Similarly, I started my blog with this introduction: Hi! I'm Melissa and I've created this blog as a place where I can share what's happening in my life, post photos (including my latest scrapbooking pages), and ramble about books I'm reading, stuff I'm organizing, and fun classes I'm taking. In essence, blogging and scrapbooking are both activities that allow me to share and preserve our stories.
Last week as I was reviewing the materials in Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers class (as part of my goal to review all paid for scrapbook classes), I was also thinking about this recent comment from Ann:
- Thanks for sharing. Your blog posts are awesome. I often think I need to blog and then just never seem to find the time. I do have the inspiration that I would love to share but just can't figure out a way to get motivated. Any tips on how you got started and why you blog would be awesome. Thanks again.
My best tip for getting started is to simply start. Write a post, publish it, then write another one . . . and have FUN! I wrote 17 posts before I received my first comment, but it didn't matter to me because I was already enjoying the writing and planning and learning (how to upload & format photos, schedule posts, include links, etc) so much that I was hooked. Of course, the social aspect of blogging has been a huge part of why I continue to blog - the relationships and friendships I've developed have enriched my life and enhanced my enjoyment of scrapbooking.
Occasionally, my motivation to blog wanes, sometimes because life gets busy, sometimes because I'm not inspired to write or don't feel like I have anything to share. In fact, last year I took the entire month of July off from blogging . . . and was ready to jump back in after that break. Sometimes, I pre-plan posts for a little while ahead because I know life is going to be busy, and other times (like this month) I blog every day because there's just so much I want to record and share.
As I contemplated all these things, I came up with a list of reasons why I continue to blog:
(1) I like having a place to record what's happening in my life, share scrapbook pages, review books and online classes, etc . . . the same reasons I set out when I first started blogging!
(2) The friendships formed with other bloggers around the world & the comments left on my blog totally make my day. As an added bonus, I've actually met some of my blog friends in person! The built in interaction between bloggers (writers, readers, comments, emails, etc) is like going to a crop to scrap together with friends.
(3) I enjoy the writing and editing.
(4) I'm a huge proponent of lifelong learning, and with blogging I'm continually learning new things when there are changes to the Blogger platform or I have to set everything up in a new blog reader, for example. I also learn new things from the blogs I read and have a place to share new things I learn.
(5) The blog is a record of my life. At the end of each year, I print my blog posts and bind them into a book.
(6) It's FUN!
Now after almost 4 1/2 years and close to 1000 posts, I still blog for the same reasons as when I started . . . and after almost 40 years of scrapbooking, I still enjoy adhering pictures and memorabilia onto paper! There have been changes to the way I scrapbook and preserve my memories (no more acidic scrapbooks and lots more patterned paper!), however I'm happy and willing to adapt and try new things because my motivation remains the same.
I'd appreciate it if you'd share in the comments about when you started blogging and/or scrapbooking and what motivates you to continue. And if you have an extra minute, stop by and read Ann's first blog post as she joins the world of blogging!
It's been several years since I started blogging. The last year or two I've not done it so much but I really want to get back to telling my stories of everyday life x
ReplyDeleteI started scrapbooking in December 1998 as a way of recording our first family trip to Disney World. I started blogging October 2, 2008 in response to a blog blitz challenge from Stacy Julian. My first post (linked on Stacy's blog) got 11 comments. The other 20 posts for that year got between zero and three comments each, except for one post that I linked with the Breast Cancer Three Day blog that got 8. In fact, all of my "most popular" posts have been ones linked on other blogs. It wasn't until Shimelle's blogging course that I actually developed a "following" and still I occasionally have posts that get the initial 0-3 comments. I've realized that it is cyclical and have kind of let go of the need for validation. But I will continue to blog because I enjoy it for all of the same reasons you do!
ReplyDeleteThank you Melissa! I am planning on continuing when things get less productive (trying to avoid the word busy). You are a great inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging because of the Shimelle class too. The family had been at me to start up a blog and the class came at exactly the right time. I wanted to make connections with other scrapbookers because I didn't know anyone else local who scrapbooked. That's still my main motivation, though it's also a family history thing. I've been a bit saddened lately to see so many bloggers move on to other platforms - instagram and facebook, but I guess that's the way of the world. Blogging is the right fit for the way I like to write and record and organise my thoughts, so I'm definitely not ready to move on any time soon
ReplyDeleteI started blogging when I did my first 'Journal Your Christmas' class....and I still enjoy it...it's like a permanent home for my craft projects.
ReplyDeleteI also love the connections I've made with other bloggers.
I don't blog! I set up a family site once, but never did much with it. I had intended it to be a place where our family could share life and photos from across the US. Ultimately, I decided that I didn't have the time to devote to it. I started scrapbooking in elementary school and doing family history/genealogy to go with it. I read hundreds of biographies and autobiographies as a child and loved the history of families. I scrapbooked my wedding over forty years ago, then gave the photo preservationist role to my husband for the next thirty years. Today I photograph, scrapbook, occasionally journal, do art, but still no blogging!
ReplyDeleteI started blogging in June of 2005. My first post got three comments (from my daughter, her then-boyfriend-now husband, and one of her best friends), but after that I rarely got a comment for several years. The majority of my posts were photography challenges, and occasionally I shared a scrapbook layout (I started scrapbooking in 2002). Interesting to me, I rarely posted a card. I've been a card maker for nearly 20 years. I don't know if there were card challenges then, but if there were, I didn't know about them. It wasn't until I started sharing layouts for some of Shimelle's classes that I more than an isolated comment. It was the Blogging for Scrapbookers, however, that created the blogging community I still treasure! Thanks for motivating me to go back and take a good look at my archives.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging as an extension to the long newsy letters and emails I sent out. People complained I'd not included them in xxx. So I set up a blog. Used it as a place to capture bits of family history. Didn't get any comments on the blog - still have friends/family who send me an email or tell me in a conversation they read this on my blog.
ReplyDeleteContinue as my reasons for starting are still valid, have started a schedule as I enjoy the regular posts and the motivation for capturing bits of my life. Have enjoyed meeting people and forming friendships online too. :)
I started blogging in 2007---mostly as a way to let family and friends far away know what's going on in my life. i'm thrilled at the world-wide connections I've made. But at this point, not only do I want to continue recording my life, my family and friends won't let me stop!! If I go a couple of days without a post, I'll get emails asking me if I'm okay! Actually, that's kind of nice!
ReplyDeleteI started blogging back in 2010, it wasn't initially for social reasons, just an online diary really, and it didn't matter about comments or anything. But more recently it's been a lovely way to keep in touch with good friends I've met through blogging. I like to think it helps me keep my creative ideas in place too.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging in 2007 but only did about five blog posts between then and November 2009 when I started Shimelle's class. Since then I have found that my scrapbooking and blogging really go hand in hand. I love being able to share what I have made with like minded friends and find it wonderful that I have made so many online friends from all over the world, some of whom I have met in real life too (and I would so love to be able to meet up with you one day!). Some weeks I have no layouts to share and then I may record more of what has gone on in my life. I have always kept a diary, since the age of 12 and I have had a camera since I was 8, so my blog is another way of memory keeping.
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