Happy anniversary to me! I registered on WordPress eight years ago. As per my quirks, I didn’t actually post anything right away, but apparently I started poking around the website. It wasn’t my first foray into blogging, but WordPress and Blogger are two different beasts in the blogosphere. And if you already have one blog, what’s anything to add into the mix?
Blogging
Blogging is an interesting pastime. I started blogging to get words out of my head; the better to analyze them. Someone pointed out that sharing those words might help as well, so my first blog A New Day was born. This year—this week in fact—it turns 10!
A New Day has changed much over the years though. Where originally it was more of a journal to capture thoughts on my day and the occasional splash of poetry, it morphed over time. It started slow, then quickly built up speed. My second year, I posted nearly every day, clocking in at 337 posts in 2010. By 2011, my pace slowed to a still respectable 230 posts. And while I haven’t managed to break 100 since then, I have consistently returned to A New Day to capture thoughts and moments over the years.
A New Day vs A Writer’s Take
So why did I start another blog, if I couldn’t maintain daily postings at A New Day? Well, I suppose I had a different message at A Writer’s Take. A New Day was a creative outlet, where I wrote poetry, prose, and commentary on the life around me. I also toyed briefly with another blog to tackle grief and bereavement, but didn’t last long there. A Writer’s Take was meant to look at the craft of writing and give back to others struggling to mark their mark in the written world. Whether I have accomplished that is open to interpretation, but I have enough followers to make me think that I do leave a mark.
As these anniversaries arise though, it gets me thinking about what I have time for and what I want to accomplish with my blogging. Nowadays, A New Day holds mostly book reviews. Here at A Writer’s Take, I still offer advice and insights for writers. Whether that be listings of writing contests, definitions and interpretations of social media terms, policies, and changes, or advice for how to get ahead with your blogging/writing via personal examples from me, changes with the post. My consistency is not exactly what it could be though and ultimately, that hurts follower counts and visitor stats. So where does that leave me?
Blogging: Where to Go From Here…
I am not ready to give up blogging by a long shot. The encouragement I have received over the years reminds me that we need to have a community to share our thoughts and struggles with as writers and creators. Blogging creates a persona that is infinitely valuable to anyone wanting to leave their mark on social media and that is still most definitely me. Plus, I still believe in the power of the written word to educate far better than headline snippets and sensational photos meant to attract short-term attention, but leave little long-term impression.
Ultimately, I think that morphing my two blogs into one is in order. It is one thing to have two websites pointing back and forth at each other, building links and flagging search engines, but when neither are on a consistent or frequent enough basis, then followers suffer. And a suffering followers isn’t a fan for long. Does that mean starting from scratch and building a brand new website that incorporates the best of both blogs? Or should I import posts from one blog to the other and shut one down?
What do you think? I would love to get your thoughts on this.
Realistically, nothing every happens quickly in my world. But at my ten-year blogging anniversary, maybe it is time to make the necessary changes to polish my image up a bit more. It might mean losing some old pieces and posts, but that is a part of change. And change opens you up to a potentially better future. With recent books I’ve read pointing towards time and the interesting way we find our place in it, perhaps I should listen to the universe.
“But memories are time beings, too, like cherry blossoms or ginkgo leaves; for a while they are beautiful, and then they fade and die.”
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being
Maybe it’s about time…
A Writer's Take 