Category: Blogging

Q- What is the cost of blogging to your personal life?

Dr Tanya of Salted caramel has started this conversation.

Initially I framed this question as :”What is the cost of blogging for you?”

I was afraid that “cost” might be misinterpreted as financial cost such as fees for a domain name, registration on a blogging platform etc. So I rephrased the question to “What does blogging cost to your personal life?”

This question was asked by another blogger in a post I read(if I find the link I will share it). I thought why not put it to others too.

Life offers you no such thing as a free lunch. For everything you do or everything you gain you must pay a cost, whether financial, physical or emotional.

So what, indeed, is the cost of blogging for you?

# Cost of Blogging — Questions

1. Does it infringe upon your leisure time?

It used to. Now I have schedule my writing and reading in a way that I can fit it easily in my routine. It, in fact, saved me from boredom and ennui.

2. Worse still, does it distract you from your work/studies ?

I am a person free from work, studies or other commitments. I have plenty of free time to devote to my blog.

3. Is it taking a toll on your personal relationships ?

Not at all. I have learned to balance my life and arrange the timings so that I can have time for my personal relationships free from the stress of blogging and posting.

4. Has your health suffered?

No. I keep a rigid schedule of walking which I follow daily. My current goal is 10,000 steps per day with a minimum of 30-45 minutes of active exercise. I think it’s a pretty good health routine.

5. Have you gained weight ?

No, as a matter of fact, I have lost some weight, finally!!!!

6. Do you ever get writer’s block?

Nopes! I usually get brilliant ideas while walking for my posts. I also get great flashes of inspiration just before I drop off to sleep. And I think that I will write it down tomorrow. But come the next day, and the only thing that I could remember is that I had a great idea for a post. But the actual idea is long gone!

7. Have you ever suffered from blog-related stress or blogger burn out?

Initially, I used to suffer from the stress of writing my posts. I didn’t know how to manage my time and would be like a dog chasing its tail, every day. It took time and thought to plan my day in a way as to cope with the stress and be free to do other things, like reading, going out with friends and family. Now I can say that I am not stressed out due to my blog. And that’s how it should be because it is a recreational activity for me. If it gives me stress, I should just stop doing it!

As for blogger burn out, I haven’t been there, yet! I hope I don’t.

~*~*~

It would be great if you answered these questions because I would love to know how you are balancing blogging with other things in your life so I can make some improvements. If you answer them in a separate post please link back to this post and use the hashtag  # Cost of Blogging

#Keepitalive

#CostOfBlogging

Blogging- My First Blogging Anniversary – And the journey continues…….

It is been a year today!

More than 1500 posts

More than 83000 views.

More than 1500 follows.

More than 30500 visitors

And 26000 comments.

And even if half of those are mine, the rest were yours!

Not bad for one year of blogging.

How it was at the beginning;

At first everything was new. I hadn’t written anything like a blog ever! I learned as I went along and was lucky to find very good role models. Teresa of the Haunted Wordsmith was my first inspiration. She has left WordPress for personal reasons but she taught me to try everything at least once. Rory, Fandango and Michael are among those who inspired me to write as they are great bloggers but also those who are prompting us with words, pictures and challenges. I really enjoy my blogging and am in debt to my blogging buddies for showing me how it is done.

Di, Li, Reena, Sue, Kat, Paula, Wendi, Winnie, Gina, Marilyn, Mel, Renard and Melanie are just a few of the people who have shown me how much fun blogging is. Thank you so much for being the beacon!

Then I must thank all of the 1506 people who read my blog and follow it. My thanks and appreciation for you all.

At the end but not least in principle, Tanya who inspired me and encouraged me to start writing. Thanks a lot!

What did I do right;

I learned to make friends with my blogging fellows here and got to know them. It was a slow process for me as I have pretty bad memory. But with time I got to know people who I interacted with daily. I understood their point of view and their special interests. I learned that the key to developing good relationship in blogging world is to communicate and interact. As with anything else, this is also an ever ongoing journey. We learn new things each day and grow.

Things I may have done wrong;

The first one is better editing. One needs to re-read a few times before posting it. Check spellings , grammar and the names which have been ” Autocorrected”!

I might have been repetitive in my topics. I won’t apologize for it because I am passionate about certain things!

I post a lot! At first I couldn’t get how people like Teresa, Rory and Fandango could do more than one post a day but gradually I also have started doing it. There was an event in January, JuJoJan which I joined and posted everyday for the whole month. It was a fantastic experience.

If I did or am making more mistakes, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I am always happy to correct them.

At the end I want to thank you all again.

Hope we continue on this journey together.

Let me know your thoughts and ideas in your comments.

#Keepitalive

#Blogging

#TheJourney

Another Sunny day! And another Sunshine Blogger Award # 14

Tanya of Salted Caramel

has nominated for my 14th Sunshine Blogger Award.

Tanya has a wonderful blog. A diverse blog with many informative topics. Please go check it out. Thank you so much Tanya for bestowing this honor on my blog.

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award? 

“The Blogosphere community holds several awards that bloggers use to nominate a blog in appreciation for its creative, inspiring, or motivational content.”

“The award also helps other bloggers receive recognition and free exposure for their blogs.”

Award’s Rules 

There are some basic rules to follow if you decide to participate:

  • Thank the blogger who nominated you and link their blog so everyone can visit.
  • Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.
  • Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions.
  • Notify the nominees by commenting on their blog post.
  • List the rules and display the Award logo on your blog post.

Tanya’s Questions for the Nominees of this Award

1. How old is your blog now?

My blog is going to be one year old in a few weeks. It is because of Tanya that I started blogging in the first instance. So the credit for my blog goes to her.

2. What do you enjoy most about blogging?

Being the sort of person who can talk about my pet topics for hours on end, blogging has given me the perfect opportunity to say whatever I want to say. Surprisingly I didn’t felt shy, even when I wrote my first ever poem and posted it on my blog. Or my very first story. I never felt that I would be ridiculed or people won’t like my writing. I guess that is the most liberating experience.

3. How important do you think Social Media is for the success of a blog?

People ( experts) say that you should advertise your blog on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. But I don’t think that it is all that important for the popularity of your blog. The content and regularity is more important.

4. How would you define a sucessful blog? In other words, what do think a successfu blog looks like?

For me the most successful blog is the one the blogger enjoys writing and their follower enjoys reading. That is the basic aim of blogging and if you want to measure the success in terms of followers or money made, then there will always be blogs who have many more followers or are making more money.

5. Describe your feelings when you received your first blogging award nomination.

Incredible! I couldn’t believe that someone thought me or my blog, deserving of an award.

6. Have you ever thought about monetizing your blog ?

I have Word-ads on my blog but am thinking of discontinuing them. They just take up space on my site and the money earned is just not worth it.

7. If so, what do you think is the best method of monetizing?

I think the best way to make money is through affiliated links. But I have no idea how it is done.

8. What kind of post fo you find easiest or most enjoyable to write?

Sometimes I enjoy combining a few prompts into a post, at others I like writing about the blogging process itself. It depends upon how I am feeling that day!

9. What is your opinion about writing prompts?

I like the prompts. I admire people who give us the Prompt words day after day. It take s lot of work and thought for doing it.

10. Funny/Weird Question: if you were a superhero, what superpower would you like to have and what would you do with it?

I would like to be Superman and Superwoman rolled into one. Or rather I think Captain Marvel will do. She is supposedly the most powerful hero out there.

11. What is your favourite way to unwind after a hectic day ?

Blogging, or reading. Or maybe relax in front of tv with my feet up. Depends on the sort of the day I’ve had.

Thanks a lot Tanya for this honor, once again.

I am asking anyone who is interested in answering the questions posed by Tanya to give it a shot.

Sorry for not posting new questions of my own but the ones Tanya has asked are very interesting and relevant.

No nomination this time around. The field is open, so anyone reading this, consider yourself nominated.

Thanks for reading!

#keepitalive

#sunshinebloggeraward

#awardsandnominations

Blogging— Is liking enough?

When I started to blog and got my very first like on a blog post, can you imagine how thrilled I was!

So after that there were many likes, and then comments too. I started to get to know the blogger I was interacting with and then they became friends.

And new people kept on coming into our world. They would sometimes stop by for a brief chitchat or sometimes for a longer visit. I love all that entails in the interaction between the blogger. Because let’s get this straight, mostly these are bloggers on WordPress who are the ones visiting, liking and commenting on each other’s post. For some reason, it is very hard for a person who in not on WordPress to even like a post. In a way we are all dependent upon the support we give to each other.

And this brings me to the reason of writing this post;

Is liking enough? Or is it just an empty gesture?

I have read views of other bloggers about this phenomenon. And I want to add my own. I think that in ideal situation we should read and comment on a post, like or not. But if I am trying to read 30-40 posts from the blogger I follow, it becomes almost an impossible task. Specially when there are some like me who have more than one post per day. It can be done when you are dealing with the posts as they are published. But say you look at your reader after a gap of 6-7 hours, as you get to your blog in the morning. Now there maybe 60-70 notifications on your app or account. Can you read all of them and comment on them or you skip over them, reading some and just liking others, hoping to have time later to revisit and comment?

So I do that. I like their posts to let them know that I have visited, as a calling card. And if time permits I would go back and read the whole post and comment. And I really don’t mind when people just like my posts. Sometimes liking a whole bunch of them within a minute or two. Why would I not like that someone is liking my posts? Why would I be bothered that they didn’t read all of my twenty posts before liking them! See here is the equation: Would you rather that people just not show an interest in your blog or do so by hitting the like button without reading all of the post!

I would go with the second option because it does show a degree of interest. And if this ploy is meant to make me reciprocate, then I will do so. Because it’s a place where we support each other, or should.

And how do you view this phenomenon?

Do you dislike when people just like your post without leaving a comment?

Please share your thoughts and feedback in your comments.

#keepitalive

#blogging

#like

Something to cheer about😃👍

Last few days have been spent by most of us in thinking out the solution to the problem of piracy. We all are worried and want it to end. In our own way, each of us is doing something to fight this menace.

It was before this news broke, that I got two messages from WordPress in one day.

The first one;

And the a couple of hours later this one;

Needless to say I was thrilled. Because the views and comments on my posts were less than usual before this. There were likes, but few comments. I had planned to post these as a way of thanking my readers.

But now I am thinking that maybe it was due to the fact that my posts were on that ( $**#¥ ) website. Maybe it was boosting my views. But being an optimistic person, I still choose to be happy about it.

The other achievement that had nothing to do with that website was this message from WordPress;

This is my doing and I am happy about this. It’s almost eleven months since I started writing and I cannot believe that I have written so many posts!!!! ( there are a few reblog among them too). But still I feel that I can share this happy news with my blogging family. Maybe it can lift the worry we all are experiencing.

So that you guys for your constant support and encouragement.

#Keepitalive

#iloveblogging