One Year On: What I've Learnt Through Blogging

So it's one year ago today that I created this blog and first sent my thoughts out into the ether. I wasn't completely sure what I wanted out of blogging, but I certainly couldn't have predicted or expected everything that I've gained. I've made some great online friends through blogging (and dear Twitter, of course) and have had the opportunity to read a lot of books that I wouldn't have done otherwise.

I've read a lot of blogging advice in the past year or so, much of it specifically aimed at writers (with a view to building a platform). Some of it I've put into practice and discovered it didn't 'fit' for me; some of it I ignored and came around to later (we can all be stubborn, right?); some of it I've followed and found useful. So, in the spirit of paying it forward, here's what my one whole year of experience has taught me so far:

• UK fiction writers don't need a platform before submitting, but blogging and tweeting etc is a good way to demonstrate willingness to contribute to promotion.
• The writing and reading community online is incredible.
• A writer's blog doesn't necessarily need a single unified theme - you can be your blog's theme and cover anything you're interested in. If you think about it, a writer who has no interests outside of writing is extremely hard to imagine: most are interested in particular places, times or cultures, or an area such as myth, physics, environmentalism. 
• Blogging twice or three times a week seems to suit me best and is what I've settled into over the past few months (with a couple of notable exceptions recently). I think I'd lose sight of it if I were aiming for monthly posts, and I know I couldn't keep up with daily blogging!

So, all in all, I'm really glad I took up the blog and expect to be sticking around. 

What blogging gems have you picked up along the way?