“Why, Melissa, I didn’t know December 19 was a significant milestone for you,” you’re thinking, yeah?
Well, okay. It’s not. But December 1 was! December 1 was the six-month anniversary for Tag(g)lines. Yay!
“Why didn’t you celebrate the anniversary on the actual date?” you’re now asking, correct? (I know, I’m being rather presumptive with your reactions, aren’t I?)
Answer: Uh, yeah, on December 1, I was oblivious to the anniversary. I admit it. I suppose, considering I’m 19 days late, I could’ve just let it go. But it’s Christmas-time and I’m in the celebratory mood. So let’s do this thing!
Six months. In addition to the crazy celebration going on right now (grape juice, Christmas lights, Barbra Streisand singing “You’re the Top” and a cozy blanket – these are the accoutrements of my own celebration – how ’bout yours?), it seems like six months is the perfect time to step back and take stock of just how well this foray into bloggerdom has panned out so far.
If you’ll recall, way back when (in June), I deemed myself “The Reluctant Blogger” and noted the encouragement of writers and professionals I met at my first writing conference as the prompt that got me started. Since then, I have to admit I’ve had some fun with my weekly (mostly) Tag(g)lines installments. It’s been a lesson (not entirely learned yet) in discipline and an exercise (not entirely mastered yet) in thinking outside my fiction box.
Yet, I could learn that lesson and master that exercise outside of an online presence. And that’s what I’ve been ruminating on here lately. What is, really, the point of posting my blog entries? If it’s just about discipline and flexing my writing chops, why not just save it all in a document and keep this thing between me and my trusty Macbook?
In other words, I know I don’t need to justify the fact that I’m taking up Web space – ’cause really, there’s ample supply to meet the demand – but I want to. My initial purpose – obeying the experts – isn’t good enough anymore. If I’m going to do this blog thing, I want to do it well.
And that, of course, entails continuing to learn what makes a blog a good blog, a blog that people will take time out of packed days to read. I’ve actually come across quite a few blogs and articles in the past couple weeks about blogging…and they’ve already helped me identify ways I can improve.
Finding a niche or theme, for instance. I blog about writing quite a bit, but by no means does Tag(g)lines have a brand. I need to discover (and then 95% percent of the time, stick to) a focus.
And engagement. I don’t tend to provide opportunity for reader engagement. Gotta work on that.
Probably the best bit of advice I’ve come across was in recent blog post by Jon Acuff of “Stuff Chrisitans Like” renown. Funniest blog ever! Anyway, he wrote recently that the secret to a good blog is discovering what you have to give to readers. Not sure I’ve discovered that yet. But thinking about blogging from that perspective has opened new doors in my mind as I consider what Tag(g)lines could become in 2010…
An online writing group I belong to encouraged writers recently to come up with writing goals for 2010. I’m working on a set, mostly related to pursuing publication of my Georgia White story. But I’m going to add “becoming a better blogger” to this list. And maybe, at this time next year, when I’m a couple weeks late in celebrating my 18-month blogging anniversary, I’ll be able to trace a clear path of improvement.
If not, well, I probably won’t make it to the 18-month milestone! 🙂
In the meantime, if you’re a blogger, do you have any good advice for me?
And if you need some blogging direction of your own, I suggest checking out this super helpful blog by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson. I also highly recommend Jon Acuff’s blog on blogging – you can read it here.
Six months down…an indefinite, but hopefully fun-filled length of time left to go!
