My Postmortem of 4 Failed Blog Attempts

An honest postmortem of the 4 blogs I started before this one, what each one got wrong, and the 1 thing the 5th one got right.

Why I am writing thisThis site is the 5th blog I have started. The first 4 died. The 4 deaths were not the platform's fault, not the audience's fault, and not the topic's fault. The 4 deaths were my fault, and the 4 deaths are the reason I want to write this post. The post is a postmortem. The postmortem is the part that prevents the 5th death from being like the first 4.The postmortem is honest in a way I would not have been honest about 5 years ago. The 5-years-ago version of me would have blamed the platform or the audience. The now-me version of me knows the platform and the audience were fine. The now-me version of me knows the problem was me, and the problem was the same in all 4 cases, and the problem is the thing this post is about.Blog 1: 2012, the "I will blog every day" blogBlog 1 was a WordPress blog I started in 2012. The premise was: I will write a post every day for a year. The premise was the failure. The premise was the part I should have known was going to fail, because the "every day for a year" is a commitment that almost no one can keep, and the commitment is the part that determines whether the blog lives or dies.The blog lasted 23 days. The first 7 days I posted every day. The next 7 days I posted 4 times. The next 7 days I posted 2 times. The last 2 days I posted 0 times and decided the experiment was over. The 23 posts are still on the WordPress install somewhere. I have not looked at them in years.The lesson: the cadence has to be sustainable. "Every day for a year" is not sustainable for anyone who is not getting paid to do it. "Once a week for a year" is sustainable for most people. "Once a month for 5 years" is sustainable for almost everyone. The cadence is the part that determines the lifespan of the blog. Pick a cadence you can keep for 3 years, not 1 week.Blog 2: 2014, the "I will blog about X topic" blogBlog 2 was a blog about home automation. The premise was: home automation is a thing I do, and a blog about it would be a good way to document the things I do. The premise was not wrong. The premise was incomplete. The premise did not say who the blog was for, what the unique angle was, or why someone would read my blog instead of the 200 other home automation blogs that already existed.The blog lasted about 8 months. I wrote 14 posts. The 14 posts were fine. The 14 posts were the kind of posts the other 200 home automation blogs had. The 14 posts did not have a point of view. The 14 posts did not have a voice. The 14 posts were indistinguishable from the other 200 blogs, and the indistinguishability is the part that killed the blog.The lesson: a blog has to have a point of view. The point of view is what makes the blog different from the other 200 blogs. Without a point of view, the blog is content, and content is interchangeable. The interchangeable content is the part that does not get shared, does not get linked, does not get read. The blog with a point of view is the blog that survives.Blog 3: 2017, the "I will blog to build an audience" blogBlog 3 was a blog about productivity. The premise was: productivity is a hot topic, and a blog about productivity would build a big audience fast. The premise was right that productivity is a hot topic. The premise was wrong that "build a big audience" is a reason to start a blog. The premise was also wrong that "build a big audience" is a goal I had at the time.The blog lasted about 6 months. I wrote 18 posts. The 18 posts were good. The 18 posts got traffic. The 18 posts did not build an audience, because the audience was not the point, and the audience knew it, and the audience moved on to the next productivity blog that was also trying to build a big audience.The lesson: "build an audience" is not a goal. "Build an audience" is a strategy for a goal. The goal is something else: "sell a product," "get a job," "build credibility in a field." Without a goal, the audience is the goal, and the audience is not a goal. The audience is the side effect of having a real goal and writing about it well. The audience is the part that comes after the goal, not before.Blog 4: 2021, the "I will blog about my work" blogBlog 4 was a blog about my day job. The premise was: my day job is interesting, and a blog about the interesting parts would be useful for other people who do similar work. The premise was right that my day job is interesting. The premise was wrong that the interesting parts of my day job were the parts I could write about without getting in trouble with my employer.The blog lasted about 4 months. I wrote 11 posts. The 11 posts were heavily redacted to remove anything specific about my employer, my clients, or my projects. The redaction made the 11 posts vague. The vagueness made the 11 posts not useful. The not-usefulness is the part that killed the blog.The lesson: do not blog about your day job unless you can blog about the actual work. The redaction is the part that kills the blog. The redaction is the part that makes the posts generic. The generic is the part that does not serve the reader, and the unserved reader is the part that does not come back.What the 5th blog got right (and what the 4 did not)The 5th blog is this one. The 5th blog got 4 things right that the first 4 got wrong.1. Sustainable cadence. 2-3 posts a week. The 2-3 is the part I can keep for years, not the part I will burn out on in 23 days. The cadence is the part that gives the blog time to compound.2. Point of view. The point of view is "practical, direct, teacherly, no AI slop, no em-dashes." The point of view is the part that makes the blog different from the 200 other AI/automation blogs. The point of view is the part that I would not have known to add if I had not written [the flagship post with the prompt pack that enforces the point of view.3. Real goal. The goal is to sell the [Blog Writing Factory prompt pack. The pack is a real product. The pack is a product people have paid for. The pack is the part that makes the blog have a reason to exist beyond "build an audience." The audience is the side effect. The pack is the goal.4. Topics I can write about without redaction. The topics are automation, GenAI, and the messy work of shipping. The topics are topics I have lived. The topics are topics I can write about specifically, with real examples, without redacting anything. The unredacted writing is the part that makes the posts useful, and the useful posts are the part that brings readers back.What the postmortem is forThe postmortem is for anyone who has started and killed a blog (or 2, or 3, or 4). The postmortem is the part that turns the failure into data. The data is the part that makes the next attempt better. The next attempt is the part that might be the one that survives.The postmortem is also the part I wish I had read 14 years ago. The postmortem is the part that would have saved me the 14 years of trial and error. The trial and error was the part I had to do, because the postmortem did not exist when I was doing it. The postmortem exists now. The postmortem is the part I am passing forward.What I would tell past-meIf I could go back and tell past-me one thing, it would be: the failed blogs were not failures. The failed blogs were the data. The data is the part I needed to make the 5th blog work. The 5th blog would not have worked without the first 4. The 4 deaths were the price of admission. The price was high. The price is the part I would not trade for the 5th blog.I would also tell past-me: do not start a blog unless you have a real reason. The real reason is not "I want to blog." The real reason is "I have something to say, and the blog is the cheapest way to say it." The "something to say" is the part that determines whether the blog survives. The "I want to blog" is the part that determines whether the blog dies. The real reason is the part that compounds. The "I want to blog" is the part that does not.Who this is forAnyone who has started and killed a blog. Anyone who is considering starting a blog and wondering if they will kill it. The answer is: probably yes, at least once. The first 4 deaths are the price. The 5th attempt is the part that might survive. The surviving is the part that makes the price worth it.The honest partI do not know if the 5th blog will survive. The 5th blog has been live for about 18 months. The 5th blog has 24 posts. The 5th blog has a small but growing audience. The 5th blog has sold some prompt packs. The 5th blog has the things the first 4 did not. The 5th blog is also not guaranteed to survive, and the not-guaranteed is the part I am honest about.The honest part is the part that will make the 5th blog survive, if the 5th blog survives. The honest part is the part that lets me write posts like this one, which are the kind of posts the first 4 blogs would not have published. The first 4 blogs were too polished. The 5th blog is too honest. The honest is the part that makes the difference, and the difference is the part I have been waiting to find for 14 years.Want a prompt pack to start your own blog?The Blog Writing Factory is the system I used to make the 5th blog survive the 18 months the first 4 did not. The pack is the part that removes the 30 minutes of decision-making that killed the first 4. The pack is the part that does not cost the price of admission. The pack is the part I wish I had in 2012.Buy on Gumroad. $14

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