Two years ago in July, two important things happened in my life. First, I set up this site and started this blog. And second, I had my third child. That baby boy is now a cute curly-headed fearless toddler, and this blog is now two years old.
As always happens around this time, I’ve been reassessing the blog; thinking about the content, the design, how best to inform/entertain my readers and if I’m having fun with it. The first thing to change was the look—the dull white margins have given way to a fresh and summery wallpaper (check it out if you haven’t seen it recently). Of course, the site says “loves flowers” instead of “writes fantasy” but you already knew about my botanical obsession (and you can blame my father’s genes for that!). Next up for change are the dreadfully staid fonts, once I figure out how to do that in the theme editor (code for: get David to figure it out and show me).
But content is more important to me than design (I’m a writer. Words matter more). This provocative post on Copyblogger that I discovered via Procrastinating Writers has gotten me thinking about what I put on here. You can go read it now. I’ll wait for you.
K, back? Gone through that list of 20 ways to tell if your blog content sucks? Yep, a lot of those items on that list apply to me. I definitely do not spend an hour on each post (geez, do you know how much of Quartz I could revise in that time?). I’m happy that I get comments at all (*hugs* to all you who do comment here. It makes me so very happy to be read :D). My blog is rather all over the place, pictures of kid art and flowers jostling elbows with posts on writing.
However, this article made me think about why I blog in the first place. Is it to connect with the writing community and all my writer friends? Is it a rather public repository of flower pictures, anecdotes, interesting links and personal rambles? Is it to inform or inspire other writers? Is it merely so that writer Rabia Gale has an online presence, a place where adoring fans can find information about upcoming releases, book tours and the like (*ahem* a bit of wishful thinking going on there?). Do I just like the instant gratification factor of blogging (as opposed to say, scribbling fiction in a dark closet for years and years)? Or do I aspire to be a professional blogger making a living off this (the type of person that Copyblogger post is addressing?).
Or is it a little bit of everything?
If you blog, why do you do it? And if you’re a regular reader of this blog, I’d love to hear what you like on here and what you don’t. I don’t guarantee that your preferences will be implemented (it’s my blog after all *grin*), but I like to know what keeps you reading.
Furthermore, stick around this month. I have some book and fiction giveaways planned that I’m very excited about and hope you will be, too.
