I’ve Been Blogging For 5 Years. No Joke!

It’s April Fool’s Day 2013.

Five years ago I signed up for a blog at wordpress.com. I thought it might be a way to stay connected to the dance world and give me somewhere to share my knowledge of dance with students and teachers while I raised my then infant son.

I thought I would do this in my “spare” time.

The joke was on me.

You moms out there know that spare time when you are starting a family means late nights. It also means a lot of one-armed cooking, cleaning and, in this case, blogging!

You bloggers know that spare-time effort in blogging gets you a blog full of stuff that no one is finding or reading.

I was partially right, though. Blogging has kept me connected to dance in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I’ve enjoyed and have experienced great personal reward as a result of sharing my knowledge and receiving what readers and other writers have shared with me.

Five years later, I’ve acquired both skills and insights into blogging, the Internet, marketing, and relationships that I did not have before. So, as part of my 5th Blogiversary celebration, I thought I’d share some of that with you too!

I asked Twitter followers to submit their questions about blogging. I am answering three of these ON CAMERA. Not my favorite place to appear, but I’m taking one for the team.

Question #1

@danceadvantage Growing it?… getting enough viewers for advertisements and profitable blog

— Kamaria(@KamariaDailey) March 21, 2013

This video covers four essentials for growing a blog plus gives straightforward insight into what kind of traffic it takes to attract advertisers and some insight into what bloggers can generally expect to be paid for advertising. A lot of people don’t like to talk about this stuff. I’ll admit nothing is concrete and this is by no means comprehensive but being vague won’t help you, so here goes:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNCxtyjvmXM]

Question #2

@danceadvantage I am my own worst critic, so most of my posts get written bt don’t get published. How can I stop worrying what others think?

— Fouette Dancewear (@FouetteDance) March 23, 2013

You can overcome what I’m calling publisher’s anxiety by changing the way you think. I give some advice on stopping negative thoughts and also describe blogging in a way that will hopefully ease any reservations you have about just doing it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKocITBs5fA]

Question #3

@danceadvantage happy 5! How to expand and keep the integrity?

— Vicki Crain (@rogueballerina) March 23, 2013

It’s better to give than receive but if you are providing a valuable resource, it’s not unreasonable to want to expand your blog in ways that earn income and compensation for your services. Your blog isn’t exactly your business, but blogs are a great tool for reaching potential customers. If you are hoping to expand into advertising or paid content, it’s still very possible to blog with honesty.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1RtmiNEXeY]

Question #4

@danceadvantage would you recommend a general dancer to blog about dance or their own dance journey?

— Tom (@t0mat0) March 21, 2013

Tom said that he’s waiting to pull the trigger on a blog that will serve multiple purposes. I gave my answer to him via Twitter and said,

“Experimentation is ok. You may gravitate toward one or another as you find your voice & readers respond. Whether informational or personal, let the blog reflect who you are.”