Like many of you, I am new to the blog thing. I only started in July of 2006.

What’s interesting now, is that I feel like I have been doing this for years.

It has more to do with the constant work and the baptism by fire, rather than the amount of time.

Reflecting on this amazing medium, the respected Ann Handley, Content Queen at MarketingProfs, has written a great post about the lessons she learned blogging in 2006.

Here are 5 of her lessons learned: (NOTE: Nearly every word below applies as much to me [and you] as it does to Ann and her readers)

1. I’m amazed at who I’ve met. Almost half of the people now writing for the blog, and many of the names in my inbox on any given day, are new blog friends I’ve made since last spring.

2. I know our readers better. Prior to the launch of the blog, I thought I had a pretty good sense of the MarkertingProfs audience of 200,000+. But a year into it, I have deepened that understanding. In other words: the blog has helped me do my job better, because I have a better sense of what my job actually is.

3. Blogging has made me a better writer. Like many writers, I have a particularly severe and unforgiving inner critic, which often made me give up a piece of writing before I’d really begun it. Blogging has helped unfreeze some of my creative concentrate.

4. Blogging begets a life observed. The very act of coming up with a regular supply of relevant blog posts forces bloggers to look a little more carefully at their life experiences, not necessarily to simply vet for post material but try to see the context and the larger meaning, the subtext and what’s left unsaid, and the connections among experiences.

5. Finally: Bullet points are ALWAYS a good way to break up a blog post into bite-sized chunks!

So—in closing: A huge thanks to all of you who have been part of this blogging year. That includes all of the writers—a thousand thanks to you! —but also the readers, those who comment, and the wallflowers.

Ann, well said!

What lessons have you learned in ‘06?

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