To Blog or Not to Blog? Should I stay or should I go?

                                   Get your ten faithful fingers typing and don't let them stop.  Okay, maybe for good coffee, food, and a break with good friends and family.  We all need that to sustain ourselves.  If we don't have loved ones, what do we have?  Not a whole lot.  But the first thing is to love yourself.  If you can't do that, you won't be able to find it in your heart to love someone else.








Blogging is a long term sport. If you aren't in it for 3-5 years, you aren't serious. You have to outlast the other 98% who will quit. ~BR   From Linky Tools Blog on Twitter.  I'm following them now.


I really loved this.  Many of us start a blog, because, let's face it.  It's the new best thing.  Most of the time, if you're spending time on the Internet, you probably most likely have a blog or are thinking of starting one.


And then, of course there are the people who are mainly on the Internet to play on Facebook and to shop and search the web for fun stuff that aren't related to blogs.  Like they call it:  THE WORLD WIDE WEB.


Yes, I have discovered two new things today.  Isn't it the way of it?  When we're surfing the net, commenting, finding new things that excite us, we suddenly see a new site that we hadn't heard of before.


Today, I happened to go check out a fellow Linkedin blogger's website and I found LinkyFollowers.com.  At first I wasn't sure.  I kind of just wanted to follow her blog through e-mail.  And then, I decided to go check it out.


http://www.mompreneurmogul.com/    This is her blog.
http://www.linkyfollowers.com
www.linkytools.com/

Well, it's a new free site to add your blog and let new potential followers and readers to know about your stuff.  I did sign up and follow her blog through Linkyfollowers.  Kind of cool.  So once you get your account going, you can go there and update your followers and other people who might want to follow you too with letting them know about your new posts.  It's cool.  I've got four followers so far.  Of course one of them is the person who created the site.  


So, I started reading one of his blog posts.  It was quite interesting.  Then, I saw something for Linky Tools and decided to go and check that out too.  


That is something, I guess where you can get each blog post on it.  I decided to do my newest blog post before this one and put it into a basic.  The basic is where they supply their link to their blog or blog post.  You can choose how long to have it run for.  You put in the title of your post, and then click on some other basic info.  


And then you can choose to supply a back link to your post.  I tried it.  I've never supplied a back link for my posts before.  So, it's a new thing for me.


I thought it was a free site, but it looks like they just give you a month trial for free.  Which is kind of cool if you're not too sure about the site.  And of course you put in keywords that are going to get you found.  So choose well.


But, I'm thinking if I like it and it generates some traffic to me, I might keep using it. It is $2 a month for a year.  I'm not sure if you pay all at once or if it's just monthly.  For $2 a month, it isn't bad if it's going to work for you.  Like I say, I'm going to try it out.


But anyway, that's that.  Back to the heart of the issue.


Should we blog or should we stop?  How many of you have tried to start a blog either at Blogger, Wordpress, GoDaddy or anywhere else where you choose to create your blog?  And how many of you end up giving up after a little bit?


How long do you decide to wait before you toss in all your towels and head for Kingdom Come?  I can tell you right now, there's not too much waiting for you at Kingdom Come.  It's a dead end.  Or it's the place you go to when you start to sulk, hide in a corner and drink Bloody Mary's or a Strawberry Daiquiri and drown in the sweetness.  Don't go soak yourself, please.  


But, nobody stays in Kingdom Come for long.  Well, okay a few do and end up on their kid's skateboard or long board rocketing down the slope lightning fast.  Don't let that be you.


Most of us pick ourselves up, dust off the crumbs and decide to try something new that is going to work for us.


I've been doing that for years.  I've always been trying to do clever things with my art, then venturing on a paper doll adventure and have tried many tactics to get my paper dolls off the ground.  I do have the new Etsy Shop, but nothing has happened so far.  I think I am just going to leave it there and I will be promoting it when I can.  I do have the new facebook page for it and the app is on my Authentic Life Blog page.  


So if anyone is interested they can jaunt on over and check it out.  I am going to wait it out until I start gaining an audience with that.  My nurse said last week, All good things take time and are worth the wait.


Which now brings me to those of you that stay with your blogs and stand by it through thick and thin.  We are all patiently waiting for our special moment in the sun.  It can happen if we dream it, have some faith and tons and tons of patience.  Just do it.


And I am starting to learn that a successful blog really does take all the time that you can gather on your full plate.  We all have a full plate.

That's a given and it won't change unless we decide when we need to slow down and catch up with ourselves.  And find a way to find out something new about our authentic selves.  Sometimes, it's in the down time that we realize that we're changing.  Change is good.




When, I first started blogging, I was so new to it.  I just thought it was a place to have a journal and that was it.  I will encourage my girls to blog when they are older.  Right now, they are almost ten and eleven and still need to ask me how to spell things.  So, they aren't quite ready yet.  And the nice thing about Blogger or I'm sure any other site, they can have it so it's private and have only family or friends read it.  That is a good safety feature for younger kids.  Seeing as the Internet can also be a really scary place if you aren't careful.


Okay, I've just figured it out in my head that I've been probably blogging for seven or eight months.  But, I kind of wouldn't count the first two.  


That's still not a lot of time.  Especially when I go to these other blogs and read about new bloggers.  Some have been doing it for 3-5 years and some have been doing it for much longer.


So I love that saying up top that you really need to wait it out for more than several years if indeed you are really serious about calling yourself a professional blogger.  And also if you would love for your blog to go viral someday or just become really popular, read, and well loved.


It's really true that Google will rank you higher in the charts if you constantly are coming up with quality writing.  People want to read a blog that is well written, holds their interest and leaves them with learning something new, maybe learning how to do something or finding help with something that they would like to know how to do.


I'm a new to giving tutorials.  I see a lot of tutorials on how to do different types of crafts on Pinterest and they have a very well written instruction on their posts.  There's usually lots of pictures of how to make something and they really walk you through every step.


I guess I haven't quite come to that yet, but I might try it with some of my knitting stuff sometime.  I have off and on given some instructions with that, but they are usually shorter, but still right to the point of what you need to do.


And when I first started blogging, the readership was terrible.  Nobody knew about me.  I do have about six other blogs.  I've kind of stopped writing at them and have just come to this one.  My Yours Truly Crafty Girl I might just abandon and have the posts added to this one.  And I've got Prolific Poetry Chick, but maybe I should keep that one as is.  I don't know if that would throw people off if I started having it here instead.  And my MommieDearest101 I kind of abandoned after I finished talking about the births of all my children and other articles.  Maybe I should leave it as is and try writing at some of them once in a while.  And then I have a Zazzle one which is basically a place I can push my Zazzle store for photography.  I should be updating that I guess.


And there is BloggersBlock which I started for fun, which was mostly a blog that had brainstorming titles for anyone to try.  I suppose I should keep that one up at least a few times a week.  I kind of forgot about it, and I have two followers there, so I probably should not keep them hanging.


And then I have my crafting.  My knitted skirt is almost done.  I knitted up the pink drawstring early this morning while waiting for the girls to get on the bus.  I arrived at their house before 6AM and got started in on bits and pieces of my full plate.

I had this glittery skirt done a few weeks ago.  It's been cut up from an evening gown that was eight sizes too small.  I finally pulled my knitted drawstring through early this morning.

I knitted the drawstring for my skirt early this morning.  It probably took me about a half hour to finish.  I started it at 6AM and then finished just before my girls had to get their shoes on and catch the bus.  Then I made the two girls pose for some pictures out there.  The youngest doesn't want her picture taken much now.  Hard to get her to do it.  But I told them I need new updated wallpaper on my laptop.






Which reminds me I will need to check on Ebay before the day is out.  I've got 44 auctions that are almost up.  I'm mostly selling women's clothing right now and they are loving my lower prices.  And it was nice to see some fights for stuff now.  There was a little slump for a few weeks and nobody wanted to bid higher and things ended up going for a small amount.  So, this week I decided to jump up 50 cents on my items to see what happens.


So, I think the key to any blogger's success is waiting, waiting, waiting.  But don't let yourself be idle.  Keep writing.  People want to read.  Be honest with your readers.  If you start putting some more ads on your blog, let them know where you are doing it with.  It lets them know and they like it if you are up front with them.


Nobody likes a sneaky blog.


And also, while you are writing and pumping out posts, take a good amount of time to promote yourself too.  Your blog is begging for it.  Social bookmark as much as you feel fit.


And above all, go to other blogs and read their stuff.  Everyone wants to be heard and you can't ever expect everyone to come to your blog and then do nothing for them in return.  Help each other out and it will help our new age blog system be a better operating place.

  
                                           Jennifer Jo Fay Photography




Jennifer Jo Fay


Copyrighted June 7, 2012