The Failed Experiment
This is the first experiment that I just haven’t finished. (That’s only because I decided to not try to write a novel in a month). I decided to kick my blogging a notch to hopefully increase my traffic, income & long term stability as a blogger.
However, my health got in the way. I realized that the reason that I work from home is so I can set my own hours & working environment. Plus, I control my stress level which has done leaps & bounds for my fibromyalgia. I’m a motivated person. I’m in front of the computer all day & a lot of the night to begin with. Blogging more was just that, more. It wasn’t better, it wasn’t really helpful. I pushed myself to the brink. My goals were:
Blogging every day: Look back at this blog. It just didn’t happen. I wanted to do it without sacrificing content. If I just blog about what I’m feeling or how my day is going I’m a broken record of “Fibromyalgia sucks, I’m really sick”. I just felt like I was really whiny. I would rather have a few really good, funny, thought out posts a week then a lot of whiny posts. I didn’t notice a traffic increase by posting everyday.
Leave more comments: Kinda sorta. It wasn’t like the month when I left 1,000 genuine comments.
Tag every post: This is the only goal I really accomplished. Technorati tags are so easy to do. Honestly, I didn’t notice a huge traffic spike from this practice but I think it’s just a matter of finding the right tags & getting in the habit.
Explore Social Networking: This was the most difficult one for me to accomplish because I’m such an introvert. I signed up with blogcatalog so my avatar would appear on blogs I visit that use that widget. I had a small increase in traffic from this. I also downloaded the stumbleupon toolbar & one of my sites was stumbled a lot. However, I don’t think I gained a lot of long term traffic from it. It was fun to see the numbers though. Pretty, pretty numbers. It was also a great way to find a lot of new sites to visit. I think that stumbleupon is the best fit for my personality.
This experiment also could’ve been entitled “how to take all of the fun out of blogging & turn it into a very stressful environment”. I burnt out. I started hating blogging. In the end, I had to let this experiment go because it’s winter, I’m getting a lot sicker & my body just can’t handle it. I did discover that I’m on the right track with how & why I work. Le sigh.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I think it’s the most effective when you track every possible experiment and you document your failures and successes for the future.
Keep up the great work and never give up in trying.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hi,
RE: Your comment about being a introvert and exploring social networking. I have just discovered Second Life. I’ll be doing some blogs about it and chronic illness/disability soon. What I really like about it is 1) I can fly no matter how I really feel. 2) My thing is fashion and I can wear whatever I want !!! and go shopping as much as I want while spending little or no money. Yesterday $1000 lindens could be purchased for $4.66 U.S.D. 3) I can attend the church of my choice, which I can’t do in real life (RL), where I live.
I’m also finding Facebook to be a good place to be, virtually. It’s MySpace for grown ups. And they’ve just added a new app. for Second Life. So I have another place to hang out in SL (besides the UU sanctuary) that’s nice. It has a library and a bar and I’m not sure what else, yet.
I would love to hang out with you and probably most of your readers in SL. C’mon over (in?)
Sherril (Verna Jewell in SL)
October 24th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
But, if you learned from it then you can’t say it was a failure! And I’d say you learned something about your blogging habits. It’s so easy to fall into blogging to blog and get it out of the way routine kind of thing. I’ve found myself in that hole a few times and had to dig my way out too.