They say that when people first start blogging they sometimes hit a wall. Often new bloggers blog about blogging. If that wall stays up too long sometimes that’s all they blog about.
Well I’m certainly not a new blogger, but I am going to blog about blogging.
I’ve been thinking about how blogging has changed my life in so many ways since I started my first blog 14 months ago. I started blogging as an outlet, something to take up my time since I was starting to get bored with being stuck at home. Remember I’m only home because I have Crohn’s and haven’t improved enough yet to return to work.
Well, regular visitors to my sites know the rest of the story. One blog expanded into another, and then another and so on. At this point I probably have too many blogs! Oh well, it’s fun and it keeps me busy. It’s also turned out to be a great way to earn a living since I can’t earn a living any other way right now.
I’m not making as much each month as I did at my nursing job. Not yet anyway, but I can see it coming, probably within the next month.
I often wonder what would have happened if I’d started my first blog and then gone back to work a month or two later. Would I have kept blogging? Yes I think I would have.
Would I write seven blogs? No, probably not.
As a nurse I was working four 12 hour shifts in a row – two day shifts, one 11:30 to 11:30 and then a night shift. I’d have five days off but the first one I’d spend sleeping since I’d have just gotten off my night shift. So that left me four days to recover go from being a night owl to an early riser, get house work and other things done, maintain the garden, socialize, and do all my internet work – maintaining at least two large websites, moderating a reptile related forum, and running four mailing lists.
It’s possible that the gardening and photography blogs might have been in the picture by now had I gone back to work. I mean gardening, and the photography that goes hand in hand with it, has become a big part of my life in the last 6 years. I’m sure those sites would have arrived on the scene by now. Perhaps one of the tech blogs that I write as well since I do so much tech and design work.
I’m certain that I wouldn’t have had enough time in a day to have created the other blogs that I now write.
I guess now that I think about it, once I started blogging it just became something that I do. It would have evolved to some degree even if I had gone back to work before now.
How about you? How did you start blogging? Now that you have at least one blog do you think you’d ever stop blogging? Has it changed your life in anyway?
Obviously blogging has become a major source of income for me. It saved us! If I hadn’t found a way to earn a decent income from my blogs we could have been facing losing our house by now.
I, for one, am glad you are blogging. I enjoy your posts. I didn’t realize you had a reptile blog. If it has snake pictures on it I probably avoided saving it in my favorites! LOL
I tripped onto the world of garden blogging through GardenWeb last year, when I was researching some plant. I started reading blog after blog and liked the interactive quality of it. I kept a garden journal before that, but it has gone by the wayside. I do miss thumbing through it, though!
I’m a nurse, too. I just got laid off a couple of weeks ago. Who ever heard of a nurse getting laid off?? But our labor and delivery unit is withering away, so the first step to try to save money was to get rid of all the part time employees. Your schedule was grueling! I don’t want to do that!
See you next GTS!
I’ve always been writing things, so becoming a blogger was kinda natural for me I guess. No advertising yet though. Maybe I’ll start other blogs for that later, but I don’t want to “destroy” Lifecruisers look with it.
It would have been nice to come up with a lot more appealing ads, I often find them so ugly 🙂
Though I have understanding for why you have it!
How about seeing some volcanos or geysir having outbursts? Bring your bikini and come over for a long hot steaming bath in the Blue Lagoon all day long and then the icebar in the evening!!!
Iceland Is Niceland 😀
I certainly like the feeling of somebody possibly stumbling across my blog and maybe being able to identify even if they don’t leave a comment or I don’t even know they existed.
For me blogging and more importantly the support I’ve got in my comment boxes is the only thing that’s kept me going…when so many family members and the British Health system have let us down I’ve appreciated the love and support I’ve had from fellow bloggers.
Karen- The reptile blog is on my reptile website. No snake pictures so far!
Gardenmomma – finally another nurse who realizes just how grueling my schedule was/is. 12 hours working in the second busiest ER in the whole country is tough – four days of different 12 hour shifts in a row is even tougher. I’m not one of those nurse that sit and chat with my co-workers either. When I’m working I’m always buzzing around. Sorry to hear that you got laid off. 🙁
Mrs. Lifecruiser – but i did stop by for the Iceland is niceland cruise! – did my comment not show up? After your posts about the hot springs and all the pics last year I wouldn’t miss a cyber visit to Iceland.
Brian is nice to know- at least from looking at our stats that people are reading our sites, our thoughts, or feelings. I do however appreciate every single comment that is left, even if I don’t always take the time to say so. I love me some comments.
Ruth- As a person who’s stuck at home because of their illness and a fellow chronic pain sufferer I fully understand where you are coming from. I started the blog as a diversion from my pain and the boredom of being stuck at home. Normally I’m a very active person and this illness has totally changed how I get through each day. I do like the fact that I can occasionally moan and groan about what’s happening with me and end up getting a lot of support from my cyber friends. I don’t want to burden them too often with how I’m really feeling but I know that many of them have been and would be quite supportive.
Thanks for the comments folks!