I started blogging in January 2010 so in some ways I am a beginner but when I think that I have been posting for a year and half it oddly feels much longer. Life: A Memoir of Existence began as a way for me to waffle my heart out in a therapeutic fashion, I don't even think that at first I wanted people to read it.
But then I started to enjoy myself. I read the blogs of others and found some exceptional people who keep me entertained every time they post. I began to post more than just my whimsical heartbroken ramblings...
Which is about the time that I began to get frustrated with myself and my blog.
So here is what I find most challenging about blogging, not necessarily one thing but a bunch that add up to the fact that I want to be read and more than anything enjoyed.
Finding Time - While I am on maternity leave I do have a certain amount of spare time between the kid and the housework but I find that I can often get so caught up in blogging world that several hours pass before I even look up from the laptop. Once I am back at work I fear that the blog will suffer. How do I manage to keep it going?
Content - I love the pictures and musings that I post but do others? Am I wasting my time detailing the adventures and diaries of little old me? I read other people and wonder what lives they must be living to have so much to tell.
Design - I am constantly toying with the idea of changing the design of my blog. I worry it is too dark, especially when I look at the bright and enticing sites of others. I do however have the fear that once I start meddling a) I wouldn't be able to stop and b) I would mess it up completely. I would love some advice on the look of Life: A Memoir of Existence.
Traffic - I often get disheartened when I go weeks without anyone commenting or visiting my blog. In part I don't think that I have set everything up correctly to enable as many visitors as possible to find me and read me. It's a challenge to figure out what I need to do and while I want to get going, like with the design, I fear that I am going to do something drastic. Am I giving potential readers what they want?
So as you can see the thing I most find challenging about blogging is blogging. A cop out I know but at the end of the day I am stubborn enough to love a challenge.
And stubborn enough to keep going despite the fact that people might see my badly designed blog covering nothing useful in particular and just move on by. Sigh.
I guess now I have a daughter I can FORCE her to read it. :) Once she can read that is and of course already made her way through her Mr Men collection.
My kids are older (all out of the house) but I find now that my blog has kind of morphed into a history of our family. Stories fot them to remember and maybe pass down to their kids. They love reading it. Stopping by from Mama Kats.
ReplyDeleteHey, blogging IS challenging, as a whole, so I get it. It's not a cop-out in the least, in my opinion! Great post!
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time trying to figure out what to write about. So much so that I end up reading hundreds of other blogs and then never update my own.
ReplyDeleteI think you have summed it up for a lot of people. This is probably why many give up or lose interest. Something you have to ask yourself is: What am I writing for? Are you writing for yourself, or for others. Are you writing for fun, or do you have a purpose for writing.
ReplyDeleteMany times you need to take a look at what you are writing about and ask if it is a good reflection of "me".
Keep it up, I'm sure that you will find your muse and your audience.
i'm with you on blogging being the challenge. if this is your only blog, i would totally just keep at it for your daughter to read one day. if that's your goal, the rest will fall into place.
ReplyDeleteblogging is a challenge and even more so when you have a family but some of the best material is because of your family!
ReplyDeletei blogged for quite a few years (a knitting blog) then decided to stop because i felt it was becoming a chore. so i took a year off and i missed it tons. so i came back and started a new blog that was not a "knitting blog" and when i post great...if i don't no worries.
i will say that when i look back on my old blog i laugh because i would get discouraged because i didn't get enough comments...not like some blogs and now i look back and see i was getting 8 comments, 14 comments...lol now i get 2 if i am lucky.
anyway....keep up the good work and happy blogging!