Criticisms

Dear New Blogger: 7 Things I Would Like You To Know

Victorscorner46 Comments
Advice to a new blogger

Many people will take the wonderful decision to start a blog this year. If you are one of such people or you have recently started a blog, I will like you to know some things which will help you in the blogging journey.

I have been writing this blog for some time now. So I am qualified to share a few helpful thoughts with you. Consider them words of encouragement from someone who has been further down the road you are starting out on.

7 Simple things I would like you to know if you are a new blogger

1. Your decision to start a blog is a step in the right direction

Some people would start a blog and then begin to wonder if they are doing the right thing. If you are thinking like that, then the following words are for you.

I wouldn’t know the reason you started your blog, but one assurance I can give you is that starting a blog is a good step you have taken. So don’t give in to self-doubt!

However, if you are not sure why you started a blog in the first place, take some time off to get that settled. You don’t want your blog to be directionless and purposeless. Do you?

Once you have defined the purpose of your blog, believe in it strongly. Having a firm belief in your blog’s mission will empower you, encourage you, enlarge you  and deepen your expectations.

When I started this blog, I saw it as an avenue to share my thoughts with the world and also to explore my writing skill which has remained latent over the years of my life. But I soon discovered that blogging is also a journey of personal development.

Apart from the many other benefits you will get to enjoy from starting a blog, you will get to discover that blogging will help your personal development in many ways. I don’t want to over-flog this point because as you know, the taste of the pudding is in the eating. So ride right ahead on your blogging journey.

2. Read and write extensively

As you have embarked on the blogging journey, know that you have headed in the writing direction. In other words, a blogging journey is largely a writing journey.

One notable thing that writers do is that they read a lot. So if you want to go far with your blogging experience, you have to read and write extensively. By so doing, you will gain more knowledge, have fresh ideas and improve on your writing skills.

If you have the dream to be a published author one day, know that your writing blog is a veritable platform to hone your skills. You get the point?

Promote your blog posts on social media.

3. Take some steps to make your blog more visible

Let me shock you with this little statement: despite all the efforts you have put in it, many people who should be reading your blog do not even know that it exists in the first place. That’s harsh, I know but it is the reality you are face with!

Your blog is new on the block hence I concede that it will take some time for it to gain due popularity. But if you think the world should read your blog because you have something valuable to share, I think it is worth it for you to take some steps to make the blog more visible than it is right now so that more and more people can discover it to read.

For instance, you should make sure your blog is indexed as ‘public’ rather than as ‘private’ to make it discoverable by search engines. Also when you publish a post on your blog, don’t go to sleep. Promote it on social media and encourage your readers to share it as well.

Those are just a few tips on how to make your blog more visible. You can find out others for yourself.

4. You need to interact with other blogs regularly

I already said you should read very extensively. Part of what you should be reading regularly are posts on other blogs – whether they are in your area of niche or not. I know from my own experience that there are many benefits of reading other people’s blogs.

Don’t be an island to yourself. Reach out and interact with other bloggers. Follow their blogs. Read their posts. Hit the like button on the posts you have read and liked.

Most importantly, leave meaningful comments on other blogs’ posts you have read. Both the writers of the blogs you comment on as well as some of their other readers may follow your trail to your blog to read your posts as well. And please, for goodness sake, don’t tell me you don’t care if no one reads your blog, because that would be a lie!

5.You will face some negative criticisms on your blog

Let no one deceive you, blogging is not a piece of cake. There would be times the feedback you get would seem like a bitter pill to swallow. But it is up to you how you would react to it.

Apart from the hard-work and personal discipline that your blog requires from you, know also that some people will harshly criticise you for it. There are those who will question your decision to start a blog. Some will dismiss your posts as irrelevant and some others will even attack your person.

Whatever kind of criticisms you may face, do not be discouraged and do not give up on your blogging mission. Just stay focused on your blogging objectives and use the criticisms to improve on your game. I tell you what, there are some good things about the negative criticisms you will get on your blog. Find them and use them.

7 Simple things I would like you to know if you are a new blogger
Photo by Valeria-zoncoll on Unsplash

6. If you leave your blog, your blog will leave you

I don’t mean that to be taken so literally. But I do want to emphasise on the need to stay ‘close’ to your blog.  I have a personal rule that no day passes without me checking up on my blog. That way I am able to make draft posts, review pending posts,  or catch up with responses on  my readers’ comments.

I am not saying you should be like me; follow the pattern that works for you. The important thing is that you don’t leave your blog ‘unattended’ to for weeks or months. Your faithful readers will be left hanging if you do that!

In a way, having a blog is like having a baby. You have to nurture it, feed it regularly and ensure that it remains healthy. That’s what you should do to your blog too.

Respond to readers comments your posts. Write new posts regularly. If you choose to post daily, weekly or monthly as the case may be, please be consistent about it. To keep your readers coming back, you have to give them something good to regularly come back to.

7. You might see the need to start a second blog too

I already assured you that your decision to start a blog is a step in the right direction. So I take it that we are settled on that.

What about starting a second or even a third blog? That’s not a bad idea either. But you have to wait until there is a compelling need for it. Otherwise, your energy might be spread out too thinly across multiple blogs and you might stifle your main one to death.

When I started Victors’ Corner, I didn’t see the need for another blog until three years after. Being a personal blog, I had about six categories of posts I crammed into it. But I have recently seen the need to create a separate blog from the Poems’ Category. That has given rise to Living Poems blog.

As as you make progress with your current blog, you might sense the need to set up another blog, that’s okay. You are not doing that with the aim of shutting down your current blog but with the purpose of furthering another blogging objective.

Thank you for reading my suggestions to new bloggers. Let the conversation continue in the comment section. What will be your advice to a new blogger?

©Copyright 2019 | Victor Uyanwanne

When Will Americans Stop Disrespecting Their President?

Victorscorner29 Comments

Disclaimer: This article is not a political opinion. It is just an observation I wanted to let off my chest.

First and foremost, I am not an American, neither do I live in that fantastic country. However, it is my dream to be there some day, hopefully in the nearest future.

Just like many other people around the world, most of what I know about America and her president come from all sorts of media. To that extent, I would admit that not everything I have heard or read  about America and her people would be perfectly correct.

At the same time, you will not need to look too far to see that all is not well with the way some Americans see and address their current president.

From the people in mainstream broadcast and print media to the ones on the blogosphere, there seems to be an unprecedented attack on the office of the president of the United States, or better put, on the person of the present occupant of that exalted office, Donald Trump.

I feel that some, if not many, Americans are yet to come to terms with the realities of who this newest occupant of the White House is.

Why did I say that? Just turn on your news channels and you will easily see so much disrespect as it were in the way some Americans talk about president Trump.

Most recently, there was an outburst in many quarters over the president’s comment on some NFL players not standing to sing the national anthem. You saw the way some people reacted or responded to Trump on that, didn’t you?

I do not need to cite multiple examples here to drive home my point. Everyone around the world knows that the office of the POTUS is a respectable one. So why are this generation of Americans proving otherwise by the way they talk about Mr. Trump?

Besides, I am not trying to hold brief for anyone with this post. But as a distant observer on this other side of the Atlantic, it is observable that some of the remarks coming from some Americans about president Trump are either too uncomplimentary or out-rightly disrespectful.

Some people reportedly went as far as calling Trump the new Hitler. Really? Is he? May be I should consult my history books again!

Barack Obama (right) pictured with Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on January 20, 2017 -AFP Photo-JIM WATSON
Barack Obama (right) pictured with Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on January 20, 2017 (AFP Photo/JIM WATSON )

Right now, many Americans I see on international media seem to always take an exception to anything their President says or does, and responding publicly to him in most critical terms.

For God’s sake, it is the POTUS we are talking here! So why all these unsavoury name-calling and dirty jokes about president Trump by Americans?

Like him or not, he still remains the president. Besides, he is a father and a husband. So needless to say, he deserves more respect than some Americans are presently showing to him.

It would have been understandable to some extent if all these perceived disrespectful​ attitudes and denigrating remarks towards president Trump had emanated from people other than from American themselves. To think that some Americans seem to take immense delight in openly deriding their president is shocking to say the least.

I am not saying a president may not be criticised. But it calls for concern when it becomes a virulent personal attack.

In his time, I can recall that President Obama was also criticised by the American public on several fronts. But it seems the criticisms have gotten worse with President Trump, especially as far as the media is concerned.

Some of the unpalatable things we now hear some Americans say of their president are a huge departure from what we know (or think we know) of how average citizens of America hitherto saw their number one citizen.

But is President Trump bothered in any away? Let’s leave that question for another day!

Anyone who is a detached follower of the American mainstream media may agree that there are many Americans who do not speak well of, or who are out-rightly disrespectful to president Trump by the way and manner they talk about him. But the question remains,  “When will some Americans stop disrespecting their president?”

Do you agree that some Americans are disrespecting President Trump by the way they talk about him in the media? Feel free to air your views in the comment section.

 

©Copyright 2017 | Victor Uyanwanne

The Very First Post On This Blog

Victorscorner17 Comments

a-poem-we-know-by-victor-uyanwanne
We Know

The post you are about to read was the very first content published on this blog. As I said in the post before this one, this blog just turned two years old.

To further commemorate the milestone, I am reposting the pioneer post here for you to read. It was initially published when there were no followers on this Blog. That tells me that you may not have seen it yet.

Now that I have you, kindly indulge me as I present to you, “We Know,” the very first and oldest post on this blog. I guarantee you will find something useful in it.

We Know

We know we have potentials,
But we are not doing enough to develop them.
What is the use of a vibrant energy,
That remains buried and untapped?

We know the future is bright,
But we keep living in the past!
How can we ever enter and enjoy the future,
If we don’t ever leave the past behind?

We know our lives could be better,
But we hesitate to do things to improve on them.
Why are we waiting and delaying?
The room of improvement is never filled up!

We know we are not so perfect,
But we fail to work on our weaknesses!
Can a dirty china become clean,
If it has not been washed at all?

We know we don’t like to be criticised,
But we never cease from doing it to others.
What makes us think we would be likeable?
When our words ache like pain?

We know we like being appreciated,
But we think other’s don’t deserve the same.
If we want appreciation to come around,
We ought to start giving it first to others.

We know we ought to make more progress in life,
But we fear to take the first steps forward.
How can we get to where we want to be,
If we don’t put one foot in front of the other?

We know we crave for love and forgiveness,
But we ourselves are never generous with such.
How can we be so very surprised?
That we don’t get loved and forgiven by others as we want?

We know we crave respect and admiration from others,
But we are less concerned about our self-respect.
Why then are we so bothered that we don’t get so respected,
As much as we think we deserve?

Best friends forever
Best friends forever

We know how good it feels to be welcomed,
But we don’t always spread our hands to welcome others.
Yet we wonder why people don’t always warm up to us,
Like the insect to the nectar in a flower.

We know we are not without blemish,
But we are always quick to cast the stone on others
Why don’t we treat other people
As we want to be treated?

We know Rome was not built in day,
But we cry and worry over every little slip.
With our heart filled with so many worries,
How can we enjoy a deep sleep at night?

We know we shouldn’t go to bed when the roof is on fire,
But we pretend it’s just a little flick of flame.
Why then do we wonder and cry aloud,
When all we have is turned to ashes?

We know every seed produces after its own kind,
But some of us are those who sow corn and expect a harvest of potatoes.
Who would be ever so disappointed,
As much as someone like that would be?

We know we should say ‘I am sorry’ sometimes,
But our pride keeps us from saying it.
Doesn’t it matter to us that our friends and family are hurt,
When we fail to say “I am sorry, please forgive me?”

We know it’s good for us to give.
But we hoard the things we ought to share.
Have we forgotten the Master’s rule:
“Give and it shall be given to you?”

We know we should give thanks in all things,
But we say all things are not okay to give thanks, so we complain.
Are we now wiser than the Master,
Who said, “give thanks in all things?”

 

©CopyRight 2017 | Victor Uyanwanne