On YouTube: Talking honestly about blogging

~ Book Club Mom

Hi Everyone,

I’m over on YouTube talking honestly about blogging. I hope you’ll have the chance to stop by!

What’s going on with my blog? What’s it like after blogging for almost 11 years? Blog slumps, blog stats, blogging friends, making time for life, hobbies, work, and everything else.

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

24 thoughts on “On YouTube: Talking honestly about blogging”

  1. I’ve been blogging for 14 years now and am still not tired of it. I try not to post too much as I think people get bored of seeing posts from the same people all the time. Once or twice a week works for me. Like you, I love the people I have met through blogging.

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    1. Hi Darlene – thank you for watching and commenting. I don’t think I could ever post every day again – that was too much! I enjoy your blog and appreciate your efforts! And I absolutely love the friendships I’ve made 🤗

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  3. As people’s lives take different directions, their energies shift as well. I blog because I enjoy it, and I believe that if and when I no longer enjoy it, I shall stop. I enjoyed your video because it was open and honest and I appreciate you for that! Have a great day, whatever you are doing,

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    1. Hi Annette – thank you for these kind words and for watching. Like anything, if you don’t enjoy it, then it’s not worth the time. I definitely enjoy blogging, but I have experienced slumps or lapses. When my parents were alive but needed a lot of care, I could not fit blogging in, except minimally. Then during times when they didn’t need our help as much, I found it harder to get back in fully.That was a few years ago, but even now, when I get busy with outside commitments, it’s harder to ramp back up. Fortunately now I’m feeling energized, thanks to loyal visitors and commenters like you! 🤗

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  4. I’m shocked that I’m still here after five years. This whole world was new to me when I started and the Idea that I would become friends with people through blogging had never occurred to me. Blogs are like people, each an individual which makes them interesting. The ones I lose interest in quickly are those who do nothing but promote themselves.

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    1. Hi Pete – yes, you’re exactly right about all this. I was so pleasantly surprised to make blogging friends and it’s definitely the best part. Likening blogs to individual people is a great way to look at blogging. The ones that are too “commercial” don’t appeal to me at all. Thank you so much for stopping by to watch and comment. I hope you’re having a great day 🙂

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  5. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about blogging with us, Barbara. I’ve seen similar ambivalence with other bloggers from time to time, and I think it’s a natural reaction. For me, the fellowship of the community and the writing inspiration I get from blogging make the time I put into it very worthwhile. There are so many stories and poems I never would have written if a blog post or a comment hadn’t sparked my imagination.

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    1. Hi Liz – that’s so wonderful – interacting on WP is a great source of inspiration and friendship. It’s a weird thing to make something grow and then when it does well, feel like, well where’s my motivation. I don’t feel like that most of the time, but felt it was important to talk about. Hope you’re having a great Monday!

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  6. Hi Barbara, I really enjoyed watching this today and appreciated your honesty about blogging. I think many of us who’ve been blogging for some time have had doubts at times, but then a nice comment can chase those thoughts away. Since I speak to writers a lot, it helps me to say, “Oh, I have a blog post on that topic,” whether it’s my own post or a reblog. I echo what many have said in that I’ve met so many good people in the blogosphere, and that’s enough reason for me to keep at it.

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    1. Hi Valerie – thank you for watching and leaving such a thoughtful comment. I agree that a nice comment can chase the doubts away. The blogging relationships are the best part of blogging and should always take precedence over stats. I just like to build things, so that part of my personality puts the two ideas in conflict. I agree it’s nice to be able to say you have a blog post on a subject. Hope you’re having a great day!

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  7. Hi Barbara, I was very interested in what you had to say about long-term blogging as I’m coming up to 12 years also. My stats have risen and fallen – for the most part inexplicably – over the years and for a time I tried to figure out why but then gave up. In the earlier years I took a series of month-long breaks from blogging, but I otherwise don’t have much of an explanation for the stats drops. There’s lots of blather about the algorithms but I really don’t think that’s had a lot of impact.

    I continued to blog through my busy working years as a CEO (I retired on Oct 31) as it helped me to wind down, think of other things, maintain a bit of work-life balance (actually my work-life balance was awful; I mostly worked, even while on holidays). But blogging did help. Since retirement, I’ve really enjoyed it even more, and you’re right, it’s about the people you interact with. I’ve been on Discover (nothing like Freshly Pressed which I used to like a lot) pretty much weekly over the last couple of years – again, I have no idea why – and that has driven my stats up a lot. The way some things work on WP are very mysterious, I find, and I just don’t try to figure them out any more!

    Thanks for being so straightforward about your thinking around WP and for sharing it with us. Cheers.

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    1. Hi Lynette – thank you so much for watching and sharing your blogging experiences. I started my blog as a way to keep track of the books I read. Making blogging friends was a happy and unexpected result. In a busy household, it gave me an escape and I liked having something of my own. Now it’s not so busy at home, but I have more outside interests and commitments. Also – I used to get on WP first thing in the morning, but I need at least an hour to get my brain going in the mornings now! I don’t think I’ve ever been shared on Discover – I liked the Freshly Pressed feature and wish they would bring it back. Congratulations on appearing on it! You deserve it because your posts are always excellent. Hope you’re having a great Monday!

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  8. Thanks Barbara for sharing your blogging world experience. Blogging has been a challenge for me as I wonder how much of my world I should share. With cancel culture revealing myself feels a little scary. So I blog about my books and some of my life experiences. There is so much on social media with hundreds of blogs and uTube where the world wide web has become created a passive entertainment reading experience for people who hide and do not engage. I may experiment with sharing my golf hobby. Thanks for your wisdom and years of blogging.

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    1. Hi Grace – I relate to your comment about how much to share. I keep it to books and book-related things and a little bit of my job, and only occasionally share details about my personal life, like piano playing. I’ve never been interested in a tell-all approach to my blog and social media. I think your idea about golf is a good one! Thank you for reading and commenting 🙂

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  9. Congrats on your blogging longevity. I wrote about personal blogging this week, too. After 20 years I’m amazed I’m still at it. I didn’t start with a goal in mind so I’ve evolved as I went along, allowing myself to change. Go with the flow, as they say. I sometimes wonder if the reason people get discouraged about personal blogging is that they have big [unrealistic?] expectations that don’t happen so they lose hope. 

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    1. Hi Ally and congratulations on 20 years of blogging! I’ll be over to officially congratulate you. I think you might be right about why people might get discouraged about blogging. I think a lot of people think they will make money from it. I wish I could, but I am not expecting to – mostly I just laugh at the idea. I also didn’t start with a goal in mind, except to share and keep a record of the books I’ve read. Thank you for stopping by and commenting 🙂

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  11. This was interesting for me, Barbara. My own blogs have evolved, and continue to evolve as time passes. I started blogging in 2016. Blogging has expanded my creativity and writing so much, it is quite hard to believe.

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