NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T

I have been in the blogging world since around February 2009. My introduction to this crazy, but fabulous world came through a recipe that I found on the Pioneer Woman’s blog.

I was making food for our yearly December Boxing Day party and was deep into the internet recipes when one site kept coming up over and over.

I noticed how these recipes had comments on them, in her case hundreds of them. Then I saw there were links in some of the comments. I clicked on them and they brought me to the blogs of those who had left a comment for Ree Drummond.

I was hooked. One blog led me to another and within a couple of weeks I knew had to figure out how to do this for myself.

Nobody I knew ever spoke of blogs. I decided to get a book on the subject and bought the Blogging For Dummies book. I don’t think I am dumb but these books are great at step by step instructions and great diagrams. Turned out that one of the authors of this particular one is co-written by a local Vancouver man, Shane Birley. Good thing for me because I needed his help at one point. So you come up with a name for your blog. You decorate your new space. You start over and change everything, twice. You add gadgets and widgets and decorations and photos. You learn some basic html code and it blows your mind. Templates come and go like a train in the station. We are creative and we need to change things.

You pat yourself on the back because you now know what a gadget, a widget and html are. You can now throw out these words at parties to the amazement of those who have not yet entered the blog world. They have no idea what you do. Your audience gathers around you as you tell them about the widget you added to your blog that you had to edit the html code to match the colors of your template. They think you are Bill Gates, not for the money part but for the techno brilliance you now exude. Actually their eyes glaze over and they excuse themselves to use the washroom.

Then you have to write. You have to actually post on this blog of yours. You have to find your niche.

Are you a Mom Blogger, a Food Blogger, a Travel Blogger, a Technology Blogger. Are you like me? An amalgamation of all of the above. I will call us Renaissance Bloggers (a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas). We blog about all kinds of things that interest us and that we do.

Then it happens. Someone comments on your blog post. You are giddy with excitement. Oh. Wait. It is just spam but you remain hopeful and you finally build up a following for your blog. You get comments and you reply to them. Etiquette requires that you visit that person’s blog as well to reciprocate.  When I started blogging I was at home full time . I had the time to go and see many interesting places, shops, gardens and the like. I had lots of time to cook and to photograph the process for the blog. My garden beds were beautiful. I had time to paint and to do give-a-ways on my blog. I could decorate my home and join in memes. (note: add the word meme to my new blogging words. I had never heard of one before) I tablescaped on Thursdays and I posted food on Foody Fridays. I could post my metamorphosis on Metamorphosis Mondays with the rest of the uber creative bloggers.

Then it happened. I went back into the work force…full time. For 40 hours a week. There is little time nor energy left for the interesting things I used to have time to do.

There is little time left for visiting the bloggers who I have come to know well over the past 4 years. It is for this I feel the most disappointment. You guys know who you are. I used to visit you at least every other day. We laughed and chatted and left witty comments on each others blogs. We appreciated the hard work that went into each post. We shared our heartbreaks and losses as well as our triumphs and delights.

I am not going to quit blogging but I just wanted to explain why I post so little now and why I don’t get around to your blogs for visits. I am not burnt out I am just kinda boring now LOL.

How many of you are in the same boat? How do you squeeze it in?