I’m learning a lot as I venture into the world of blogging. For instance, I began with a desire to maintain my anonymity. I still have that desire, but my site’s traffic is suffering for it. I have essentially sacrificed my ability to promote my blog through friends and family. My best options are probably to become more involved in the social world of WordPress, or to create and use social media accounts under my blogging name. Both of these possibilities will require more time out of my day, time I don’t always have but will have to make.
I’ve also realized that I will need to do a lot more experimenting before I settle on my ideal look. When I found Resonar, I was sure I would stick with it because it met my projected needs. I wanted a mobile-friendly setup with an uncluttered front page, a serif font for the main text of my posts, and a way to feature an image attractively. I also wanted to be able to put up a logo in my header. Resonar seemed perfect.
Of course, projections don’t always match reality. After three or four postings, I’ve realized that I can’t always find a matching photo for each thing I write. Nor do I want to. So a theme that was created for image-heavy blogging is not the best one for me. I can pay to customize Resonar or make my own theme. But financial constraints and (once again) limited free time mean I’m not ready to explore that possibility. So I am back to browsing the various free options and searching for the near perfect one.
I’m also concerned about the overall cohesion of my writing. This is still a personal blog and topics are likely to vary. I’ve been hoping that the overarching themes of introspection and self-improvement are enough to tie everything together and hook people in. Now, as my site’s traffic dips downward, I wonder if that is true. Whenever I log in and see my blog’s stats, my heart aches a little. But I started this blog to work on my writing, to push myself to be more reflective, and to show solidarity for anyone who is going through similar experiences. I’m not going to sacrifice my integrity and change direction to get a few more views. So I hope that persistence is key, because I’m not giving up anytime soon.
All of this is to say that there will probably be a lot of changes to my overall look in the next few weeks. I am going to go on the hunt for a new theme, and I may make some photo updates to older posts. If you’ve followed me since I set up shop almost a month ago, I hope you’ll bear with me while I figure all of this out. If you’re new, I hope you’ll choose to stick with me. And if you’re a fellow blogger, please feel free to leave me any tips!
Many thanks for visiting my little corner of the internet.
— S. (a.k.a. AMisplacedPen)
Misplaced Pen 