What I’ve learnt after one year

It’s been an incredible first year for Davis Dna Designs and the support I’ve received has been tremedous. I feel as though I’ve learnt so much about the design community and my own abilities through this blog.

My venture with DDD has just begun but as I look back on 2012, here are five lessons that I’ve learnt along the way:

I launched my blog on the 1st Jan 2012 and towards the end of my first month, I got a taste of the true power of the internet. As many of you know, David Airey influenced the creation of my blog and it all started with an email to him.

Power of the Internet

I asked him whether he could take a look at my blog post on how I became a graphic designer. A couple of hours later, I checked my view counter (which usually displayed around 15-20 views per day) and it had jumped to 400+ views.

It took me awhile to figure out how this was possible as no one had commented on the post at that stage. I eventually checked my Twitter feed to see that David had sent out out a tweet simply saying, ‘Thanks for the props, Jamie. Brought a smile to my face.’ and kindly put a link back to my website.

Patience

When I first launched my blog, I found myself wondering why my views were so low. What I didn’t understand at the time was that is takes a lot time and dedication to cultivate views and ultimately an audience.

I was naive to think that interest came instantly. So my advice to anyone starting up a blog is to work hard and to remain patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day and if you’re consistent, people will come.

Sharing something of value

There are hundreds of blogs in existance, which sometimes makes it difficult to differentiated valuable reading material from the white noise. When surfing the web, you will effortlessly come across blog posts that have been ripped from other sites, reshaped and regurgitated into the world.

I know this because I have also contributed to the white noise in the past. But the DNA in my brand name stands for uniqueness, amongst other things and I aim to maintain that. Duane Kinsey also talks about sharing something of value in the form of social networking via Logobird. It’s worth a read.

Learning from mistakes

Be careful not to steal the work of others was my biggest mistake of this past year. But it was also my biggest learning experience. It’s definitely a lesson that I’ll never forget.

Saying Thank You

Take the time to say thank you to the people that have supported you from the very beginning and along the way. It takes a great deal of time and energy to produce a consistent blog and the support is always greatly appreciated.

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Happy New Year everyone and all the best for 2013.

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