Blog Exercises: Things I Wish I Knew When I Started

“9 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started.” “6 Things You Need to Know Before You Begin.” “The 10 Lessons You Need to Know Before You Take that First Step.” “What I Wish I Knew Before I Knew.”

These titles show up in my feed reader on a regular basis. In this blog exercise, it’s your turn to share what you wished you’d learned before you had to learn it for your specialty.

These types of articles do multiple things for your site and for your reputation.

• They establish you as an expert. You know how this industry or subject matter works. You’ve broken it and lived to tell the day. You are the one they want and need when they go looking for an expert.
• You know what you are talking about. By sharing your history and lessons learned along the way, you show your readers that you know what you are talking about. You talk the talk and walk the walk.
• You are a mentor. You serve as an example to others. This is how this industry works and I’m the one to come to when you need to be shown the path of enlightenment.
• You have history with the subject. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. We’ve been around the block. The ability to look back and reflect upon your “years” of experience speaks to that experience. You have been through the wringer. After X years of toiling, struggling, beating whatever it is into shape, you have seen it all. Now is your chance to share a life-time of experience.
• You are an educator. Learn from me. That’s what that topic says. I’m here to show you the right way to do it. Learn from my mistakes. Don’t do what I did.

Take a look at your subject matter and gaze into the past. What would you have wished you knew before you started? What lessons have you learned along the way. Blog your top X things you wish you’d known before.

We’ve blogged about mistakes we’ve made and what we learned from those mistakes. This is bigger.

It is literally a blog post that answers the question, “If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently now that you know.”

If you publish the post, remember to include a hat tip link back to this post to create a trackback, or leave a properly formed link in the comments so participants can check out your blog exercise task and learn from you, the master of your specialty.

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is a year-long challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles.

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