Views or Value?

I have been blogging somewhat consistently on Lichess for the last month or two and have amassed over 70,000 views as of the time of this writing. While I am far from an expert at it, here are 7 lessons that I have learned so far that hopefully you can find helpful both if you write a blog and for other aspects of life.

1\. Don't be a Parrot

Some parrots are known to repeat words that hey hear, which is incredible in a bird. However, if blogging online, don't do that! Don't repeat things that have already been written unless you have something you can add.

There was one example of this that happened a few weeks ago. Hikaru was talking about why losing at chess is so painful, and his main thought was that you have no one to blame but yourself. I thought this was a very interesting subject and decided to write a blog about this subject. To write as good a blog about the subject as possible, I googled the subject to see if there are any other blogs from which I can draw ideas to add to my idea. Much to my chagrin, I saw this article pop up immediately: Why Losing At Chess Hurts So Much (And The Antidote) I clicked on the article and realized that this article already addressed every thought I wanted to write about, and more! Could I still write about it, repeating the same thoughts and probably getting a couple thousand views? Of course! But it would not add any new value and be a completely pointless blog.

2\. Don't Sacrifice Quality for Quantity

Quantity is good--very good. However, if you write 2 blogs a week but no one reads them since they are complete trash, that's pointless. It would be better to write one blog every two weeks but have it to be very good. If you can write a very good blog every day, that's awesome, but most of us cannot. So instead, stick to less blogs but quality!

Quantity is good...

But quality is better!

3\. Write What Interests

Don't stress out about whether people will think your blog is great or not--find an idea that interests you, research it, write about it, and don't stress about what others think! Break free of the stress and write about what you find interesting.

4\. Embrace the Criticism

My most popular blog, Aging in Chess, got over 26K views. But it did not teach me much. A few weeks later, I wrote a blog called The 11 Best Bloggers on Lichess. I have not got as much criticism for any blog as that one, from both random strangers and good friends of mine. I learned a lot from that blog. When you get praise, it feels good. But when you get criticism, you get better.

5\. Put in Work

While it might sound corny, it is of core importance. Many of us are able to write something very generic very quickly and have a blog ready in 20 minutes. However, it probably won't be a good blog! If you put in work to find good positions, images, and most importantly--good thoughts, then your blog has high likeliness to excel. One good example of this would be my blog The Chess YouTube Revolution which is my second most popular blog ever with over 15,000 views. Contrary to just writing about some chess idea, it took a lot of work. I had to research opening, look up videos, screenshot charts, and put it all together. However, work creates value, and value is what draws viewers.

6\. Don't Be Afraid to Try Something Different

For instance, I decided to try to edit images and create an image that is different from others and from my earlier blogs. I started out with just a little editing on my blog 9 of My Favorite Mate in 2 Positions, upped the level with the image for The Chess YouTube Revolution, and had a really edited image for Ding-ness. Was this successful? I have yet to determine that. Will I always edit the main image? No. But the only way you get better is by trying out something new. Whether it's adding more images to your blog, organizing it differently, writing about a new subject, writing a very short blog or a very long one, you don't know what works until you test it out.

7\. Believe in Yourself

The most repeated and corny saying in movies and popular culture these days, and it doesn't apply to everything. (If you are 4'11 you can believe all you want but you will not play in the NBA.) However, if you don't believe in yourself, you will never get started and will get discouraged very easily. Trust that you are able to do it and struggle on even when it's hard.

Conclusion

Hopefully you find these helpful for not just writing online but for other aspects of your life as well. If you liked this article I would appreciate if you liked and follow, as less than 3% of readers like most of my blogs! If you want to improve your chess, check out this Free GM Masterclass! Until next time, see you!