Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Thoughts On The Learning Curve of Blogging

Did you know that I have 1010 posts published on Betsy Transatlantically right now?  I started blogging in April 2010, so that's an average of 25 posts a month!  The real number of posts I've written is actually closer to 1100, but I've spent the past year slowly editing my archives and have placed some old posts back in drafts to be updated.  (Beyond just wanting my posts to look consistent throughout the years and therefore needing to fix formatting issues, it's astonishing how many have broken links and dead images!  This is very much still a work on progress, so please do bear with me as I continue.)  I've also deleted a number of old posts.  Some were just totally irrelevant to what this blog has become and others, I came to realize, were inappropriate to publish in a public forum.

It's lovely to go through my archives and revisit my memories, but one of the most fascinating things about cleaning up the old posts is seeing the progression of how I've blogged through the years.  My understanding of blogging has evolved since spring 2010, both in terms of how my voice has changed as I immersed myself deeper and deeper into the blogging world and in terms of how I've come to take design and coding more and more seriously as I've accepted that blogging isn't just about writing.  There would be a lot less to clean up if I'd had the foresight to appreciate what blogging might become for me when I started!

But, to be totally honest, I'm sort of turned off by baby blogs that look completely professional.  If a blogger has only a handful of posts but a custom design and a sponsorship program, it makes me uncomfortable.  My blogfriend Lisa reminds us that you never know how much experience might be hiding behind a brand new blog and I do understand that it's now common for bloggers to start blogs with the immediate intention of turning them into businesses, but I really like watching a blogger learn and grow with her blog.  As arrogant as this might be, I like being part of that process, especially if the blogger places - or says she places - a premium on the relationships she builds through her blog.

At the same time, going through my archives has made me wish that I had known more about blogging, social media, design, and coding when I started.  Sometimes I think it would have been so much easier if I'd had a brand concept in mind back in April 2010.  I wouldn't have to clean up old posts; all my fonts would be consistent, the width of my images would be uniform, and my links would be functional.  The whole thing would look polished start to finish.

But then, in a way, I would have begun near the end.  Blogging is supposed to be a journey, as I wrote in an open letter to 20-something lifestyle bloggers back in June 2012, so I don't think it would be as fulfilling if I weren't growing as I do it.  The kind of blogger I want to be - focusing on writing above all else, ignoring design and content trends, and walking away from the computer the moment I find myself tempted to draft a negative post about blogging - requires constant evolution.  The learning curve is part of why I blog.  It can be frustrating to go through my archive and think about all the things I could have done differently if only I'd known better, but it reminds me of how far I've come and how much farther I can go if I continue on this path.  And, actually, that's quite exciting.

header executed by Joelle Duff, February 2012

 header executed by Joelle Duff, May 2012

header executed by Ready to Blog Designs, December 2012 

header executed by Ready to Blog Designs, June 2013

header created by me, October 2013


 photo 866de425-8336-4c63-9efd-1c4dd8bf0e62_zpsafe0d56b.jpg

15 comments:

  1. Love how your headers have changed and evolved over your blog. Interesting to hear about you reworking some of your old posts too - i've never thought about that. But as for dead images, I sadly have many from 2012 - i'm not really sure what happened and sadly they all revolve around my honeymoon posts to Chicago and some of my compact collections. The majority are just sitting there published with so many dead images, I wonder about deleting them completely or trying to refind or retake the pictures or if it's just worth focusing on the new posts. Decisions decisions!

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  2. the reworking really is just reformatting text (some got wonky through repeated design changes) and updating photos that are no longer available/appropriate - or, in many cases, replacing photos for which I can't find an original source with ones that can be credited properly! most of the dead images are ones that I embedded directly from Pinterest. UGH.

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  3. I LOVE seeing these old headers! i just hit 1000 posts and it's CRAZY how much blogging has changed in the 3.25 short years that i have been at it. i cant wait to see whats in store for the future of your blog. xo

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  4. I guess I must have started following you some time after June 2013, cuz that's the last header I remember! :) This post is great! I should go back and fix old formatting issues and links and stuff. I started blogging in May 2010, so I'm right there with you. I don't think I could find my old headers, though... that's probably for the best

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  5. I tried to find headers pre-Joelle, but I think I didn't have any! I mean, I didn't have any fancy designs... I think I just had text in the normal header space that I entered into the blogger template! oh the things we do :)

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  6. it was so fun to go back through my emails with Joelle and Bobbi to see how the headers came to be! gaining the courage to do my own header and to pick up some coding was DEFINITELY a steep bit of the curve. thank youuuuu

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  7. I'm right there with ya! I know many of my old posts could use tweaking, especially in reformatting image sizes (or, in some cases, maybe adding at least one picture, because when I started I was all about the writing). It really is an evolution, and as you saw from my post last week, something I become impatient with at times because I feel like I don't "know" everything. However, I'm determined to do blogging my way, even if that means my blog isn't a "business" and doesn't get enough pageviews to be featured on Blogher.

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  8. Betsy, 1100 posts! Holy moly! My blog started in June (or May?) of 2010 and I'm at 377 posts. I admire those of you that post 5 times a week but I know it won't happen for me and that's ok.


    I have moments where I wish I knew more about blogging in the beginning days. In fact, I wish I had taken it more seriously and made more of a commitment to writing and taking photos while living in Gabon. Back then, I wasn't really active in the community and I didn't read other blogs so I had no idea of the entire realm of things. Hindsight...

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  9. Wow 1100 post that is quite the milestone! It is amazing how much changes blog go through, like rearranging your house its always nice to change it up and update.

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  10. Congrats on reaching such a big milestone! I think most things have a learning curve, but constantly evaluating is essential to growing. :)

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  11. how fun to look back at your old designs! I've completely lost track of all the different things I've done to mine over the years - I only keep the most recent files saved, so previous incarnations of my blog design are just lost. If I remember correctly, I started reading during the tenure of your second header, sometime during that summer.

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  12. This is so true! I for one have definitely been on an ongoing journey in terms of finding my voice in blogging. When I go back to my very first posts, I think, how in the world could you have put that on the internet and actually thought that people would want to read it? But, then I look at some of my most recent posts and realize how much I've grown. It's definitely a work in progress for me... some people seem to write so clearly an eloquently without a second thought... like you ;) I put about 6-7 hours into each post in terms of writing, editing, re-editing, tweaking, etc before it actually goes live.

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  13. I like to scroll through my old posts from time to time, not just for the memories, but to see how far I've come in terms of finding my voice and getting a bit more savvy (I still need to get a whole lot more savvy). It's been an interesting journey.


    I'm really impressed by your header and it's my favorite out of all of them. Any chance you'd ever do a header tutorial?

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  14. Betsy, I really love this (and seeing the evolution of your header). I think I followed a similar journey--starting in 2008 as just a random blog that my family and friends could read and just last year thinking, hey, turns out I like this thing, maybe I can step it up a notch :) I tried to keep the elements that I really loved from those years of posting for people I know while adding a few things that will help have a greater reach (and challenge myself to learn cool new things, like coding!). Thanks for the reminder that blogging, as with all things, grows as we do.

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  15. Absolutely love this - I love how you've managed to evolve your blog and keep some consistency at the same time! I'm all over the place. My blog is both a bunch of different blogs - but one continuous one as well. I've dragged most of my old posts and ideas along for the ride as I've changed things up for exactly the reason you're talking about - I like seeing the evolution. Now I just have to get back in there and scrub the image sizes and fight the urge to change the writing up completely. I like the idea of archiving old posts as drafts and republishing them, and scrubbing out the ones that don't fit. Thanks for showing us your progression so that we can be inspired to progress, too!

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