It has been a very bloggy fortnight.
(And yes, bloggy is too a word.)
In the last two weeks I’ve run the Becoming a Blogger beginner course AND the Better Blogging advanced course at UWA Extension and what with seeing so many of my old blogging students at the Perth Problogger Event as well, it has been blogs and bloggers galore here.
And I’m a tad exhausted, and have been rather busy, but guess what? I have been working harder on my own blogs than ever before! There are several reasons for this and it’s an interesting study in motivation, I think.
Checking my blogs practice what I preach
When I’m about to teach a blogging course, I double check that my blogs – which I’ll inevitably use to demonstrate stuff – are up to scratch. In the past I have had those terrible moments when I’ve been going on and on about the importance of your About page, giving lists of what should be on it, only to click over to mine and see – oops – my About page is in desperate need of an update.
Similarly, I make sure that my blogs have several recent posts on them before I confront a room full of blogging students. I can hardly answer their (inevitable) question “How often should I blog?” correctly if they can see very obviously that my blog has been inactive for a few weeks.
Getting inspiration for my blogging
During the courses, I get so inspired by ideas from my students, and often make notes about what I will write about on my blog after hearing what they have in mind. (And not in the plagiaristic way that sounds like, I promise!) The lunch break when we get to chat about how blogging fits into our lives, while enjoying this rather inspiring view, also helps.
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| The view from our favourite blogging course lunchtime spot, Perth |
Immersed in blogs, working on my blog
Teaching my students “best practice” for running a blog reminds me of what I am actually striving for. I am a bit hit and miss, for example, on having an editorial calendar, even though I know that using one always makes me blog absolutely regularly, and spreads my content out across the right topics, and all kinds of other advantages which I rattle off to my students. Late on Saturday evening, after teaching the advanced blogging course all day, I finally got a properly-planned editorial calendar together again for both my blogs, and just a couple of days later I can report I am already a couple of weeks ahead on my blog plans. Perfect!
So yes, I might be a bit sleep-deprived, and I might have a head swimming with ideas to help a dozen different bloggers in all industries and niches, and I might even feel that I missed out on having a weekend, but all in all, spending a day with bloggers is always inspiring and invigorating, and that’s why I do it.
Why do you do what you do?
I blog because it's my hobbie, and no one can take it away from me, I love it. I work because I have to, I attend blogging workshops and writing courses so I can, Improve my blogging world. These inspire enthuse and motivate me xxx
I love that your blog is a hobby Rae yet you're so passionate about it – although I get the impression that whatever you choose to do in life, you decide to do it properly, and I love that!