Keep in mind that if you host yourself, you’ll have to update regularly and
battle spam. If all you want is to jot down interesting things from time to
time, just use a service like Tu m b l r, Soup.io or hosted WordPress.
A lot of people fall into the trap of using their blog as a playground: they
try out every cool CSS trick and design idea they’ve ever had and redesign
it every three weeks. This is tempting, but this kind of fame is fleeting;
months down the line, you’ll probably realize that falling short on content
was a mistake. My blog looks minimal indeed, and I do everything one
could possibly do wrong in terms of SEO, but it still had a Google Page
Rank of 8, and I made good money with ads. I wrote about interesting
things and people linked to my blog. If your content is interesting, your
blog will show up in RSS readers and in people’s updates in social networks
or shared bookmarks. You need good, sensible titles and well-structured
content. Looks are not that important.
Staying up to date is important. Don’t write treaties and novels; instead,
update often and regularly, and you will have a crowd of followers in no
time.
Attend Unconferences
Unconferences (including BarCamp and others like it) are wonderful forums
for practicing your public speaking. The cool thing about BarCamps is that
everyone who goes has to give a presentation, host a discussion round or
do something similar — it won’t just be you up there.
This can be a huge opportunity to speak to people and get a sense of what
works for them and what doesn’t. There is no such thing as a failed talk at a
BarCamp — just ones that work well and others that are less interesting.
Nobody pays to see you, so nothing can be a major disappointment; and