Ever since late June, The Game Knot, which I've been working on ever since 2020, has been live and I've learned a lot from my experience.
The launch of The Game Knot has gone as expected, nothing went seriously wrong but at the same time it was rough around the edges. Like anyone starting out with content creation, I learned many things.
It wasn't the best launch, but I wasn't expecting it to be. I went into this knowing I'd make mistakes and that this would be a learning experience for a good while. Let me tell you, it's been a great learning experience. I've learned so much when it comes to reporting the news, reviewing games, and more.
Although, it's not as though I haven't done anything I'm proud of. I'm extremely happy with every like, comment, and retweet I get. I've even posted over 200+ articles in seven months.
So, with this being the first month of the new year, I figured it was fitting to list the lessons I've learned as far back as May 2020. May 2020 was back then when I was in the concept phase for The Game Knot.
Lesson 1: Legal Stuff is Hard but Worth it
I went into creating The Game Knot thinking I knew what I had to do since this wasn't my first time creating a website. Make it look good, have a plan for what to post, organize things, and more.
That was, until I saw Section Six of Wix's Privacy Policy detailing that Website Owners should let their Users know about certain stuff in their Privacy Policy. I decided to look investigate it to be safe, which resulted in the Terms & Conditions, and Privacy Policy I have today.
It was a lengthy process that made me realize that "wow, companies have to protect themselves from so much legal stuff." It made me learn a lot about stuff like information that gets collected, Cookies, and more.
It gave me a new perspective on Privacy Policies and Terms & Conditions, which I now often check. I learned a lot about the law too, although I'm far from an expert on the law.
Lesson 2: Get Content Out There
Unfortunately, I was hesitant with publishing The Game Knot back in 2020 and before June of 2021 since I wanted to practice making video game reviews to get the hang of it. I even simulated a week of publishing on The Game Knot before publishing my website with news articles and a review.
I realized too late I should've just been posting stuff realistically. The sooner I got stuff out there, the better it would've been as I would've got my start. I hesitated to the point where my first year after graduating college was spent with drawn-out preparations for The Game Knot.
However, in retrospect, I think I was just afraid. The Game Knot was a huge step for me, since I was going to be getting content out there and dedicating a lot of time to it when it would launch, which I have. It felt like a point of no return.
That's not to say this didn't have its advantages. Since I hesitated for so long, I realized I needed a Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy before I published The Game Knot. However, the disadvantages outweigh the positives since I missed months of what could've been me posting content.
When you're a creator, I believe the most important part is getting content out there. The more content out there, the more likely people will come across your content. I learned that the hard way.
Lesson 3: Always Double-Check
This one is obvious in foresight, but I did find myself forgetting about it in the heat of the moment. When you have a fresh story, you want to report quickly, things slip your mind, in my case, a lot of things.
A few things I forgot including: Is everything correct? Did I change the focus statement to the latest version? Did I proofread the title once more to make sure it has proper spelling? Is the correct thumbnail put in for the embed? Am I sharing the full story and not just a fraction of it?
Thankfully, I caught onto these mistakes afterwards and would correct them. Still, these are mistakes I shouldn't have made.
It's to make mistakes when you're trying to be as quick as possible. I eventually learned to not rush and to take my time posting articles. While I still try to release news articles promptly, nowadays I always double-check the focus statement, thumbnail image, and more.
It doesn't matter if your article is one of the first ones if it has errors.
Lesson 4: Wix has Flaws
I'll forever appreciate Wix since I'm able to comfortably host my website. However, I'd be lying if I didn't say Wix has problems. Despite building websites before, I never noticed this minus one or two things. Unfortunately, working on a website hosted by Wix full time, I saw many cracks.
I do want to clarify that these are just my individual experiences. It's possible some of these were even on my end.
Firstly, some website templates are awkward to me. The first template I had would have a large empty space at the bottom for some reason. Despite trying to fix it many times, I had no way to clear up this space. Adding in widgets didn't help from what I remember.
I had to start from nothing again when I realized the template problem wasn't fixable, choosing a new template that has treated me much better. It's frustrating spending time on a template only for something to throw a wrench into things, making it unusable without sacrificing proper spacing.
If that was the only problem, then fine, but blog posting isn't safe either. Wix has a habit of adding small, stealth updates that often make things worse for me. At least, these updates aren't on Wix's Updates & Releases page.
Here's a good example, Heading 4. Heading 4 was much like Heading 3, but from what I remember, it was smaller. For me, it was the perfect size... Now though...
Heading 3
Heading 4
While some people won't have a problem with this, I genuinely mind it, more so that this came out of nowhere. It's not like I can edit font sizes when writing blogs to have the heading size I prefer.
Autosaving can also be a pain. Sometimes I get booted from a draft post, resulting in a mandatory refresh, due to a dip in my internet connection. My internet never gets to the point of being disconnected completely, so this confuses me more than anything.
This often wrecks my workflow since it interrupts it. Thankfully autosaving can be turned off manually, but it turns back on every time I enter a post. It seems to only stay off when editing the website itself, not blog posts.
My worst experience with Wix tends to be when it rarely loads my posts in the blog list. This just leaves me unable to work on anything, which you can imagine, is extremely frustrating.
These aren't so big that I'll stop using Wix or anything, I just deal with them. Wix still has a lot of good going for it such as the UI, customization, easy-to-use website builder, and more. However, Wix isn't perfect, and I feel I should acknowledge that.
Lesson 5: Envy is a Pitfall
I've never really been envious, I'm perfectly happy with what I have. Sure, there is stuff I want, like a job, but never to the point where I get jealous of others. That all changed for a while though last year, I had a newfound enviousness got the best of me at times that's thankfully gone now.
For a while, seeing others in the same field as me posting similar content, but with them getting more views, made me envious of them. Of course, even back then I knew this was petty, since I knew the reality of why they were getting the views I was envious of. They're more experienced and I'm new to video game journalism, it's only natural.
I guess I felt entitled to the same attention when, in truth, I was and still am making mistakes even now. If anything, it's better to start out without such an audience, so you can learn from your mistakes without so many eyes on you. Unfortunately, emotions and logic don't always agree.
Looking back, I must question why I even thought this way in the first place. The Game Knot was made so I can gain experience in the video game journalism field and to give myself something to do during the pandemic. Why was I treating it like a competition?
I forgot why I even made The Game Knot in the first place, and let me tell you, treating a blog like a competition with others is NOT fun. It's the furthest thing from it, at least for me.
I don't know how, but I did learn to just not compare myself to others and just do my own thing. I'm me, not anyone else. The people I was envious of earned their success, and I'm happy for them.
Maybe I'm being too honest here, envy is far from something positive to experience. However, like I said before, I've never felt envious of others before, this was a first for me. It was also all internal, I never acted on my envy in any way. If I did, well, this section would have been drastically different, full of regrets.
While this isn't professional advice of any sort, I do sincerely hope it helps someone that went through the same thing I did with envy. Out of every lesson here, this is the most important lesson I learned not only as a journalist, but as a person too.
In Conclusion
The year of 2021 was a mixed year for me overall. As a personal year, it fared better thanks to The Game Knot. I was able to do something productive and itch the side of me that's a workaholic. The Game Knot, despite some struggles, is a ton of fun. I only say it's mixed because I've had my fair share of crummy things happen in my personal life.
It's obvious what 2021 was like for the world. I'll give it credit that it was an improvement... In the same vein that milk that expired Jan. 1, 2022, is an improvement to milk that expired on Dec. 28, 2021. It's still expired milk.
Thanks to The Game Knot, 2021 was also an educational year for both my work and personal life. While I don't have the highest hopes for 2022 as both a personal year and for the entire world, I hope I'll continue to learn as both a journalist and a person this year.
A very honest and revealing post. Shows the true journalist and professional you are! I love reading your posts. Keep them coming Matthew!!