The 2022 blog plan
I have got into the habit of always starting off a new year with a single post for a collection of posts that have to do with the topic of writing a blog rather than javaScript, or a given framework, or the various tech related topics that I typically write about on this website. Not that I think that this is the sort of thing that should happen only once a year, in fact I am always thinking in terms of what it is that I can and should do differently, and not just with this blog, but where I should be placing my time and energy in general.
When I look back at some of my older posts for the various years in which I have write this kind of post at the star of a new year, I have to admit that often I do not follow threw with much of what I outline in such a post. So maybe this time I will write about what the plan is currently, rather than what it is the I aim to do. The fact of the mater is that much might change this coming year when it comes to where it is that I choose to focus on moving forward with things. This might mean less writing, but more work on actual projects. It might also mean more writing actually, but in the form of improving the quality of older content that I have all ready wrote in terms of editing existing content, rather than writing new content.
1 - The plan for new content is to continue to focus more so on quality rather than quantity
Last year I was not aiming to change the frequency at which I was writing new posts, but that is what has happened as I have made the choice latter in the year to slow down in terms of the number of new posts I write. I was writing about one post every other day, but I have found that doing so just reduces quality of content to a point at which I am writing posts that are just not adding much in terms of value. So I am not thinking more in terms of just writing one, or two new posts a week, unless there is some reason as to why it is that I would want to write a little more often, such as starting a new collection of content on a whole new topic, or figuring that it is a good idea to aggressively expand on an existing category.
I still think that it is best to think in terms of quantity rather than quality when first starting out, but once one gains a sense of what works well, and what does not, it is time to shift gears with this. Writing a single post a week that is a kind of long form post that really gets into a topic in depth might prove to be a better choice compared to five or sow shallow puddles of content on a wide range of topics.
In this section then I will be outlining what the current idea is when it comes to new content for now, and therefore into this new year. That is for at least the beginning of the year to say the least, and maybe even for the whole of the year, and beyond when it comes to actually following threw with new plans for a new year.
1.1 - The usual frequency will then just be one or two new posts per week
I will then just be thinking in terms of writing just one new post, maybe two each week, at least if nothing happens that might change that rate. This is what has been happening as of late anyway, and the main reason why is because the bulk of the writing that I have been doing is expanding older posts that I have written, rather than new posts. Looking back a lot of my older posts are in very poor shape, not just in terms of the language, but also I have found often with respect to the source code examples as well. However more on that later in this post in which I will be getting into ending more so, rather than write new content.
Less is very much more when it comes to this, as I can not easily start to think in terms of observing a basement of 1,800 words to as much as 3,000 or more for each new post. Also it should be more than enough time to see about making whatever the word count is for the post a collection of words that have real value, rather than just padding to help meet such a metric. This also gives me more time to preform research on what I am writing about, as well as work out my own source code examples which is by far the most time consuming part of the process of what I am doing here.
1.2 - Frequency might increase with any new categories
If I start writing about a whole new category then of course the rate at which I will write new posts will increase back to the usual frequency, maybe even more so depending how much time I have to work with and what else is going on. If I am writing about a whole new category of content I typically want to get to that first twenty or so posts right away, and doing so often costs me a little in terms of quality to do so.
There is always getting back to the various posts later at some point when it comes to editing, and also if it is something very new to me I may only have so much to write about it anyway until I log more time with it.
1.3 - Possible New categories
I was toying with the idea of starting a new collection of content on using gcc to compile simple programs written in C, in fact I have wrote a post on using the gcc command when it comes to my catalog of content on Linux. However learning a whole new language is not something that will happen over night, and also there is a whole lot to learn when it comes to a language like C compared to the hight level languages that I am used to such as javaScript, python, and bash. If I do start that though this year maybe I can quickly get together some ten to twenty posts on this topic though as long as I stick to very simple programs examples that do not go that far beyond that of hello world, which would imply that they should not be too time consuming to accomplish.
There is learning a whole new language, and going in a whole new direction with something, sure. However maybe a better idea is to further improve with respect to an existing skill set. For me that would be sticking with how to go about improving with javaScript both in the browser, as well as outside of it in a general run time such as nodejs, or some kind of alternative with that now such as Deno. There is also election which has very much been on my radar for some time now when it comes to learning how to make cross platform applications in a javaScript environment, and that is very much something that I might write about thus year in terms of new categories.
1.4 - At least a few new posts on lodash
I will be writing at least a few new posts on lodash, even though it is a framework that I think is slowly dieing out in terms of popularity. The main reason why is because this is just a category of content that is doing well for me in terms of traffic, so for that reason alone I have to. However there is additional motivation beyond that when it comes to many of the finer points revolving around lodash such as the topic of functional programing, using what is often called a pony fill over that of monkey patching, and so forth.
Often in many of these posts I do not just write about lodash, but also any and all corresponding methods of interests when it comes to just working with javaScript by itself. So then there is a lot of potential for linking to various posts on native javaScript itself, many of which I have done a heavy amount of editing and expansion on last year when it comes to writing long form posts that are three thousand words long or even longer.
2 - Editing older content
Although I might end up writing less in terms of new content this year, over all I might end up writing more this coming year in terms of total word count per day. Not in the form of new posts mind you, but in the form of greatly expanding content that I have all ready wrote before hand. The reason why I say that is because I have all ready wrote a whole lot of blog posts on interesting topics, but the current state of many of them might be only a thousand or even just a few hundred words.So then a lot of these older posts could easily be expanded to thousands of words because there is just so much ground to cover with them actually.
A good example of what I mean by this might be the current state of my post on the array for each prototype method, and all kinds of various things that branch off from that method. If you have been checking out various on line forums on the subject of javaScript as long as I have you should be aware by now that the array for each method is just one of these topics in javaScript that just about every javaScript developer that writes a blog with write a post on sooner or later. Often when doing so such a post on the topic might only be a few hundred words, to maybe just about a thousand words, and as such it ends up being just yet another post on that topic that does not really do it justice. Sure maybe there is only so much to write about when it comes to the array for each method itself, but then there are other array methods that do the same thing in a different way, there are the various ways to use array methods with various kinds of collections other than that of arrays, and also why it might be better to sue a while loop in some cases. Even going on with all those various things that I have mentioned might still not really truly do the subject justice, but it is going a little farther for what it is worth for sure.
2.1 - I all ready have some long form content posts, and this year I intend to expand more posts into long form posts
This kind of post might have many kinds of terms and words attached to them such as long form content piece, or they may use the word definitive in the title of the post. There are many different terms, and also standards as to what long form content is, and when it really comes down to it every bloger may very will have there own independent set of standards as to what constitutes a long form content post or not. However one crude yet effective way of going about doing so is to just have some kind of magic number in mind in terms of word count.
Doing research on various blog posts on this topic I am seeing figures as low as one thousand words, and figures as high as ten thousand words. For me last year I stated a collection of todo lists that have to do with what I am planing out in terms of long form content in the form of lists for each category. Also in the main folder where I store these lists I took the time to write out a readme file in which I am outlining what a long form content piece is for me. As of this writing I am thinking that a long form content piece should be at least around three thousand words, but that will of course change a little from one topic to another. For my post on the array for each method I am as of this writing at over six thousand words, and with future edits there may very well be room to go as high as ten thousand words with that one. Not because there is a great deal to write about with the method itself, but with everything that branches off from it.
However one great thing about this kind of content is that there is the potential to write a post that can make just about every visitor happy with a given topic. One problem that I run into when writing a new post on javaScript is having to chose to write a post that is friendly to new javaScript developers, or write a post that is more in tune with where I am as a developer with well over ten years of experience thus far. With long from posts I can push the source code examples and corresponding written content that has to do with the very basics of something to the top of the post. When it comes to content in the form of additional, more advanced source code examples and topics that are more up to speed with where I am now, rater than where I was ten or more years ago, that kind of content can be later in the content piece.
Often when I go to read one of these kind of content pieces myself I will not always read the full post, but scan the headlines of each section, looking for something that is most relevant for what it is that I am looking for.
2.2 - Prioritizing by current traffic
Another general idea that I am exploring when it comes to outlining what to focus on next in terms of editing older content is by just looking into what content pieces are preforming the best in terms of traffic currently in terms of say clicks to the page from organic search over the last three months. At any given moment I have my top ten posts over all topics, there is also breaking things down on a per category level as with this sort of thing but thus far I am just starting out with my best preforming posts in general. So then I just take a look at what is going on in search console, and create a todo list of sorts based on the number of clicks that a post is getting and then just running now a list like that one by one to make sure that the quality of the content is decent.
Just focusing on these kinds of posts alone is maybe not such a good idea, but neater is neglect, which is what I have been guilty of. So that is something that I think I would like to try to change this year, but getting together a better system fir making sure that I am dong at least a little touch up work with these posts, if not much more than that.
3 - Working out more with todo lists
One thing that I started last year is a folder in my main blog posts Github Repository in which I store the markdown file source code for these blog posts that is a collection of todo lists. I also did not just start doing this, and then later stop bothering with them, as of this writing I am still using these lists as a way to plan out what it is that I will be doing next. Not just in terms of new content, but also how it is that I should be prioritizing which posts deserve a greater amount of attention when it comes to editing. As such these todo lists can be used as a way to not just make general plans as I have in these blog posts, but also as a way to make sure that I follow threw with what I was planing out.
3.1 - Time centered todo lists
As of this writing I have worked out a number of standards for todo list, the ones that I have been using thus far have to do with general editing, long form content, and what to write about when it comes to new posts. However what really matters the most about these is that I am using them, which means that I can use them to get myself to follow threw with things. So then one idea for a new kind of list would be one that has to do with what I will be doing on a day by day basis, or a kind of time centered list.
So then the idea here is to just have a kind of time centered list that will act as a list of lists sort of speak. This way I can plan out what I will be doing on a day to day basis rather than not having much of a system and just making random choices as to what list I should be focusing on at any given moment.
Another great thing about this is that it will help me to figure out what is too much, or too little when it comes to the amount of work that I should be doing on a day to day basis. If I am biting off more than what I can chew I can just move certain times forward to the next day, or the day after that and so forth. If it seems like I am fining what I have planed out for a day to soon, then there is planing out more to do later, and getting a jump start on it.
Conclusion
Although I am just writing one post on the topic of bloging about bloging per year, I am also thinking that this is maybe something that I should be doing a little more frequently than just that of once a year. The main reason why I say that is because I do not think that change, or evaluation of what one is doing with one self is something that should only happen once per year. Every day that I get up in the morning I am thinking about what it is that I could do differently, and what it is that I should do differently that might bring forth a beneficial outcome and not just with respect to choices that I am making with this blog, and over all website.
There is however not just thinking in terms of what I need to change, but also in terms of what I can be happy with in terms of what I have all ready accomplished. I started teaching myself javaScript back when I was twenty four years old, and I am now thirty eight. During that time I have learned an awful lot about client side web application developed, as well as the basics of full stack development as well when it comes to toying around in nodejs. I started dual booting with Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux well over ten years ago, and now I enjoy using my raspberry pi running the typical Debian based Raspberry PI OS over my Windows ten system which I have to say is a total nightmare using compare to the Linux based system of the PI. SO yes I have learned a whole lot about Linux also over the years, and also why using Linux is a way better experience compared to using Windows, even on more exotic hardware then the humble little Raspberry PI systems. So then there is not just thinking in terms of what I aim to do that is new, but also what I should say on course with as well.