Tomorrow is my blog’s 7th blogaversary. My first blog post was on June 24, 2010. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been blogging for seven years. There’s a good reason for that. In 2010 I only blogged four times. I blogged once in 2011. In 2011 I blogged only seven times. It wasn’t until July 7, 2014 that I started blogging on a regular basis. That was the month before the publication of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I finally felt like I had something to write about!
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
I am constantly learning more about blogging. You may have noticed that I’ve started trying to write catchier blog post titles. I’m also trying to limit my post titles to five words. I read somewhere that’s ideal, but now I don’t remember why. Seems like it has something to do with showing up in a Google search.
MostlyBlogging.com
Janice Wald’s blog post on June 10, 2017 (http://www.mostlyblogging.com/generate-better-traffic) said something that made me stop in my tracks and reread a couple of paragraphs. The post was written by Raymond Crain, who works for E2M, a social media marketing agency based in San Diego.
In a nutshell, Mr. Crain said that blogging daily is out and blogging good content is in. Yay! I don’t have to feel guilty for only blogging twice-a-week!
He said Google now puts more emphasis on the “intent” of the searcher and the “quality” of the blog post. If you’re blogging for your own enjoyment, posting daily is fine, but if you’re trying to get your brand out there and drive more traffic to your blog you might want to read Mr. Crain’s article. This was just one of his five recommendations.
A Writer’s Path blog
Guest post contributor Shelley Widhalm said on Ryan Lanz’s A Writer’s Path blog on June 13, 2017 (https://ryanlanz.com/2017/06/13/why-blogging-is-important-for-writers/) that blogs are here to stay, but that it is quality and not quantity that’s important when establishing your brand and your credentials as a blogger worth reading. Therefore, there is more to blogging than attaining high search engine optimization (SEO.)
Ms. Widhalm stated, “Research shows that blogs should be posted once a week on the same day of the week . . . .”
She did not cite that specific research, but I will take the statement under consideration and continue to watch to see what becomes standard practice. Blogging is a creative outlet for me, so I won’t promise to conform to recommended schedules.
What do you think?
Would you prefer that I only blog once-a-week? I might give that some thought.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have good book to read. I’ve just finished reading Camino Island, by John Grisham and Put the Cat in the Oven Before You Describe the Kitchen, by Jake Vander Ark. (More on that in July when I blog about the books I read in June.)
If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 
Wow! 7 years of blogging journey. Congratulations! I will be reaching my first year anniversary in August which feels a long time to me.
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Thanks, Audrey. It doesn’t feel like seven years, since I didn’t get serious about it until 2014. In your first year, you’ve reached more people than I have in seven. Congratulations on that! Thanks for your comment.
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Congratulations, Janet! We only blog every fortnight, others blog every day. I suppose it depends on how time and effort you want to invest. Just make sure you stay a happy blogger. 🙂
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Thank you, Dina! You make a good point. The more I’ve thought about it since Friday’s post, the more that blogging once-a-week appeals to me. I’m considering just blogging on Tuesdays. Thanks for the encouragement, and thanks again for your posts from the Outer Hebrides. The Isle of Lewis is one of my favorite places! Your blog posts transported me back there — all the way from North Carolina.
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We used to blog once a week. Over years. Then we got more and more followers, more comment to answer, more fellow bloggers to visit and as we blog bilingual (both languages are not my native languages, but Klausbernd is a native German and we live in England) and sometimes it takes several days before a post is ready; this time consuming task almost took the fun out of blogging and we frequently ask ourselves, why do we blog? Because we enjoy it. So for us personally, it works best if we blog only every fortnight. And we divide the work; Klausbernd and the bookfayries now replies to the comments and I visit our fellow bloggers. I really like to stay in contact and get inspired by you all, but I have a big time problem as I commute between three countries (Norway, Germany and England) and my bad conscience was a pain and quite stressful. I have dropped the bad conscience, I don’t apologise for being absent and having a life beside. I do what I can, I/we do my/our best and now we love it. It was a long process and when you have found the way that work the best for you, follow it.
For us it doesn’t pay money wise. To stay firmly grounded, investing so much time and effort, it’s perfectly ok to promote yourself and your work, we learn a lot about doing so, so please don’t be hesitant in this respect, Jane.
The Outer Hebrides was a major highlight. We met a couple from Inverary, they had a combined all around ticket for all the western islands and they have been there many times, like the Queen 🙂 and they just love it. That’s something that’s our list now. Nice to talk to you Jane. Hope your week started well. Take care. Hugs from sunny Norway! x
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I just wrote a long reply to your reply and it suddenly disappeared. Since it’s 4 a.m. here, I think I’ll wait until another time to try to reconstruct my thoughts. Hugs from North Carolina!
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I have recently written many comments that just disappear into orbit. Sometimes for no reason they end up in Spam (you didn’t) and sometimes I suspect WP think “You have written enough and enough is enough” … 😉
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I’m trying again to reply to this nice reply you left for me. The one that got lost in space was, of course, a thing of beauty. Too bad it’s lost. I’m amazed that you and Klausbernd have time to blog every two weeks, with the work travel you do. It’s good that you can share the blog. It might be nice to have someone to share blogging responsibilities with, but I’d probably be too critical of my co-blogger’s work. LOL!
The more thought I gave the recommendation I’d read about blogging once-a-week, the more the idea appealed to me. I realized that adopting that new routine would take a lot of stress off me. After all, it was self-imposed stress! I think blogging every Tuesday will work well for me.
I appreciate your comments about promoting my work on my blog. Since my vintage postcard book was published by a small nonfiction press three years ago, any publicity I give it is all it’s going to get.
That combined all around ticket for all the western islands in Scotland sounds wonderful, but I doubt my sister and I will ever get back over there. We have dear friends in Port of Ness and Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula (where our Morrison immigrant ancestor came from in the 1760s.) Our friends on Lewis told us we’d love the Isle of Skye because it was so green. Of course, it rained buckets the entire time we were on Skye and we couldn’t see a thing! Being on Lewis was sort of like being on the moon, but it had its own charm and beauty in its starkness.
I must close before my words disappear. Hugs from a sunny and warm North Carolina!
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Thank you so much for long and kind comment, Jane!😊 I agree, to blog in a “disciplined” way, can have a very positive effect. It sets your mind free and can open up for creativity and new ideas. Klausbernd and I continue to blog as long as fun is the major part of the work. We learn a lot on our way. 🙂
Hugs to North Carolina from 🇳🇴
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I didn’t know blogging was harder than I thought. It takes loads of dedication and understanding what you want your brand to be and what content your readers like. I am still struggling with my blog a lot but it is nice to know that good quality content is better than daily posts. I would go for quality vs quantity for sure. And congrats on 7 yrs of blogging! =)
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Thank you, Andrea. Ironically, I thought the pressure would be off when I dropped back to blogging just once a week; however, I had an awful time deciding on a topic for my blog post for later today. I finally decided to write about the two books I’ve finished reading so far this month.
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Congratulations for all the good work done!!!
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Thank you so much, Kally! Keep up the good work. I really enjoy following your blog!
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