Everyone has failures in our lives and only by learning from them do we improve ourselves and succeed in our goals.
The quote above is from the the site of Ian Hedges who was the winner of the blog review in my recent Pimp My Blog contest. His blog title is “Failure is the Key to Success“, and he has been blogging for just over 2 years, most regularly for the last 6 months, posting several times a week. He uses a blog system I had never heard of called Thingamablog. I asked Ian if he was pleased with it:
I quite like Thingamablog. My hosting package didn’t have a database, so I was unable to use Wordpress. I found Thingamablog, which uses a local database and then publishes the changed pages. I have been able to adjust the html and style sheets of the templates to get the current layout and look. It is a straight forward program with a Java frontend to the database. Unfortunately, things like Technorati tags have to added manually to the post as the post entry template cannot be changed from the default. The disadvantage of a local database is that I can only blog from home where I have access to the database. Also, I miss out on all the varied Wordpress plugins, so maybe one day I’ll upgrade my package to one that includes a database and migrate to Wordpress.
Ian’s blog posts are mostly personal, and he isn’t concerned with monetizing his blog. He is interested in growing his readership, however, and while his posts are interesting, his site could do with more “focus” if he is to grow his readership in any substantial way. It is a rare blogger who can increase their traffic much with posts that are mostly of a day to day personal nature. Readers will return and subscribe if they are helped, amused, inspired, etc., but you’ll end up with very little growth without providing regular benefit to your readers. I know this because I have a site where I just post personal things, and it’s really only ever interested friends and family for the most part. This is not to say that Ian never provides benefit and even amusement to his readers- he certainly does. (I particularly appreciated the post he wrote about anti-virus software. I had not heard of the free program he’s using – sounds very good.) My observation is simply that focusing on whatever Ian is an expert at that others might be interested in learning would be good for growth, for example, self-improvement and motivational type posts, as the blog title hints at might be a good choice. You can read more about why Ian titled his blog as he did here.
Some design improvements could certainly be made, but Ian may be somewhat limited with the system he’s on, so I hesitate to say much on that subject. Migrating to WordPress and choosing a sharp theme would be a good step. Stop over and get to know him when you get a chance! Thanks again to Ian for participating in my little contest.
This is useful. I have been blogging for a year too and I think one of two things work in increasing readership and retaining existing readers: focus (your point above) or the quality of your writing (humorous, insightful, etc.).
Hi Randa,
Thank you for your review. I can see your point about focusing more in my area of expertise to give the blog a direction and provide value.
I agree with you, migrating to Wordpress is something that needs to happen sooner than later.
I will try to take your suggestions on board and be more focused.
Regards,
Ian
Well things aint so good for mine. My blog aint attracting too much visitors. Perhaps its my English. Well, back to English classes again..
Interesting article. Indeed, failure can be a key to success if you are strong and whise enough to use it that way:) But also improvement will help and WordPress is the next step for you, Ian. Regarding your english, most of bloggers and guests are not native english speakers and they make mistakes, important is that your articles are interesting, insightful. But since improvement is also a key to success, take the english classes (I know I should
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Using an old sport saying “you learn more from losing than you do winning”
One cannot achieve success without prior failures. Failures make a person grow in maturity. I have personally gone through many failures, and when a similar situation arises, i now know how to handle it.
Very well said! I’m blogging for an year or so, and made some real blunders, but in fact learnt a lot from my failures. Must say, I won’t have learnt if not committed such mistakes.
Just saw Ian’s site. Good to learn from people’s failure and experience
Stumbled across your blog — enjoyed reading it. Added you to my feed reader and will be back.
Thomas Edison’s unparalleled success as an American inventor was not without its failures. As a matter of fact, before making the first successful light bulb, he made several thousand unsuccessful ones.