Tag Archives: Blogging Tips

Practical advice and best practices for improving blogging skills, engagement, and reach.

#53 posts later: from job hunt to creative journey

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I started this blog a year ago, mainly as a way to rediscover a sense of purpose during a period of unemployment. I also wanted to build a writing portfolio to share with recruiters during interview processes and increase my chances of being hired in my field of interest: anything related to writing, researching, translating, content strategy, project management, and so on.

However, it soon became something more—not just a tool for job searching, but a personal space where I wanted to invest more time, experiment, and perhaps pursue long-held dreams, like publishing short stories and novels on my own platform. Since publishing a physical book still feels out of reach.

This blog didn’t start out the way it is now. In fact, it used to be a messy personal website with too many pages, scattered content, and little structure. So I slowly shaped it into what you can see today, which I hope comes acroos as a simple collection of blog posts.

I decided to invest a little in a Personal WordPress subscription. I would have gone for the Premium plan, but it’s literally twice the price, and there is no free trial to see if it’s actually worth it for the purpose of my website. That’s why I opened a donation page on Ko-fi, even though that is not really necessary at this stage. And if I ever build a larfer audience in the future, I would gladly invest my own money to bring better content—although I don’t know what “better content” would look like yet.

I don’t know if this makes sense, but I think I know what I am doing, while at the same time having no idea of what I’m doing.

At times, this whole blog thing feels like an extension of a personal diary—not because of the content itself, but because I’m writing primarly for myself, and maybe that’s the case. But what I actually mean is that building an audience is truly hard. Sure, I could have emailed every single person I know and told them, “Hey, I have this cool new blog, wanna take a look?”—but that idea terrifies me. I would rather let this blog exist among millions, probably billions of pages published every day and connect with those with which my content resonates. It feels more purposeful, less of an obligation to my friends, family, acquaintances, and so on.
Maybe that’s just the lone wolf. But anyway, this is a bigger topic, one I may (or may not) come back to in the future.

Recently, following the example of some blogs I found out there, I decided to reorganize my posts into the categories: reflections, experiences, short stories, novels (still to come), and explorations. Then, in an attempt to broaden my audience, I also created new tags, long tags, and so on and so forth.
I have to admit, I have zero patience for this SEO stuff. I would love to develop my marketing skills in a professional setting, but in my personal time, I just want to write. So, I ChatGPT the shit out of this SEO stuff!

Since I squeeze my free time to write consistently (combining long commutes, work, reading, training, relationship, and so on), I don’t overthink what I publish, and I don’t spend too much time editing.
As I mentioned in previous posts, I use AI tools only to correct typos and grammatical mistakes—not to alter my style or rephrase things I’ve written. I have a personal prompt that keeps this as ethical and minimal as possible, since, as far as I understand, using AI too heavily could raise questions about ownership or originality under some copyright interpretations.

Concluding without a real conclusion, I am still very excited about this project—especially because I have endless ideas that I want to execute. But I am not in a rush, and I accept now more than before that sometimes it can take longer to write better content, especially when it comes to fiction, which is my favorite—but also the most demanding stuff.

#42 Your posts are automatically copyright-protected, however…

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…there are some things to keep in mind.

Works from others that we may utilize—like photos, quotes, videos, and so on—don’t become our own just because we repost them. Sounds obvious, but in today’s world… I don’t know, man, I think it’s always worth stating the obvious, even at the cost of sounding redundant.

So yes, this general copyright rule applies here as well: one should always quote someone else’s work—always!

Then there’s the AI topic, which complicates things a little. Without diving into specifics about jurisdictions and what different countries allow, I’ve gathered from some sources I’ve consulted that AI use is permitted as long as it’s not used for major modifications or to generate content from scratch. Which absolutely makes sense to me.

As long as we use tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and DeepL to correct grammar and improve clarity, it’s fine. It’s like having a personal proofreader at your disposal, which speeds up the process. And that’s the coolest part of these tools. Even though, to me, they’re the most diabolic invention ever; but I don’t want to unpack this topic. It’s just depressing, especially for us creatives… But hey, the proofreader part is pretty cool. I know this sounds inconsistent and opportunistic, but one has to adapt somehow.

So, to conclude: the original content we publish on our blogs—articles, essays, poetry, short stories, novels, photos, illustrations, videos, audio; in general, any creative piece of work originating exclusively from our own brain that doesn’t plagiarize existing material or wasn’t generated from scratch by a freaking AI tool—is ours. A bit like it would be if it were published by a traditional editor (for writers)—with the pro that there’s no transfer of rights, and the con that we make zero money from it. If you do (make money), please share some tips—hehe. The right to reproduce the work, distribute it, display it in public, create derivative works, and so on, belongs to us—the creators who published it on their own page.

Another thing to keep in mind is to display a copyright notice on your website, like I did on my homepage (BLOG). It’s an extra layer—a bit like a bulletproof vest working as a disclaimer—which could offer additional protection in case of a dispute.

There are endless sources on this topic out there, and it’s a complex one since international law is involved. If you’re an expert on this topic, please feel free to call out any bullshit I may have said—or share any useful tips or insights that could be helpful for the community.

Here are some quick sources I used:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/running-business/intellectual-property/copyright/index_en.htm

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/artificial-intelligence-and-ip

https://www.iubenda.com/en/help/43711-how-to-copyright-a-blog