Now we’ll talk about my favorite part, about results. In general, we will walk through the decisions taken by me when I created the blog and discuss some future plans.

The choice of a domain name

The choice was made successfully, the domain perfectly memorized and associated with me. The mistake was not to take the same name in .com zone, but it is now corrected.

The choice of a platform

It isn’t a secret that many begin their own blogs with helping of these blogging services as Blogger or WordPress. Nevertheless, I chose a separate platfrom and didn’t regret it. I got valuable experience in administration and maintain of such a site.

The choice of a host

Once I decided not to depend on a specific blogging service, I had to choose a host. At that time I was thinking of placing on it another site. Unfortunately, I knew little about foreign host providers, so I chose Russian one. It was a mistake. Firstly, the site is loaded longer for main English-speaking readers. Secondly, WordPress’s plugins permanently install incorrectly. Thirdly, a mail service is paid. I was struck most of all by the last, as a result I had to temporarily abandon it. Now I’m adding the support for Google Apps email.

The choice of a blog engine

I chose WordPress as I have written before. Now on the background of general interest to Orchard, I can tell you that my opinion has changed for the better with respect to blog engines on .Net platform. However, I am not in hurry to move, because WordPress has not only all the necessary functionality out-of-box, but also an excellent collection of plugins. There is only one drawback for me. It’s heavy. Pages with all the social buttons load for a long time. It is a known problem and the internet is full of articles about optimizing of WordPress. I’m going soon to do it.

The choice of design

It is important because it creates an user perception. I chose one of the most popular free themes with good contrast. For a year I was getting tired of it and I’m going to think of what to do next. Do I need to choose another free theme, to buy a premium theme, or to go to a designer?

The choice of a language for writing

English became. I wanted to carry my thoughts to the greatest possible number of people. Now I find it difficult to answer the question, why I thought that my English was enough good to write on it (by a secret, It’s all the fault of my customers; short talks via Skype have created an unnecessary illusion). If you read my first posts, they contained many errors both grammatical and stylistic. To be honest, sometimes, instead of paraphrasing the sentence, I used Google Translate. It was my biggest mistake and a blow to the reputation. The lesson was learned, and I began to rapidly pull up my English. A year later, I feel much more confident, although errors so far encountered in my posts. Their number has decreased many times. Moreover, I am extremely grateful to people who point me to them.

The choice of a subject

Actually there was no problem. But looking at all my posts it is difficult to say that I am Web developer. Most of them are devoted to ORMs, I want to change it and begin writing more about ASP.NET MVC and build of professional web applications.

The choice of a source code repository

Due to the nature of the posts, examples often don’t fit in text or it’s easier to put a solution entirely. I have an account on GitHub, but I absolutely don’t want to add every example to here. Most likely I’ll commit completed professional solutions. Since I have no desire to turn my repository into 101 examples for everybody.

The choice of a style

Official or not? I often hear that I mix the two styles, but I don’t see a problem with it. Moreover, I am inclined to believe that it makes my unique style. On the other hand, unfortunately, there are some misunderstandings in intricate places of the language. I should also mention images. I’ve always treated them negatively. Since I believed that their destiny is walkthroughs for beginners. Now I understand that a diagram worth many words. However, I will illustrate only the most obscure and difficult moments. Obviously, in most cases it will be screenshots, but how to overcome laziness and lack of time for diagrams?

The choice of promotion

Here, I ‘m not talking about SEO, but it plays an important role. The fact is that after writing the post it should ship to the reader. Waiting for one will scroll through 10 pages in Google does not make sense. So I added buttons socialization and registered on link catalogues. Before I began blogging I hadn’t been registered in Facebook or Twitter. The first one seemed to me just a time-killer, the second one I used as a consumer without need for registration. The attitude to Facebook I haven’t changed. In fact, I’m thinking of removing its counters from pages and adding Google +1. I believe that people, who read my blog, are not professionals who sit for hours on Facebook. In favor of a Google +1 I can say that it is now closed social network of geeks. In addition, a Google +1 button affects search results. Back to Twitter, my attitude has changed to positive. Although my band right now is more similar to RSS, but I’m going to tweet more actively. In addition, I’m thinking of an additional mirror for the blog on ASP.NET site.

The future comes today

In conclusion, I can say that a lot of plans. I’m going to move to a new host, to change the theme, to shift the focus towards ASP.NET. But the main goal is to significantly increase the number of my regular readers.