Dear Friends,
WARNING – LONG POST, SORRY, I’VE GOTTEN MYSELF CONFUSED…
PG-13 (mild profanity)
I’ve made a horrible mistake, and now I’ve gotten myself completely confused. It happened after reading too many articles on: How to Increase Blog Traffic. Yes, it’s true. I have an evil plan. I wish to buy groceries using art/writing income rather than my current alternative – substitute teaching. This past school year, every time I walked into a classroom I thought, “AnnMarie, what the heck are you doing? You’re not a teacher, you’ve got a design degree. Besides chocolate and wine, there’s art in your blood. You should be spending 8 hours a day drawing and writing, not speaking over chattering students.”
This is my confused, hapless, helpless face-
We dream to make a living doing what we love. It’s a lovely dream that can be and is reality for some. Most of us keep going to see where the ‘going’ takes us. According to the Dear Abby’s of Blogworld, the ‘going’ should include twittering, redditing, stumbling, pintresting… I don’t do any of these ‘ing’ things. Perhaps, I should start… I did add the buttons on the bottom of my blog, though I still don’t know what half of them are.
“Commenting…” Some Abby Advisors suggest only commenting on relevant sites. I don’t think this advice is very gracious. I get the whole business model and practical reasons why, but we’re nothing if we aren’t all ‘relevant.’ We should support each other inside and outside of blogworld, regardless of what our “Abouts” say. So this advice I can’t follow.
“Follow Blog Gurus or Bloggers in the Know” Chris Brogan has been labeled a ‘blog god.’ I thought maybe a blog god is just what I need. I visited his site (Chris Brogan) as advised. He seems a decent sort and a doting dad who happens to have a myriad of speaking, writing, publishing and tech credentials. His site has loads of advice, perhaps when my head is emptied, I’ll brave another visit and try digesting some of his suggestions…
“How often to Post?” Let’s see the next piece of advice (most articles suggest blogging 3-5 x’s per week) is the one that tears me down the middle. I really need advice here. I’ve been posting everyday since February 14, 2014. I’ve started taking off weekends. Though my posts are most often text-light they take a bit of time to put together. I often feel they should run at least 2 days. Then I think – no – I should post everyday. Chris Brogan posts everyday and it has been said, “He never runs out of ideas.” I suppose that’s why he is a blog god. I’m leaning toward every other day…not sure…any suggestions would be humbly appreciated…
“Be yourself.” Who else would I be? There is no one more me than me. Is there anyone you know who is more you than you? I can’t write like anyone else but me. If I had a choice to be someone else, I guess I’d prefer smaller feet so when I buy shoes they’re as cute as their petite counterparts usually displayed.
“Observe your stats.” I stuck paintbrushes in my ears during Algebra and never took them out. I can’t look at graphs to figure out what works and what doesn’t. If I started dissecting charts I most definitely wouldn’t be me. I’d be a person who uses statistics or a person who understands them. I’ll just go on posting what I post and let the pie pieces fall where they may.
“Be controversial.” Why?
There are blogs that sometimes put me to shame. So many blogs, from old and young alike – those who suffer with debilitating illnesses, perhaps are dealing with struggling loved ones or who support noble causes…these blogs do more than just inform. In blogworld their stories, their indomitable hearts are transformative. These people fly in perfect form across the blog’s stratosphere…
There are millions of spectacular blogs, but it’s not the digital formats that are amazing (though some designs are super cool) it’s the human beings behind them – fleshy fingertips transporting their outstanding ideas into sharable formats we can enjoy, learn, discuss… When I chat with the many fascinating people I’ve met along the way, it’s the only time I’m sure of why I’m blogging. There is no greater fulfillment then meeting, sharing or conversing with kindred spirits. Blogworld doesn’t judge, we can all join – any age – any sex – any type – any mindset – any talents – we’re all created equal here.
Let’s see where was I, oh yes, I was figuring out how to buy milk and eggs. I think I’m going to let this post linger a few days while gathering my thoughts. I have made several promises this summer: to run with my son in the mornings, to watch Parks and Recreation with my daughter, to spend quality time with my husband, to read down my summer reading list, to create new art, to unslush my slush pile and to maintain friendships – both old and new,
So I’ll keep blogging onward…and hey, you never know, maybe someday I just might sell some art and writing then go to the grocery store 🙂
Best advice ever: “…Line up alphabetically, according to height…”- Casey Stengel
Peace,
AnnMarie
see you in a few days…
anntogether 
AnnMarie — my gosh! You’re, like, my double, my blogging-twin! Just the other day I was having these same thoughts (I could have written the same points, although I doubt as elegantly). I, too, backed off blogging — well, writing — on weekends because it seemed as though my “stats” were showing that people weren’t exactly “reading” on weekends. So now I put up a photo and wish everyone a good weekend. (I may back off that, too.) The other day I must have done something, because I went from 250+ followers down to 155+! Amazing! What the heck did I do?! I’m sort of questioning the WordPress.com stats, to be truthful. I have a book I’m reading, called BLOGGING FOR CREATIVES (by Robin Houghton), which I bought at Barnes & Noble — I think you might find it interesting, especially since most of the example blogs are more design/artistic in nature. I know I’m jumping around here, sorry. But here’s my main advice for you: Just keep doing what you’re doing. I love your posts and artwork, your blog is authentic and genuine and well-written with solid, interesting content. Bottom line: Don’t change a thing. Can I ask: How long have you been blogging? I ask because I’m wondering if blogging “numbers” take at least a year or more to start rolling. Anyhoo, again, keep doing what you’re doing!!!
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I’m confused by the blog advice about making money blogging, too. I still can’t figure out if that’s something people actually do (make money at this) or a sort of red herring. I agree it sure would be nice 🙂 Also, I’ve had the same experience. My favorite part has been all the amazing people I’ve met.
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“If you build it, they will come.” That applies to baseball diamonds in Iowa cornfields, but it’s the stance I’ve taken here. Building an audience is an organic thing, but it’s very slow at first. It does take time, and you’re going about it the right way: Finding your voice, focusing on quality in writing and art. But there is sooooo much competition and, hence, white noise, that it can be frustrating and feel hopeless some days. The arena is flooded with some damned fine stuff, and a bewildering amount of so-so stuff that is overwhelming. And, it’s hard to make it pay. Very. Everyone on the internet expects everything for free. My suggestion is to put that out of your mind for now, and focus on the content, and start doing some promotional/marketing stuff. I’ve used Facebook to boost traffic, and could show you how sometime.
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Not too long..you almost scared me away….:) I try to keep it simple…alternating photography and painting post gave me some leeway…my words count may be misleading, it is bilingual, I should do a third or a fourth language, then I would scare myself looking at the count words, stats are depressing, sometimes I have more likes than visit…funny. But sometimes, often I think blogging does take away too much time of painting, but I guess I became addicted…:D
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I think most of us have been in this ‘blogging phase’ at least once. You work, you put your stuff out there, and…..not much happens. I used to talk about not having the energy necessary for subtly whoring myself to get more followers, it didn’t seem organic to me. Blog what you love, when you love it. It will follow from there.
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Unfortunately I don’t have any good advice to give you about blog stats. Mine are atrocious. If I went by readers, I’d have given up long ago. But I’ll say this about your blog, you write with heart, honesty and tremendous artistic talent. I enjoy just coming by to see what image you’ll surprise us with next. A gift like that should be shared. Please don’t ever stop.
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I thank you for your words and I’d consider them advice and the best kind because they come with heart and candor.
I appreciate you taking time to share some of your history too.
And thank you ever so much for the kindly comments.
I’ll keep going along with you 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
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I have to say, I know this feeling exactly. And I appreciate the way you expressed it. I have a tendency to be more overtly frustrated than confused. I’ve got a feeling both of us will be doing this full time soon.
Amazing artwork, as always.
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Is there such a thing as, “frustratedly confused?” If so, I may have done that to myself. 🙂 I just have to not venture where I don’t belong and continue doing what it is I love. When you love something you find the time, regardless of everything else swirling around.
Thank you for your kindness 🙂 I’ll see you soon…
AnnMarie 🙂
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I started My blog about two years ago as a tryout.I wanted to learn more about photo and design and since I was new to it I decided to start with myself to avoid embarssement.I didn’t follow any rule ,just snapped a picture when I had the feeling and shared thoughts ,quotes or Whatever was on My mind .One year later I’ve learned a lot and the blog had incresed to 50.000 + readers from 83 countries .almost every country that had free internet .I was stunned,confused and quite proud ,but What to do now ? .Post more often ? ,Update concept ? Be more scandalous .None felt compelling since the original idea was to learn how to do My own design instead of using others not become a rising blog phenonomen (hmm did I spell that right ) ..So I decided to just do What I do and Continue Being me .Lite is so Much better when u r who u think you are , artist drake once stated and I agree. My biggest inspiration came from the movie “waking life” ..Please see it if you haven’t ,it Will change the Way you look at Life ..I can hobestly say that you are My Absolutly favourite blogger and Reading you AnnMarie is like getting a balloon ,a glas of champagne and a hug =impossible to not smile so U should just Continue Being you ..it worked well so far .. Hope all is good with u and the fam .. Just landed in Sweden after 4 months of travel to 7 countries .Haven’t seen My round-cheeked princesses in ages so I feel like John Wayne when he sees a horse =Excited and ready ..There Will be a lot of tears,triumphs and DaddyDaughterConnection today ❤ hope the sun shines were u are .Love and light /Simon
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Ah, SImon –
Not only are you a musician, your words are melodic notes…
Thank you for sharing your blog bkgd, it was enlightening and interesting to glean the mindset behind your unique process. The thing I most love about your approach to life and creativity is your genuine love of family. It always shines through in your work and images. There’s no greater melody, lyric, art or song then the sweet (sometimes maddening – but that’s the heated passion part 😉 ) companionship of family. I do so appreciate your words and I’m humbled by your kindness.
AnnMarie 🙂
You enjoy those beautiful children. Safe travels. I will watch ‘Waking Life’ 🙂 And yes, Simon, the sun is bright here today too 🙂
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Hi there Debra,
I think I hit a mini-wall – as you describe (quite elegantly I might add). I think to get to the end of the school year in my mind I kept saying ‘summer break is nearly here.’ Well, the summer break, much to my shock, has arrived. I sat with my laptop the other day and said, “now what?” Despite my lists, I started thinking, geez, there are not too many weeks here to accomplish much. And then I did some blog research – never a good thing if one is a nonscientist type. I was whipping up my own personal pity party with one of those tiny finger violins – except I can’t play violin and I can’t play the banjo (which is on my summer to do list) but you know, I began thinking, I can play the piano and I can read music. I can almost sing or at least make pretend I can, like I do with my harmonica – fake play. Things are good and I just have to strap on my big girl boots and only play the little violin if I want to make music. 🙂 I will check out the book you mention – thank you for that. I appreciate you taking all the time you did to write such lovely words. I’m really bad with dates unless I can associate them with something – so I do remember my exact blog date – I began on Valentine’s Day of this year. As far as your stat mishap – that has to be a WP hiccup not a drop in your numbers.
I will continue. I tell my children if you quit at something, you’ve stopped writing that chapter. If the chapter fits in your book as is, you’ll have a good story. If it doesn’t work – you’ll have to edit it until it does…
Thank you again. I do so appreciate your advice and elegantly worded suggestions 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
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Glad to see you’re back in the saddle, AnnMarie! Keep writing! Darn, I wish we lived closer so we could meet up at Barnes & Noble for a cup of tea or coffee. 🙂 I know what you mean about summers. I, too, teach, and when I used to be full-time I’d get so excited about finally “being done” for the semester — only to realize that I had x-amount of weeks to accomplish everything. Now I have more time, but I still feel that way! LOL
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Gosh darn, I wrote a whole long response and for some reason I think it got lost somewhere in blogosphere – incase it did go through and this is redundant – my apologies. Here it is again:
I don’t think I was out of the saddle as much as I was under the horse 😉 If we lived closer, we’d visit at B&N and chat about helping 2 & 4 legged creatures, we’d talk about the educational system and the critters who inhabit it 🙂 then we’d move onto discussing the cost of the pricey B&N beverages we’re sipping and the wise decision to purchase them without coupons 🙂
Thank you for the support and kindness, Debra 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
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I think in the future, I’ll content myself with behind-the-scene-blog ignorance. I’m fortunate to have options. Many people work several jobs to remain afloat. Blogging has been and is – a peaceful place for me. I have this image in the back of my head, where I can wake up, send the kiddies off to school and remain in my studio and work…and I can do that, just not always at the times I’d like. But, this is life and life is good.:-)
From all my reading – there are folks who make money form blogging and they do all the right tech stuff, utilize advertising and advertisers. I wouldn’t want my blog covered in ads. I would like to, at some point, focus more on perhaps selling some art and I also have the publishing dream – like so many others…I’ll continue on creating art and writing when I have time.
I vey much appreciate your words and I thank you. And, I absolutely agree, the amazing people are the thing that keep me coming back 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
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Hi!
Hey, that’s one of my son’s favorite movies along with Forrest Gump and October Sky. It’s funny you began with baseball as I’ve had sports on the brain.
Day one of summer vacation, I plunked myself at the old laptop and announced, “…kiddies, leave your mother alone, she has to do some research…” Well, it’s never good to be left alone 😉 I read too much ‘stuff’ when I wasn’t convinced I should be reading the ‘stuff’ in the first place. My gut was saying, “just do what you’re doing, dumb @#*!*#!” but I didn’t listen. After conducting blog traffic research, I thought geez, I’m spending time in the wrong places and I need to get to the right places. But, you know what, I was in the right place and it’s a good place. So I’ll stay here and when I come to those forks in the road, I’ll eat hardy then jog afterwards – of course 😉
Thank you, SIr HemmingPlay for your wonderful words of wisdom – as always…
AnnMarie 🙂
ps I hope the higher altitude is working its magic 🙂
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Your gut is right. After you’ve done it a while, kept an eye on your stats just for giggles, and followed and been followed by as many as you can, then you can start to think more pragmatically. Do you have a anntogether Facebook page? I’d recommend setting one of those up. ‘Tis easy. Then you can config. WP to post everything to Facebook automatically. Once you have those two things, then you can think about buying little $5 FB ads to promote the WP site, and you can target audiences by key words and country. It really amps up the traffic, and you’ll snag a few of the visitors as followers. For some reason, I’m huge in Pakistan. Not sure how to interpret that. 🙂
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I guess I’ll get there when I get there. I shouldn’t have been contemplating anything more at this stage…I think I sat at my computer and said ‘what now’ when I should have just created some art, write an article, read a book…the mind is a real buster sometimes 😉 but thank you for your help and suggestions – if and when I’m ready to sail ahead a bit – you’re the man with the plan and I’ll whine loud enough for you to hear me 😉
AnnMarie 🙂
I hope all is well with you 🙂
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I hear you. It’a all about caring without caring, if that makes any sense. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Or something. I’m so tired, I don’t know what I mean.
If you get to the point where you want to tinker with some other stuff, just send an email. Happy to help.
All else is well. Visiting family and head out West over the weekend. Can’t wait to be in the Rockies again. I will probably takes some bad photos.
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Thank you 🙂
Enjoy your visit
Rest well…
AnnMarie 🙂
It’s impossible to take bad photos of the Rockies – those rocks love to pose 😉
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This is the entire thing about blogging – meeting amazing people like you who speak several languages and have insights from other parts of the world. It’s such a special gift and an honor to be able to share ideas and creativity with others oceans away. And you’re right, blogging does take time, but it’s time well spent 🙂 And I’ll continue spending it, along with you…
Thank you.
AnnMarie 🙂
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You know, I know myself well enough at this point to say – don’t concern yourself with research and stats. I was and am content going the pace I’m going. The beginning of summer break, compelled me to read some WP info. I never read much WP specific info when I began my blog other than the basics. I started clicking off all the things I’m not doing – bad move. So, here I am back to the basics which is a fine place to hangout.
Thank you for the advice 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
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I get overwhelmed when I read too much advice on generating readership, so I just do in small bites, maybe incorporate one or two ideas at a time, if that. For me, I started with the idea of writing a blog as its own reward and I try to stick with that. You are so right about the competition and noise. I had no idea before I started and realize that’s probably a good thing.
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It can drive you insane. The only thing that works for me is to try to stay close to your own true north and not try to be anyone else, but to keep an open attitude and follow as many others as possible. It’s always amazed me how many interesting people there are out there.
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Well- guess you won’t be surprised if I add in my “me too”. But you might be surprised since we’ve just met via blogs. That’s neither here nor there. My real issue is with grocery shopping anyway. I go way too often and it’s messing with my artistic vibe. Let’s see if that excuse floats when the dogs are wondering why they are eating left over oats instead of their tasty dog food. (I jest- the dogs come first.)
You are a terrific writer- unique, funny and real. It’s a rare combination and you’ve got it.
Thank you for sharing yourself- it’s a pleasure to read your words and see your fabulous art!
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Ah, very kind of you to say so…your art is quite unique and fun too! It’s quite ironic this grocery store thing – I too have been trying to cut back and find quite the opposite happening. I used to do one giant shop a week and disliked it very much. I thought if I try quick visits – purchasing per every 2 meals, but now I’m doing sort of both a big and some small and it’s terrible. The shopping does interfere with life. Darn these stupid stomachs. And my dogs have gotten Chinese food on occasion 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
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I think Oscar Wilde was write about advice: it’s only good to pass it on to others never to follow it yourself. I’ve read about blog posts, about selling more books, about getting more followers in Twitter…Eventually one would need to have more hours in one day than they are and be many more people than just one to follow all. Let’s just smile and keep going. And yes, be ourselves… if we can find us in the middle of so much advice! And thanks to Debra (cdog5) for leading me to you!
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Ah, my good pal Debra – animal champion at large 🙂 She’s an exceptional human!
I’m growing older and wiser with every blogging moment. I’m just hoping to keep doing what I’m doing – with no window dressing – and see what happens and what the future brings… Blogging has been fantastic for keeping me on a regimen of ‘arting’ and writing, and also meeting all sorts of terrific persons 🙂 Once in a while, I’ll probably crash as some do, but in those moments, hopefully I’ll take a breath then stick a pencil back in my hand 🙂
Thank you so very much for stopping by, and I do so appreciate your sage advice 🙂
Have a fantastic weekend.
AnnMarie 🙂
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This i such a wonderful article, i wonder why you’re not freshly pressed. Oh crap, never mind, You’ve got wonderful blessings you don’t need another one, that will be too much of a greed. 🙂
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Ah, thank you Joel.
If I got freshly pressed, I’d lose all my hard-earned wrinkles 😉
am:)
Happy Wednesday!
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or you’d earn more wrinkles, more stress for more success, just kidding. Happy wednesday too!
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😉
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