12/20/2009

300th Post!

This is my 300th post. The second 200 came much quicker than the first and the third even quicker. I have gotten into a blogging routine that I am comfortable with. I post on average 5 times a week, usually taking off on the weekends. I have stuck with Entrecard but I don't obsess over it anymore. I drop on those blogs that I like and don't stress about reaching any magical number. My blogging routine is definitely going to be interrupted in the next few weeks and turned on its head (I know I'm reaching, I just thought the shot of Kate went with the post for some reason). It's going to be hard to do much dropping while I'm off work so I apologize now.

I comment when I can and intend on spending more time on the blogs I enjoy whether they are entrecard or not in the coming year. I'm through dropping on blogs completely out of my realm or ones that haven't updated in over a month. It's affected my visitor numbers somewhat but I'd rather have 100 quality visitors a day than 250 when more than half are spending mere seconds with me.

I'm troubled by something I discovered on my Webmaster Tools from Google recently. It said that I'm in the 97% of download time and it takes an average of 20 seconds for my site to load. This is terrible. I removed a bunch of unnecessary widgets and links that it said were slowing things down but it still is dragging. I tried to run a site check last night with the new Page Speed Checker but it wouldn't install for me for some reason at home. I'll try it again later and hopefully find some more things that I can fix to speed things up. I really like my blog template that I spent money on from my graphic designer but if it is slowing my blog down that dramatically I will have to find a solution in the new year.

I've been debating about whether I should keep this blog solely for business and knitting and using Lenox Pics for personal and photography. I've been thinking about doing a form of the 365 shots in a year and reserved the blogspot name for myself. I think keeping two blogs going would be too much time and energy but I don't want this blog to get too broad. I've never been a true knitting blog and consider my cohorts to be other crafters rather knitting or otherwise. I've gotten more personal here in the past 6 months than I had originally intended but that is how things evolved for me. For those of you with two blogs do you think it is worth it or should I just focus my energy here?

Thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully I can keep coming up with something worth saying for the next 300 posts.

8 comments:

Lynne said...

Congratulations on your 300th post! And here's a toast to your next 300!

Dori said...

Congrats on your 300th post! :)

brokenteepee said...

Congratulations Paige!

Ann said...

congrats on 300. I've done the same with the dropping, I just stick with the blogs I enjoy reading. My blog also has changed quite a bit from what I had originally intended for it but I like the way it is so that's what I'm going with :) I tried a second blog but I have a hard enough time keeping up with one

Lin said...

I like the mix of personal stuff with the knitting when I visit here. Too much of one or the other is boring and having two blogs?? Can't even imagine! I'm with you on EC these days.

Anonymous said...

Hi, long time no "see". Hope all is well with you. Glad to see that you are coming to a comfortable place with your blog. Sounds like those are some comprises I should come to accept too. I tend to overload myself and then tend to drop out of doing stuff altogether when it gets to much. So I think your policies make a lot of sense.

In terms of two blogs, I tend to like reading blogs better which are a heathy mix of business/ crafting/ and personal. It mixes it up, keeping it from getting to boring, or dead, or forcing you to not sound like you, you know? I like the voice and tone of your blog, I know it's Paige. I think people like to find connections with others, especially if they buy handmade...that's a huge draw over commercial stores.

Anywho...hope to pop in more often now:) Take care.

Storm, The Psychotic Housewife said...

Congrats on 300 posts! :)

I know I can't handle 2 blogs, though I've thought about it too.

Sinclair said...

Congrats on your 300th post! As a blogger who uses Nature with Me as a kitchen sink life and crafting blog, I would say that you should do all here. I like coming here and getting a mix of knitting and personal stuff.

However, if your new blog is for a special photo journey only, then I would do that and keep that one for only the photo 365. Then you would have two, but that one would be so specific that it would be easy to keep.

I have three blogs between my personal, my Sharing Our Gifts, and the Etsy team I run, and it is a LOT to keep up with!

 

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