Your First Post – are first impressions that important?
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If you’ve been blogging for a while I wonder if you even remember your first post?
Do you want to?
One of the blogs I write for uses the first post as the about us page (the text anyway). Whilst evaluating the blog for a redesign (time to clean out some of the cobwebs) I realised how far the blog has come in style and how many of the promised goals have been fulfilled. Fortunately the style has greatly improved! Some of the goals were realised whilst others were abandoned as the blog organically grew.
So my question to you gentle reader is this:
Is it better to jump into the blogging river by taking a flying leap or is it better to dip your toe in and plan to ease in nice and carefully?
I know which one sounds like more fun!
But fun doesn’t always mean right. If we continue to use my example then jumping in can be full of all sorts of danger. What if the water is too shallow or there are rocks or mutated fish that can suck the salt out of your blood like that thing on Star Trek?
What if someone reads your first post and decides they don’t like it? What happens if you say you’re going to post every day of the week but wind up only posting twice a week?? What if you change what you write about???
If it’s a personal blog my advice is simple. Take the fun path! Most readers are going to judge you by your last post anyway not one you did months ago.
When Star Trek Deep Space Nine came out its first season at times was dull, awkward and cringe worthy. I count DS9 as some of the best Star Trek ever filmed thanks to strong later seasons. Certainly don’t get me wrong there was lots of great stuff in that first season but there was more potential than anything else.
Just like your first post.
Jump in and write something! Tell everyone a bit about yourself, what you hope to do with the blog. But get blogging! Don’t let that hello sit there for a month. The best introduction to your blog will no doubt be your next post.
Lee
Quit Your Day Job
Crypt Hunter
Pop Culture Heroines
Next up – “Hi my business name goes here and this is my blog“
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10 Comments on this post
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Tony said:
I’d think that one’s About page is much more likely to come up before a new reader finds that “first” post in the archives…
March 14th, 2007 at 1:47 am -
Lee said:
Yeah I think you’re completely right on that one Tony
March 14th, 2007 at 2:22 am -
Jennifer said:
Jump, Jump, Jump…. Woo Hoo…
March 14th, 2007 at 5:53 am -
Polli said:
Great post! I’m still working on both my first post AND my about me page (on my personal blog) so this was good food for thought.
March 14th, 2007 at 9:02 am -
Matt said:
the first post for this blog was sort of an “about page” as well
March 14th, 2007 at 10:31 am -
Ryan said:
It’s facinating to go back and read the first post on someone’s blog and see how the blog has evolved over months and years.
I went back and deleted my first posts because they were so awful I didn’t even want to read them.
My blog doesn’t let me control it. It has a life of it’s own… I just try to stay caught up.
March 14th, 2007 at 12:11 pm -
Mr. Fabulous said:
I am afraid to look at my first post…
You have been faved!
March 15th, 2007 at 1:35 am -
Lee said:
LOL Jennifer – glad you feel the same way – great blog by the way – I’ve added you to my reader now!
Polli – you have to let us know when you do post that first entry!
Matt – it seems like so long ago now – i remember that post vaguely!
Ryan – I’ve started doing that myself now – going back and having a look at the first posts.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:45 am -
Dr. Fong said:
Here is my question. When we do look back into our archives at those early posts what do we do when we find something that sucks? Should old blog posts be pruned? Or do we just let the bad ones pile up?
March 15th, 2007 at 11:39 am -
Lee said:
Fong – That is an extraordinarily hard question and I think it’s a personal thing. Do you rip out pages in your diary? But then your private diary isn’t on show for the world to see LOL
On a personal blog i say no – it shows your growth – on a themed blog like yours I don’t think there is any real harm – mind you show some restraint! You can prune a tree to death!
Maybe you could re write them so that the idea isn’t lost?
March 15th, 2007 at 3:41 pm