sort. Most, if not all, of the streamers I watch regularly have one so their audience at least know what days they're on, if not what they'll be doing on their channels. There are a handful of YouTubers who do the same.
I used to do the same myself, back when I was taking all this more seriously than I have for quite a while now. I think the last time I had anything like a formal schedule of my own was going on ten years ago now, back when I was still having my first go at being a streamer, which ended about as well as one might think, considering that I was trying to do news, current events and talk. But as was so often the case, I fell off one last time at some point in the last eight to ten years and never really went back to having a formal written schedule. Doing something like that again would probably do me some good, and I'll try to do something like that in the near future.
The point of my having a schedule, or at least something like it, anyway, would be so that I could remember that I was actually setting time aside to actually work on the various writing and other projects I've got going on at any given moment instead of constantly telling myself that oh, I don't feel like doing it on a given day or night or whatever and never getting anywhere with it as much as it would be to tell any audience I might still have at this point what's coming and potentially when. Some of the creators I follow actually do specific dates for things, too. If I'd managed to stick with schedules all these years, I'd probably be like that myself. Unfortunately, that's not what happened, and here we are, sadly.
Another thing I used to do on a somewhat more regular basis was put out posts about the next three or four topic ideas I had. This was something I did most frequently when a website called Channel Awesome had a community blog section that I was submitting to. That's not been an option for a good five or six years now, and given what I understand was going on behind the scenes with all that, I've come to the conclusion that it's probably for the best that all that business didn't work out the way I was hoping it might when it was something I was able to do. But the idea of having a list like that, and maybe even publishing parts of it from time to time, is a good one, I think, and something I should maybe start doing again.
This last bit is something I may go into more detail about at some point, but that will have to be its own post and/or video for another time. You see, I'm sure I've mentioned a time or two over the years that I'd like to do this sort of thing for a bit of money, at least on the side. Because I haven't exactly figured out how, exactly, I'm going to make that happen, I'm going to need to keep my day job. Even if I do manage to get that bit sorted, I'm probably going to want to keep a day job, at least to some extent, and would recommend the same to anybody I might happen to inspire to get into this madness.
It's not because I doubt anybody's abilities in the slightest, even my own, though it may seem like I do sometimes. It's just that I know myself well enough to know that I need to get out of the house on a regular basis, and that I'm not generally inclined to do so if I don't have commitments that require me to do so. Having a day job is a good reason to get out and do something else on a somewhat regular basis.
I think that's all I've got on this front for now. There's a good chance I'll come up with more later, and if there's anything of this nature anybody thinks I might be able to help with, I'll do my best. Even if I'm not of any use myself, I might be able to direct to someone who is, and we may even all learn something in the process.
Until next time, I'm going to get to work on some of the other stuff I need to get finished. See you then.
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