How to Lose a Blog in 10 Days

So I have really been horrible at this weekly blogging thing…

(Remember when I use to do a blog a day for 40 days? Yeah, neither do I. And if you do remember it, thank you for being the one other person besides my mom and my husband who read those.)

Anyway, I have been so desperate for an idea to strike me for a blog this week that at one point, I actually Googled “ideas for blog topics.” I did not find anything good ideas there. (Apparently Google is all out of blog topics too.) But I did click on a link that gave me “10 reasons why my blog is not getting as much traffic as it could be.”

Without having to rewrite the entire article, just know that I don’t write consistently enough, I write too much, I have too broad a range of topics, my range of topics is too narrow, my blogs are too long, my blogs are too short, and people don’t want to hear me talk about myself in my blogs. (I know I am missing three. They had something to do about not being interesting. We’ll pretend I don’t have that problem!)

When I began this blog nearly two years ago now, I don’t think I had any particular hopes for it, or even had any idea of why I was doing it in the first place. I started it on a whim, because I couldn’t sleep one night and because I had just watched Julie and Julia. I never expected anyone to read them. I myself don’t follow any other blogs—heck, I can hardly follow my own! But for some reason unbeknownst even now, I continue to write them. Over time they have become an outlet for me, a source of inspiration to me as well as to others, and a way for me to sort out all of the crazy in my head and in my life.

I think the reason I continue to enjoy blogging is because I approach it now with the same attitude I did that first sleepless night. Would I love to have more people read my blog? Sure! Do I like to hear people tell me how much they relate to or are inspired by what I’ve written? Absolutely! Would I love to eventually get paid for sitting around in my pj’s and typing about my kids on a laptop? Who wouldn’t?! But never at the expense of changing what it is now and what has made it so fulfilling to me in the first place.

So herein lies my promise for this blog from today until the Internet gets too complicated for me to navigate. (Because it will happen, my friends. I am technologically inept.)

…Or if Mr. Blog-Trafficking Expert prefers this as a catchier headline…

10 Reasons Why My Blog Will Never Get As Much Traffic As It Should:

1.I will ALWAYS write about myself. That is what a blog is for. And I am incredibly fascinating.

2.I will ALWAYS write about whatever I want to. It is in the subtitle of my blog, and has been since the first day…just so that there’s no confusion.

3.You will ALWAYS hear too much about my children, my God, my dreams and aspirations, my failures, my hobbies, the military life, and the general nonsense of my brain. I am an open book on here. (That’s why my mom and husband are such avid followers!)

4.My blog will ALWAYS be for readers--Not skimmers or scanners. I will post large, rambling paragraphs in small print. I will not post giant pictures of what I wear each day with a little blurb. If you are looking for me to fascinate you with blurbs and cute pictures of myself, then by all means, please find me on Facebook!

5.My posting will ALWAYS be irregular. Just like you can’t count on a rainbow after every storm, neither can you count on my blog at the end of every week. Though I am working on it, sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes you are super lucky and I post twice in a week. Sometimes the responsibilities of motherhood and the other joys or obligations of my life keep me from posting for several weeks. Sometimes I start three blogs and all of them stink, so I write a blog about my blog just so you don’t think I forgot to do it…

6.I will ALWAYS write for my audience—which is me. I started this blog for me, never intending to have an audience. Sure, I post the links each time. But I never expect people to click on it. Truth be told, sometimes they don’t. And that’s okay with me. I truly believe that if people read them, then it’s because they were meant to get something out of my journey that day, which brings me to the next point…

7.I will ALWAYS try to keep it positive. I believe that there are great lessons in the little things in life. I also believe that we are bombarded with a lot of bad news over the course of the day, and we need reminders that life is good. I won’t be naively cheerful. But I will always strive to bring hope at the end of a story. That’s the goal: To have you leave this blog with a thought, a sense of peace, or at very least, a smile.

8, 9, and 10 are that I will always try to be interesting. (What can I say?! I am working on consistency!) :)

But no matter what happens at the end of this week, or even the next year, I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell you thank you for stopping by the blog. It is for me and about me, but I am pretty darn grateful that I have you too.

… And if you have any suggestions for blog topics so I can lay off the Google searches for a while, I would be much obliged!