My 200th Blog Post

Well, who would have thought it?

200 posts may not sound like all that much but it is to me. When I decided to give blogging another try 18 months ago, I don’t know that I expected to make it this far. After all, my previous attempt didn’t quite make it to the fifty mark. So I thought this might be a good point to take a little look back, see what I’ve been doing differently and what I’ve managed to do this time around.

I think I can sum up the differences easily.

Presentation.
Promotion.
Consistency.
Content.

In terms of presentation, I switched from Blogger to WordPress . I’m not sure how much of a difference that makes, although I do find WordPress easier to use. More importantly, I’m now making sure to include images in each post. A simple enough thing, especially with Britt’s help. Simple enough that I have to wonder why it took me so long.

With my previous blog, the only place it was made available was on the blog itself and on my Facebook page. At that time, the page was only really viewed by people who already knew me and who wanted to be supportive. That might sound like I’m being dismissive of that, please don’t believe that. I’m grateful for any and all encouragement I can get.

My point is, I wasn’t really making much of an effort to acquire new readers. This time around, I’m linking to my blog on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Granted, there is an overlap between those three platforms but its bringing a lot more readers than my previous method did. Plus, interacting on those platforms helped drive more people to me as well.

One thing I definitely intended to do was be more consistent about posting. And I think I’ve succeeded in doing that. I looked up when my first post on here went up, counted the weeks through to now and, assuming I’ve done the maths right, I’ve been averaging 2.5 posts per week. A far cry for my previous “maybe” once a month.

Finally, I’ve taken steps to expand on the types of content available. The previous blog was pretty much made up exclusively of journalling about some aspect about my House Valerius series or whatever nonsense was on my mind at the time. There’s still plenty of nonsense on here but I’d like to think I’ve added to that as well. I started doing monthly goals and reviewing my results (only occasionally with cursing). I also added book reviews and some of my own short writings. Now I’ve got some interviews planned (although I did fall down in getting one set up for this month), various writerly related daily games and some (hopefully) useful posts for the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop.

And maybe more to come. When I said that I was wondering what to do for this anniversary post, the lovely @pat_sherard (and if you are on Twitter you should follow her) suggested that I should try requesting a guest post from one of my reader/followers. I’m not going to rule this out for the future but I will admit there’s a block in my brain that has me wondering who would agree to that because what’s likely to be in it for them? Still, that might just be my own issues coming out there. I don’t yet have any further ideas about what else to add into the mix, but I am always open to suggestions.

So, I think that serves as a nice little recap of the previous 199 posts. But before I go, I would like to thank everyone who’s helped, supported, and just generally encouraged with both this and my writing in general. Let’s see if I can make it 200 more, shall we?