Hooray, I made it! I posted every day in November! And whew, it was kind of exhausting, I must say. Here are some things that I’ve learned:
- Daily posts do in fact help you get more traffic and "hits". My stats are up, and I’ve noticed I am ranking higher in various Google searches as well (especially dairy-free recipes). Sweet!
- There are SO many things to blog about — I feel like I have so many ideas for posts, so many cool things I want to try or share. Once you start getting in the habit it’s so easy to keep the ball rolling, idea-wise!
- Posting takes TIME. Oh man, I don’t remember this from last year but this year it felt a little grueling. I know I could have quit anytime, but I do like completing a task like this, once I’ve started, ya’ know?
- I’ve found with the daily posting, I end up writing more short posts and photo posts, and less posts "of substance". Those latter ones, things like tutorials, longer information posts (often with lots of pictures) I really love doing, but they take a lot more time than I have if I need to post daily — I find I have to "save up" by working on those for several days at a time.
- That said, daily posts take the pressure off needing to have a really "good" or "big" one to make up for lost or quiet time on the blog. I know its all in my head, but if I haven’t written for awhile I feel like the bar goes up for what my next post needs to be like. Which is quite silly — it’s just a BLOG, geesh!
- I spend WAY too much time futzing with formatting with my blog. I am very picky about formatting (like how pictures look, sizing, margin edges, justification, etc) but don’t have the technical skills to do it properly with my current blog software (Roller). There are a few things we can do to help with this, but they all take time. Of course. Ha!
- In my head "photo posts" should be quick and easy, but the editing, uploading, and formatting takes a lot of time and effort. It’s worth it to me to do all that, and I enjoy it sometimes (especially the editing) but I’m coming to realize it’s a BIG time sucker.
- Even in regular blog posts, I often spend lots of time searching out the "right" photo of my own to illustrate the post, or taking & editing a new one of my own. It would be a lot faster and easier to use free stock photography from elsewhere, for at least some of those posts that are more about the content than the photo. I really like using my own photos, though!
- I get a lot of satisfaction working on my blog, but writing/photo editing/posting often means I have less or no time to keep up with other blogs and write guest posts, etc, which I also enjoy and get a lot out of. I love the community of bloggers I am a part of, and get such inspiration for my parenting and life from various online communities, but man, its so easy to go overboard and log in way more computer time than is healthy.
- Computer and blogging time is "me time", which can take away from "us time". I’ve missed hanging out with Lonnie, watching DVDs or doing projects together! We intend to make more gifts for the kids this year, and in the coming weeks I am looking forward to doing that instead of blogging as much. I promise I’ll blog about it after the fact, though — I want to show off the cool stuff we are making!
- I really want to take a photography class, particularly to learn how to photograph FOOD. I love posting recipes and writing about food by my food photos just always seem to suck. Anyone have any easy tricks for me? I am guessing I will need to learn how to use my camera better, not just relying on the auto settings. Sigh.
- I’d love to figure out how to make blogging profitable (just a little!), so I can feel less guilty about all the time I spend doing it. Without compromising my blog’s integrity or aesthetics or annoying my readers, of course. Hmmm.
- If I go this route, I also need to figure out how to gain more readers. Which means changing my posting style and topics slightly, I would imagine (hopefully for the better?) as well as various other things.
So, there you go! Another month, another successful NaBloPoMo! Now, I need to get OFF the computer and work on that advent calender! Can’t believe its already December. Woo hoo, love this time of year!
Related posts:
Its been great to follow you for the month. It must feel great to ‘publish’. Ironically, last evening I was at a meeting to learn more about what you were just writing about. Becoming more profitably. I was with some very knowledgeable, internet savvy, blogger folks.