As we continue celebrating fives years of Higher Ed Professor, I want to look back at this past year and share what I’ve learned in 5 years of blogging. When I started this blog, I had no idea exactly where it was going or where I would come up with enough content to fill the now more than 250 posts. In today’s post, I want to give a sense of the state of the blog and the four lessons that I have learned.
I’m quite grateful to all of our readers whether in the United States or around the world. During the past year, we’ve had more than 100,000 readers from all 50 states and 197 countries.
This year has also been one of tremendous growth in readership. Last May, we were averaging just under 5,500 readers per month. Last month we jumped to almost 17,700.
One of the things that I’m most excited about is that (as you could see from our top 10 last week) posts from years ago are still finding traction. Anyone who writes for a living is glad when their work doesn’t just rot on a shelf somewhere.
Or whatever the internet’s equivalent is with the graveyard of old blogs.
Lessons I’ve Learned From Blogging
1. The Power of Streaks
I’ve always recommended that anyone who has to produce writing on a regular basis use the power of streaks. The concept is pretty simple. You keep track of your schedule and every day that you complete your expectation gets a mark.
Your goal is to keep the streak alive. Even when you don’t feel like working, the desire to keep the streak going provides motivation. For the first four years of this blog, this was a powerful motivator for me. When you’ve been doing something every week without missing a single one, you find a way to keep it going.
Last year, I found myself overcommitted. Between my administrative role and a book project, I couldn’t keep everything going. So I missed a post. Then another. Then another.
The second half of last year didn’t see much posting. I resigned myself to this fact given my other commitments. I couldn’t do everything.
However, this experience also showed the power of streaks. The streak kept me going longer than I could have on my own. And once I broke it, it was pretty easy to miss again.
2. Find Your Voice
One of the best advantages that I’ve received from blogging is finding myself in writing. In other words, my voice.
I’ve spent most of my adult life with writing as a major part of my job. Yet, I never truly felt like I owned my writing. It never felt like it was mine. This blog as changed that completely.
I now know myself and my writing. To be sure, I can’t write the same way here as in an academic journal. However, through hundreds of posts, I found my voice and personality in my writing. For those of you who haven’t read my book, How to Get Tenure: Strategies for Successfully Navigating the Process, stop and go get yourself a copy.
Of everything I’ve done, I believe I’m most proud of that book because I was able to take the lessons from blogging and directly translate them into a book that is hopefully informative and fun to read.
3. Reassess What We Define As Scholarship
Finally, my biggest revelation has been the need to redefine what we consider scholarship in higher education. More specifically, what is public scholarship and how does it count in the faculty evaluation process.
While I have learned tremendously from the process of blogging and it has directly improved my work as a scholar, this blog does not count for anything in terms of my evaluation as a faculty member.
It isn’t on my CV or in my faculty activity reports. When I apply for full professor, external reviewers won’t consider my blogging as part of my scholarship. Although probably more people have read my blog than all of my books, book chapters, and articles combined.
The reality is that we only consider limited and traditional measures of scholarship. This has to change. Not every scholar can and should blog or engage in other avenues of public scholarship. But we shouldn’t penalize those who do.
Longtime readers know that I believe strongly in the rights and responsibilities of tenure. In many ways, this blog is my rebelling against the system. Sure, it won’t count for making full professor, but I’m engaging with people, teaching readers, and learning more about higher education.
Forget impact factors and journal rankings. Forget citation counts and acceptance rates. Those things have a role and a proper place in higher education. Yet, for me and my trusty blog, we’re just going to keep putting ideas out into the world and see what’s next.
