Wednesday 4 April 2007

Blog Visits

When I started this blog, everyone asked me (I even asked myself) who would want to visit this and why? Would they come back? Would they keep coming back? What would I write about?

The answer is a resounding yes and I just want to say thanks for your continued support!

When I first started back in December 2006 I had a respectable 200 or so visits during the month which I was quite impressed with, if I might say so myself. Last month (March 2007) my visits had grown to over 650 in a single month. I don't know who you are because just a few of you (5 or so) regularly leave me comments but I'm not sure I care.

I hope I make you laugh a lot. I hope you are feeling involved in our day to day life. Sometimes living so far away from my family can leave me feeling isolated and lonely despite all the activity and people in my life. My friend, Clare, once left a comment that she feels like we are having a daily conversation. OK, so it is a bit more like a monologue at times but I don't mind if you don't mind.

I've never run out of things to write about. Some of it is mind numbingly dull (if you didn't read the cooking misadventures all the way through you might have found the posts about my future culinary success a bit odd and a lot boring). Some posts elicit loads of comments and other go largely ignored (does anyone really care about my book reviews?). I had a moment of panic a few days back when I sat down and couldn't think of a thing to say. I quieted my mind and the ideas just came flooding in. I wonder if professional writers have similar experiences.

I've created a precious diary of my children's lives and perhaps a snippet of who I am not just as a mother but as a woman and a wife. Maybe someday in the future when they have grown they will have access to this record and enjoy reading about our lives. After I've left this world maybe they can share it with their grandchildren and show them what a crazy mother they had.

One unexpected and joyful benefit of all this blogging has meant I have connected with and inspired others to start blogging themselves. I have made a friend with Janell Carson who before this adventure I didn't know at all. Reading her blog is a source of daily inspiration. Better still, her sisters have started blogging and have connected with each other in the blogosphere. Even though I speak to my sister every day and hear about her family adventures you can't quite share photos over the phone. Besides, she is wittier when she writes. (Don't tell her that!) Most notably, my own hubby (the king of cynics) has started his very own blog which looks like it is set to be more of a success than mine in a commercial sense, but don't tell him that I admit that!

I have started email dialogues with professional bloggers none of whom I would have come into contact with had I not been blogging. All have been great contacts and have been the source of valuable advice which has informed my blogging habits here and decisions about work (whether they know it or not).

I am a bit of a voyeur on stranger's blogs and I suspect I have a few of those lurking around my blog. I don't care. One of my best posts (6 Things About Me) came as inspiration from another blog I peeked in on. My revived fascination with knitting came from another blog and one of the best books I've read recently (The Knitting Circle) was a recommendation from one of her posts.

So I haven't made a million $$$/£££ doing this blogging thing and I'm not sure about people who claim they have. I don't trust them. I've seen their blogs and they are catastrophic examples of ad sense gone mad. It's a bit like reading those magazines that have more than 50 pages of ads at the beginning before you even find the first article! Besides, isn't their professional impartiality invalidated by having ads on their blogs? It's a bit like editorial pages have advertisements.....chips away at the old credibility block, wouldn't you say?

I've only been spammed once and the deluge of unsolicted email never arrived, thank goodness!

Cheers to the blogosphere for teaching this old dog a whole bunch of new tricks and whole lot about the world in which I live.

3 comments:

stephanie said...

I just love to read your blog. Thank you for sharing your life. I know that I get to talk to you most everyday, but reading some of your stories makes me giggle. If you write this darn thing for me alone, I think all your goals have been met.

PS. Thank you for the witty comment. And, I am still writing my 6 Things.

Brooke said...

I love reading Stephanie and your blog. I get up and get ready try and start my blog while I eat breakfast. Go to work finish it and post. Then I usually try and check your guys' during my breaks.

Janell said...

THANKS to you for your kind comments about me & my blog. The inspiration factor is mutual. And I might speculate that one of the things that makes your's so enjoyable is that you use proper grammar and punctuation. It's a breeze to read when you don't have to slow down and try to distinguish between what was written and what they meant.
I, too, am deeply enjoying my new friendships with you, Stephanie and Brooke and staying in better touch with my sisters.
Blessings & cyberhugs!