6 Things I Learned from 6 Blogging Years

Written on this computer

This month marks *six years of blogging. Here are six things I’ve learned.

1. I like to blog

As a once-upon-a-time newspaper reporter, I had anticipated I’d like blogging and that has turned out to be true.

I like putting together the ideas, finding the photos, dreaming up a pseudo-clever title and interacting with folks who read my words.

(Please leave a comment or tweet!)

The best thing about a blog you own is it’s yours and you can write about anything you want.

It makes me more attentive to what happens around me, as well, because

2. A twice-a-week blog is like having an extra child.

My husband learned this early. The blog must go on, no matter what.

I haven’t missed a post in six years, though I obviously write them ahead of time if possible.

But I can never forget the blog. As I walk through my life, I’m constantly looking for blog ideas.

I carry my phone everywhere so I can take photos for potential blogs.

This picture, for example, has never appeared in a blog post.

I take a lot of photos that never end up on the blog.  

3. The oddest blog posts get plenty of readers

It doesn’t seem to matter what I write about. The days I’m in despair and can’t think of anything and just throw together a post, often end up being the ones most read.

Why?

I have no idea.

Do you?

4. Amount of time spent writing a post does not necessarily correspond to numbers of readers.

Often the posts I whiz off in under half an hour turn out to be popular–probably because I’m feeling cheeky or impassioned if I write that fast.

Posts that take me agonous periods of time to write don’t necessarily get a lot of traction.

Especially when writing the WWI posts, I make a huge effort to get the facts correct, which takes time and often involves reading many links.

The pictures, too, require special treatment.

Fortunately, I love to research and write them, otherwise there would be no point–from a “return on investment” point of view.

5. Two of my three most popular blog posts were written about Oswald Chambers and his daughter Kathleen.

I’m pleased you like them, but I’ve written twenty more!

You can click on the Oswald Chambers/World War I tab above for the complete list.

Or click here.

Oswald, Biddy and Kathleen Chambers on camels

My posts have elicited information we did not know about Oswald Chambers. This post described one of my most thrilling research moments.

Some of those posts took a long time to write, some did not. (Thus, no clue on #4)

The second most popular is the provocative: The Nudist Colony Field Trip.

I wrote it really fast on a day I couldn’t think of anything else, so I picked a funny story from my life . . .

Lots of people have liked it!  

6. Even if I never publish another book, I anticipate continuing to write my blog.

I love blogging that much.

I can hardly wait to see what I’ll write about in 2016!

Happy new year to all.

 

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*I’ve actually been blogging for longer than six years thanks to writing for the Books & Such Literary Agency blog, starting in 2009. Here’s the link to my first post there.

I’ve been commenting on blogs since World Magazine‘s now-defunct blog began in 2003.

I also blog on the last Monday of the month on Novel Pastimes

 

 

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