As a child, how did you spend most of your time?
Playing, having fun. Almost every day I went playing with a friend or something. I think this made me a lot as a person, playing, interacting was a big part of my life. Besides that I was in competitive swimming, at a point I trained 5 times a week (including 3 sessions before school, at 7am), which is another big part of my childhood. This constant motivation to improve myself is still something I carry on!
What motivates you to be a better student?
I would say a ‘good student’ is a student who makes the most out of his academic career, out of his possibilities as a student.
First of all, we need to settle what a ‘better student’ is. I won’t say that a better student has higher grades by definition, on the contrary, maybe even not! I would say a ‘good student’ is a student who makes the most out of his academic career, out of his possibilities as a student. I am not someone with straight A’s for instance, but I am doing a lot besides the normal curriculum, just because I love it!
And that is my motivation, fun. I like to broaden myself, get more experienced and learn other views. But the biggest motivation for me is one realization: This will be the time of your life. When you look back at your college years, would you like to see a guy who spends most of his day-time sleeping, night-time partying and doing nothing at all? Of course not! And that is how I live. I want to get the most out of these years, basically because the possibilities are endless and I want to use them!
When did you get interested in blogging?
During the high school finals I needed a new motivation to try weird study techniques. I needed really, really good grades and the only way I was going to get them was by spending a lot of time studying. So I started to experiment with different things, like flash-cards, big charts and making a lot of tests – as a practice.
Besides all of the studying I have always had an interest in writing. In elementary school I once wrote a book (10 pages long or something) with a friend of mine, for our teacher’s birthday. In high school I re-founded the school paper with a couple of friends and I started putting my thoughts on paper more.
Combining these two things (experimenting with new methods and putting thoughts on paper) the blogging thing was easily evoked. With blogging I could share my insights, get feedback and learn even more! My blogging career was born.
How do you want to be remembered?
Are you doing the things you want to do? Is this helping you become the person you want to be when people remember you?
Geez, that is kind of a radical question. I would like to be remembered something like: ‘Stefan was a guy who took the most out of life, was easily an enthusiast and cared for the people around him.’ In a post on my own blog I wrote about having a mission statement and I think this mission statement is exactly how I want to be remembered. Mine changed a little bit over the past year, but the bigger meaning is still the same.
Having this in mind (how you want to be remembered) is a really good way to test if you are on the right track every once in a while. Are you doing the things you want to do? Is this helping you become the person you want to be when people remember you? A question everybody should asks himself every once in a while I suppose!
What advice would you give to a beginning blogger?
Write, read and write more. Design is important, of course, but when your design is awesome, but your writing doesn’t live up to the expectation given by the design – visitors will leave, fast. Start reading sites like Viperchill.com, Problogger.net, Copyblogger.com and of course SmartBoyDesigns.com! Learn from their articles and start writing.
When you are writing a lot you are, first of all, creating a lot of content. This results in a lot of content on your site, which will attract more readers through search engines. But when you are writing that much that you can’t handle it anymore, you can submit guest posts on other blogs, which will result in back links and traffic from their sites! Win-win situation. Besides all of this advantage, writing a lot will also result in an improvement in your writing, because you get a lot of practice!
How often should a blog be updated?
In the beginning a lot. I would say 3 times a week (at least, this is what I did). This is because you should get content out there for the readers to read and for the search engine bots to index. Readers just need a lot of archive material when they want to browse (or even wander) back.
After the initial frequently posting schedule you can take the power back a little. I was posting 3 articles a week for a year. For half a year I’ve been back on a 2 articles a week schedule. Slowly I am building this back as well, because I want to focus on quality more, rather than quantity. This results in bigger articles (1000+ words), which are more in-depth as well.
So to a starting blogger I can only say: write a lot and hit the publish button a lot! You can lay back later!
What’s helped you in becoming a better writer?
My girlfriend. For sure. She is my biggest fan on the first place, but my biggest critic as well. I simply asked her: ‘Sandra, you are reading all my articles right? Do you have critic on them every once in a while?’ The answer was positive and since then we discuss my articles. She is constantly pushing me to revise the ideas I spread on my blog, she is always testing my assumptions and when she notices an error, she’ll shoot me an email. Perfect.
What do you like most about living in the Netherlands?
Nice question! The weather of course. Love the cold, love the rain. Haha! No, without kidding, what I love about the Netherlands are the endless possibilities. When you are born here, you have all the possibilities you can get. From your birth you are guaranteed for health care, education and social security. It doesn’t matter how rich your parents are – when you are capable, you will get where you can get.
And in the end, the Dutch have a really temperate state of mind. I am a really enthusiast person and that is pretty uncommon in the Netherlands. When you are coming out with an idea people will first question you, and will first tell you to just act normal. Love it.
About Stefan
Stefan Knapen is a Dutch second year Med Student living in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Besides medical school, Stefan runs a blog called StudySuccessful.com, where you can learn everything about living a successful college life. Stefan would like to call himself the perfect example, enjoying life both online and offline!
