Blog?

[mywisecrafts]

I've been on the fence with trying to get my blog up and running.

So some questions...
Do you have a blog?
What do you blog about? Is it strictly creative content?
How frequently do you blog?
Is it more hassle than joy?

Since I'm not a designer, kind of curious to see non designer responses.
And designers, do you like when non designers blog about your designs? Is it valuable that way?

 

[Cherylndesigns]

I do not have one. I used to have like three - I blogged mostly about my layouts, but then had one as a kind of diary. I had like 7 followers, so I gave up. I prefer Blogger if I were to start another one. I think that's the most user friendly platform. I was on Typepad years ago when the phase first started - back in the horse and buggy days

 

[A-M]

I have 3 blogs - one for paper crafts that I have not used in a long time. one for the Scripture art challenges I used to participate in. one for the digital kits I have designed and given away in the past - not shared anything there for some time as life away from the computer has become busy.

 

[Jam-on-toast]

I had one a while back - with a catchy name of Dairy of a wife, stepmother and mom... our household had four kids aged 0-17, a husband who tried hard pretending he was not a workaholic, we lived in Shanghai where people stared at us as if we were a curiosity and stealthy selfies were common... there were stories to tell and so I tried to take it all in one stride and started journaling... it was fun in the beginning and I had about 200 followers but then it all became too much - more of an obligation than a creative outlet, even though I enjoyed the writing itself. Some people commented and asked questions, I replied and suddenly I was in conversations with people I didn't know and didn't care about, but whose comments and opinions somehow mattered to me... there were positive ones, praising my sense of humor and encouraging me to write more, there were those who felt strongly about the fact that my husband's kids from previous marriage lived in our household and were rather toxic about it. At first, I continued writing in my diary and edited the parts that I was willing to put out there for public consumption... which took a lot of time and eventually, I just stopped posting because it stopped being rewarding... the whole thing lasted for about 18 months or so...

I think in this day and time there is so much content out there on so many different social media platforms, that anyone starting a blog needs to REALLY like blogging and offer something others can't - be that a product, sense of humor, or experience. Sounds like a full-time job to me...

 

[vickyday]

I have had 3 blogs. I started a blogger blog around 2008 when I first got pretty heavy into digital scrapbooking and was on a CT. I mainly started it to share those layouts with my family. Even though it was mainly a blog for my family, with being on a CT I had quite a few followers. When I started doing some designing I began my 2nd blog. And when you offer freebies you get the followers, LOL! At some point I began a 3rd blog. It is a word press blog. And as @Cherylndesigns said, not as user friendly as blogger. But I began that blog when an artist (Julie Fei-Fan Balzer) made a challenge to think of a 5-word biography several years ago. And with that theme I began telling my story for my kids. Eventually, with my husband's sickness and caregiving ramping up, I lost my mojo for designing. And then blogger quit their email platform so none of my followers were getting anything from the two blogger blogs. I ended up shutting down my first blog. And since it was originally for my family I started blogging more on the word press blog, but nothing like the blogging I was doing. I still have the scrapbooking blog and post my OScraps CT layouts to it, but there are not many views. I keep it going so, mainly, I can share those posts to twitter and Pinterest, but I have no idea who even sees them on those platforms. Lately, with my health issues this year, and even before that, really, I don't do much blogging anymore. The followers I have on the word press blog are family and friends only, basically.

I think I agree with Olga in that you really have to want to blog and you have to have an audience/niche to make it worthwhile......unless you are totally doing it for yourself and don't care about a following. I don't have Facebook/Instagram any longer since I was hacked last year. I've thought about starting another account under a totally different user name, but I'm not sure I want the hassle. I'm not sure any of this info is helpful, but it might give you some things to think about.

 

[AnaSantos]

I have a blog that mainly serves as my best gallery. I try to update it every time I make a new layout.

 

[AZK]

I have a blog I started when I first started digital scrapbooking (it's linked in my siggy). Part of it was to show my friends and family my layouts, but like Vicky, as I got into CT work it was somewhere to promote products. I still post my layouts to it, but usually only 1-2 times a month. I have less than a dozen views each month, lol, but it's so much a habit I just keep going. I use Blogger as the platform and I would agree with Vicky again that mentioning freebies really ramps up the views!

 

[scribler]

I have a blog but it's been years since I've updated it. It did not have a single topic just whatever I wanted to do. Needless to say that made it less than popular. I've thought about starting it up again or start making use of my substack but so far have not moved beyond the thinking stage.

 

[faerywings]

I had a WordPress blog when blogging was the cool thing to do. My musings and all that... I hadn't even looked at it in years and year -- and I finally deleted the entire thing last month.