Today's live stream was a little different: I demonstrated using the Aiomatic WordPress plugin, ChatGPT, and Azure Open AI to write blog posts. I showed the kinds of content it writes, the kinds of blog post content it doesn't include, and taught you how to identify meaningless word salad blog posts written by people who don't actually know what they're doing.
This week, I published two blog posts:
How Bad Statistics Cause Bad SQL Server Query Performance
How Scalar User-Defined Functions Slow Down Queries
When I first started going to conferences, I thought all the value was up on the screen. I took copious amounts of notes in every session. I asked questions. I paid close attention. When the sessions were over, I packed up and went home, eager to implement what I'd learned. Of course, reality set in…
Happy birthday to my first post from May 7, 2002.
1,782 posts and over 12,000 comments later, I feel like I'm still winging it, but it's time to stop and think about the lessons I've learned over the last decade. This web site has turned into a consulting company that supports three of us, and tomorrow we add our first full-time employee, Jes Schultz Borland.
I'm just like you, except I'm from your future. Lemme rewind a few years and explain.
My Job Search Five Years Ago
In 2005, I was working from home doing database administration, coding, and Classic ASP. I absolutely loved my coworkers, but I was burned out, and the company was in rough financial shape. They'd missed a couple of paychecks, and I decided I needed to make a change.
Mike Walsh (Blog - Twitter) is celebrating his one year anniversary as a blogger by revisiting why he got started, passing on tips to other bloggers, and upping his game. He interviewed me about how I got started blogging, how I've changed along the way, and some tips that I'd recommend new bloggers think about. It's about a half hour long, so pour a hot cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage and turn up your speakers - the audio's a little quiet:
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. So far I've talked about why you should schedule blog posts, how to write a product review, how to spice up your blog with pictures, and how to get people to find you online, and today I'm wrapping things up with a book recommendation. My next series in a couple of weeks will focus on social networking basics.
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. Yesterday I kicked things off with why you should schedule blog posts. Tomorrow I'll break some bad news to you - your blog is boring.
I blog to help other people.
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. Enjoy! Tomorrow's post will show you how to get people into your carnival booth - I mean, web site.
The question bloggers ask me over and over is, "How do you blog so often?"
Enough with the technical details - let's talk manners.
Give People Credit and Links
If you hear about something from somebody else, credit 'em. The internet is huge, SQL Server is huge, and we all get help to find the stuff we need to do our jobs every day. We find stuff through other people, and it helps to credit those people.
In my series this week on how to get started blogging, I've touched on the business of blogging for yourself, why you should use Wordpress and how to configure it, and the best WordPress plugins. Today I'm going to focus on look and feel. WordPress uses a "theme" system to bundle images, CSS files and…
So you've been reading blogs for a while, and you want to know how to start a blog. It's really easy, it pays off long term in your career, and it's a great way to meet awesome people. I'm going to tell you all the things I wish somebody would have told me way back when I got started blogging in 2002.
