8 Years of Blogging!

I have been blogging for eight years! Can you believe it? I can’t!

Last night I was browsing Feedly, my preferred reader, to catch up on blogs. I came across Elizabeth Spann Craig’s, Long-Term Blogging, Part 1, and I realized she and I began blogging around the same time. I decided to check the date of my very first post, back when I used Blogger, and yep, there it was. August 7, 2008!

For giggles, I’m linking my second post, “If Romance Writing Were an Olympic Sport.”

I added up all the posts from my Blogger site and from this blog, and I’ve written 1020 posts.That doesn’t include all the ones I’ve written as a guest or for my group blogs. Wow!

Way back when I wrote my first post, I had no idea if I would blog more than a year. Finding an audience took time, and it seemed as though every other blogger had a much bigger following than I did. But I decided I didn’t care, and I forged ahead.

A few bloggers helped me by sharing advice. “Add a Followers button so people can get your new posts.” “Put share buttons in your sidebar.” “Decide on a posting schedule.” And I learned from other bloggers, Jody Hedlund in particular. Within a short amount of time, I’d made online writer friends, some of whom would become my critique partners, and many would remain good friends.

Announcements were made in those years. I cheered as my friends got agents and contracts. But I also fought sadness as my day never came. But I pressed on. And on. And my knowledge grew. I understood about building a platform and was happy to share what I learned. My writing grew as I studied the craft and continued to write book after book.

And then one day it happened. I finally had good news to share. I’d landed an agent! And more years would go by before that wonderful first contract offer. Still, I kept blogging.

But then something happened. A lot of blogs disappeared.

Oh, the blogs were still there out in cyberspace, but new posts? Nope. Many bloggers who I connected with in those early years quit posting for various reasons. I wondered if it was worth it to continue. My comments dwindled, but each post still had plenty of hits. Obviously, people were reading it, so why wouldn’t I keep writing posts?

I love blogging. I haven’t been as consistent this year–sometimes I skip Fridays!–but I still love it.

Here’s to eight years of blogging! Thank you for being a part of it!!

What draws you to a blog? What keeps you coming back?

Have a wonderful weekend!!