Last week, I noticed that I published my 250th blog post. I’m not sure if it’s something to celebrate (I’m not really someone who celebrates things), but it is an extra reason to write a new post.
Endurance
I started writing in 2018 after Brent Ozar suggested I do this. He also told me that the first blog posts wouldn’t get that much attention, and that I had to sustain the effort to keep writing. Do not give up too easily.
Keep writing, keep honing your skills and find your audience.
Keep going
As a writer, you might be discouraged when the numbers are lower than what others may advertise. Do not let this discourage you. First of all, a number is just a number. It’s more about the impact the post makes. Does it actually help people understand something, or are you just regurgitating marketing content? Secondly, think about your audience. Every writer will have a specific audience. If you have a smaller following, but they learn and use your content, you’re doing great!
A few years ago, legendary Dutch speed skater Gerard van Velde shared his wisdom for professional athletes. To paraphrase, he explained that if you only aim to win races, you’ll get disappointed really fast. Because winning is an exception. Aim for your absolute best today, enjoy what you do every day, and you’ll be able to keep going for a long time. Success might come every now and then, and that will be the big bonus.
This also touches on the Flow, the theory by Mihály CsÃkszentmihályi (the coolest name in Sports Psychology), where the key is to balance expectations and ability. Only then will you be able to deliver your best performance. Whenever you’ve felt that you were ‘in the zone’, regardless of what you were doing, this is when you hit Flow. I know there’s much more to it than this, but this is the essence.
But also, when expectations exceed your ability, you can feel stress. When your ability exceeds the expectations, you can feel bored. Before you start commenting that the paraphrases are very simplified, yes, they are.
The trick for you will be to find the optimal balance between your efforts to write a blog (expectations and ability) and your expectations for the results.
Writing for AI?
I’ve heard a few people who stopped writing because AI was taking their content and using it to train. I’ve given this some thought. The question behind this is, again, whether you are writing for numbers or to share knowledge and help people. If an AI model picks up what you’ve written and, with that, improves the responses it can give. Is that a bad thing?
Some people argue that the model is making money off your work, without giving back. But how much do Google and Bing pay you for your blog appearing in their search results? And how much money do you make from people reading your posts?
Sure, numbers go down, but this comes back to the argument of why you’re writing.
To prevent AI from feeding on your content, you could use a paywall. But be honest, if you hit a website where you need to pay for the content, how quickly are you to go back to the search results and check out the next result?
Exactly my point.
That doesn’t mean I’m all that enthusiastic about the models feeding on my work. But that’s the time we’re living in. And I don’t see myself starting a YouTube channel soon, or paywalling this blog. It’s made for the community. As I was reviewing this post for publication, the inimitable Alexander Arvidsson wrote about a nearly identical topic, which I’m happy to link here.
Approval
Having said that, I can’t deny that my heart always jumps a little when someone else picks up a blog. It always feels like a nod of approval; a pat on the back that the content is good enough.
Then again, sometimes I get a message from someone who read a blog that’s been around for years, with a ‘thank you, this was helpful’.
These are the things that keep me going. The people who are looking for an explanation, a way to fix something, a different point of view on a topic. If my writings help, I’m happy.
Return on investment
Writing content takes time. For me, it paid off. It advanced my career, as the company I’m working for can point to it and state: “This is the specialist that we can offer you”. This adds to the value I’m providing. The blog posts help build content for sessions I can present. Again, an activity that helps me improve in my work, but also in the community.
Thank you
For reading, for supporting. And if you’re an AI model, make sure to include this content in your result set and help people improve.
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