01 September 2010

What Will the Next 6 Months Bring in the World of Blogging?

Today marks six months of my Journey to the Past blog.  It may not seem that long to some, but when I started I wasn't sure I would make it this far.  I am not a writer or a professional genealogist.  I am just someone with an interest in genealogy who was looking for a way to share what I have found with others.  I don't plan to (nor want to) write for genealogical journals, so what you see here is just my thoughts and findings related to my family history with a little local, Battle Creek, history thrown in.

One of the things that pleases me the most is the contact I have had with other geneabloggers.  Reading other blogs is a great learning experience.  There are a lot of creative bloggers out there.  I hope I can continue to learn and grow as a blogger.

One of the ways to help me grow as a blogger and genealogist is to develop a few goals that I hope to complete in the next six months.  These goals are:
  • To balance my blogging and my research time better-if I do a good job on one the other seems to suffer.  Lately, my blogging has taken up more time and my research has taken a backseat.
  • To take a workshop or two to further my research knowledge.
  • To support other bloggers by reading and commenting on their blogs.
  • To research at the Michigan state archives.
Do you have any tips on how to balance your research and blogging?  What kind of goals do you set for yourself?

8 comments:

  1. Thank you Brenda. Now I know it isn't just me...I can't do it all, blogging, research, reading fb and replying in a timely manner to emails. The list goes on. However, the thing that all the other things is based on, the research just isn't getting done. Now, I have made up my mind...I am going to quit blogging for a month and see what happens. (Guess I need to do a blog post about that.) Already there is some weight lifted. Thank you.

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  2. Great post - and it is commendable to do this type of review after six months of blogging.

    One way that I manage posting and research is this: I create an editorial calendar for the month. I map out important family dates such as birthdays, anniversaries etc. and commit to posting about them. Then if I want, I add in any of the daily blogging themes like Tombstone Tuesday. I also look at holidays - like a Labor Day post about occupations my ancestors had.

    Once I've mapped out the month, I can even set up the posts in draft and write them when I can. After that, I pre-post and they appear on the scheduled day.

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  3. Managing a full life can be a challenge. I do find that I do a lot of really good follow up research when I am writing, a combo, if you will.

    Ideas put forth by our GeneaBlogger supreme, ALL good, and I use them all.

    And, you can always take a few days off.

    Good luck in your next 6 months.

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  4. Thank you all for your tips and encouragement. Barbara, I hope you won't stop blogging, there has to be a way to do both. Tom, thank you for the great ideas, you are a wonderful asset to the geneablogger community. Carol, I, too, find blogging helps my research. Thanks, everyone.

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  5. Happy six month anniversary, Brenda! My goal for the next six months is to blog more consistently and to comment on other's blogs more. I follow many blogs and love reading them. I'm just not good about leaving a comment. I'm going to work on that.

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  6. Thank you, Lisa. I think it helps to have goals. You are off to a good start with leaving a comment! Thanks!

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  7. I've been blogging for 7 months now and have the same balancing problem. I'm starting to realize that maybe it works better to blog about what I've been working on. That way it helps further the research and other projects.

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  8. Michelle, I will try that! It sounds like a good idea.

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