A Year of Blogging
As of August 9th, this little blog has been going for a year. Since then, we've built up from nothing to over 1500 unique visitors dropping by over 4200 times a month, moved from a dinky secondhand server on our cable modem to a real hosting provider and posted 316 times (including this one) amassing almost 1500 comments. The audience has also broadened from family and friends to include a bunch of Utah's political bloggers and even had an extended appearance from a columnist in San Diego encompassing visits from 44 of the 50 states (and about two dozen foreign countries).
When I look back at some of those earliest posts, I can see I've figured out a lot since then. Not only have I refined and defined my writing style, but I'm also pickier about what I want to write about. Posting daily isn't as much of a priority, but I don't save blogging just for weekends either. I've learned the dark arts of SEO and tried dozens of WordPress plugins (of which about 30 are still in use) while crunching stats several different ways to figure out what's working and what isn't.
What about you? What did you learn during your first year of blogging?
Jesse
Shauna
I learned the value of refraining from over personal info, whiny entries, but in my most recent year, I’ve discovered the need for *some personal entries to prove that I am indeed human, instead of a random YouTube embedder.
I also learned that the entries that receive the most comments generally are the ones that are politically or sexually motivated.
I need to learn consistency. I still miss out on that.
I’ve learned that my blogging is still crap as far as quality. I’ve also learned that I don’t really care because mostly I blog for me, not for anyone strange enough to read it.
I learned I’m a sucky blogger. I’m just about done with it. I’d like to think I can just write about my life and feelings, but I take things too personally (please validate me!) and offend certain people too easily, so I’m thinking blogging just isn’t for me. Maybe I should do a boring family blog instead….
Most folks in that situation run several blogs for different purposes. For instance, you might run one that requires logging in to view posts so that you can approve who can or can’t see something. It’s not all that uncommon.
“a boring family blog”?????
Just what are you saying????? *offended* (easily, even)
“Just what are you saying?????”
I’m pretty sure she was saying that family blogs are boring.
Which they aren’t… so I don’t see how that could make sense… unless…
She’s saying that *families* are boring. Someone should call her bishop.
I’ve already left him two messages.
I blog for myself. I know what gets the most hits and comments, but I don’t blog for that…I just blog whatever I want to talk about. I rarely get real personal, a blog isn’t a journal, but I try and mix it up a little and mostly just talk about whatever. Ocassionally, I’ll actually write (rather than just put down my thoughts) but mostly its just me talking about whatever. I personally have found that the posts that get no comments are those that friends and strangers will go out of their way to thank me for, so I don’t really worry about that either. Anyway, everyone is different–but that’s what works for me.
What ever happened to all the Strawberry Pie Porn?
Families are boring! And people who blog about them even more so! My bishop’s already threatening me.
Good grief! I mean a family blog where I only post boring stuff like once a month. 😛
And Jesse, you’re awesome!
Sunny: http://www.coolestfamilyever.com/2007/05/29/food-porn-stawberry-cream-cheese-pie/
Behold, the strawberry pie porn. There’s a little search field if you’re ever looking for old posts about something in particular.
I think the implication is that she wants more food porn. I guess we need to try some new stuff soon, eh?
Well, given my recent inability to get enough Indian food into my diet, I really think we should try some Indian dishes.
And also, you should make me some Moroccon Chickpea soup… just because it sounds really good right now.
“Well, given my recent inability to get enough Indian food into my diet, I really think we should try some Indian dishes.”
Wow. Jot that down on my “List of things I never expected to hear you say.” And by “hear,” I mean “read.” And by “say,” I mean “write.” And by “things,” I mean “things.”
No, really! It’s true! I didn’t realize how much I loved Indian food until fairly recently. I always said I didn’t like it because every time someone would ask me if I liked it and I would answer that I didn’t know, they’d always say, “Well, do you like curry?” Which I don’t. Given the fact that EVERYONE asked me about curry when talking about Indian food, I thought it was in everything. Totally untrue! I’ve had several different dishes now and several different Indian restaurants and I love them all! I can’t get enough!
I have an amazing recipe for you then.