As it’s the start of a New Year, I’ve been reviewing the things I’ve done in the last year. And one of those things has been my blog – or journal as I prefer to call it. Since I created my website in January 2019 I’ve written 54 posts and managed to keep on top of it with the help of Later, a scheduling programme. I’ve deliberately not written any ‘How To’ blogs as I feel the market is saturated with advice. I have written about things that have worked for me, things I struggle with, my process for writing and editing and shared my plans, reading and progress. However, I’ve had 8 comments in that time, three of which were mine and a shed load of spam comments which have been caught by the site inbuilt filter. Not a great return in my book. But I don’t know that many writers blog very successfully. Maybe it’s just not for everyone.
“Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘Blog’ is a fool’s errand.” Michael Conniff
On the other hand, I’ve been working on my Instagram profile and putting a lot of effort into building up my connections with readers and writers alike, as well as attracting some of the more unsuitable followers who are quickly removed from my list. I started off with 30 followers last January, most of them family and friends and as of today I have 1114 followers, some of whom I communicate with on a regular basis. I’ve posted on an average of three times a week, sometimes more but never less, and had many engagements with writers and readers. Again, I’ve managed to maintain this commitment with the help of Later, but I also post random photo’s as I see fit.
If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?
So this year, I’ve decided to reduce my blog/journal posts to one a month, a kind of summary and post the kind of stuff I used to blog about on Instagram. It seems to me that the time of the blog may well be taking second place to other social media platforms, like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter where the posts are snappier and therefore more accessible. I may be wrong of course but I know myself, that I’m unsubscribing from a lot of newsletters and blogs because I prefer the medium of visual and written information and Instagram and Pinterest provide that for me.
So what about you? If you’ve even read to the end of this relatively short piece, do you blog and if so what kind of results have you seen? Do you see it as a chore or as just one of the tasks that is essential for a writer? I’d be interested to hear your views.