My blog has lasted for a while. Both in my mind, and in reality. By virtue of this time, not enough articles have been posted on it.
Starting a blog at the time I did was a big competition for me. An inner competition. I wanted to cover up with the years I lost due to inaccessibility to the Internet. I have always wanted to blog, way before Linda Ikeji started (when it was called a weblog).
In the mid 2000s, I read a lot about information products (ebooks etc). I learnt so much about them by going to cafe’s. In fact, I had already chosen a niche.
In the end I could not consummate my passion.
Painful.
Later on, I began to learn “how to write sales letters”, in the days of Warrior forum and the likes. I followed Akin Alabi and even went for one of his seminars on Internet marketing (around 2008).
It wasn’t until I got a job in a tech company, that I was able to start my blog on WordPress (free). By then, the zeal had died. It was just to “fulfill righteousness”.
After doing a review especially when I was being bothered about not doing anything to contribute to the internet, I discovered that writing was going to help me in my job – Software Testing. Software testers do a lot of writing. From test plans, to test cases, to reporting bugs.
Finding a bug is not enough. The found bug has to be clearly communicated to the developer in a way that avoids confusion. 
I still didn’t do much writing after this discovery.
Then came the intimidating bloggers I found online.
John Saddington, Leo Babauta, Seth Godin, James Clear, Andrew Chen, Shane Parrish, Maria Popova, Tim Ferriss, Michael Cox and many others. I confused myself the more by copying these bloggers. By trying to find a niche I was passionate about and write about it.
There is no single hack or trick in the ‘books’, or on blogs that did not try or read at least.
- Tracking words.
- Writing everyday challenge.
- Buying a Kindle with a Bluetooth keyboard.
- Keeping a spark file.
- Using Do Note to send article drafts to Evernote.
- Using Evernote web clipper.
- Using Simplenote, because it is minimal.
- Writing only on weekends.
- Writing during my work breaks.
- Using an outline.
- Changing blog themes a dozen times.
- Taking voice notes, and transcribing to text.
- Creating an alternative location (blog) to write just about anything, no matter how short.
Today, I have finally decided to upgrade from Writing 2.0 to Writing 3.0. (Cliche stuff eh!. Simply put as ‘the next level’)
How?
- No niche or central topic (I believe this will come with time).
- Writing with a specific ‘real’ person in mind.
- Writing anything from 250 words upwards (cue taken from Freeman Lafleur).
- Not calling myself a blogger or writer, or anything close to it (to avoid unnecessary pressure).
- Simply ‘doing’ without ceremonies or rituals.
Let’s see how this new ‘version’ of writing goes. This article is already 500+ words long.
It works!
