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Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Blogging
This post was written for inclusion in the Carnival of Personal Blogging hosted by Good Goog and Blogs With Wings. This month our participants have shared their journey to personal blogging. Please visit Good Goog – Begin By Being Personal to view everyone’s posts.
This post is a submission for the first edition of the Blogs With Wings Blog Carnival. The topic was about the blogger’s journey in personal blogging. I think that in many ways I am personal blogger. Find out why and the reasons that Blogs With Wings came to be.
Am I personal blogger? You might think not. After all, I do write about one general topic, blogging. But this wasn’t always the case and my personal blogging experience is what led me to create Blogs With Wings. And I would argue that even though I have a fairly well defined niche blog, much of what I offer to my readers is based on my own personal experiences and the discoveries I’ve made along the way.
I don’t just blog to attract readers or in the hopes of becoming one of the big money blogs. I blog from a real desire to help people and I try to have fun along the way. For me it’s a very personal experience.
My First Personal Hodge-Podge Blog
My first blog was hosted on Blogger Blogspot. It was a collection of articles related to my interests. All kinds of things including gardening, cooking, graphic design, CSS, HTML, web design stuff and more. I was all over the place. I had no idea what I really wanted to do with my blog. I had no experience with blogging and I was happily learning along the way.
But it wasn’t all fun and games and I wasn’t getting too many readers. I struggled with having to learn all about search engine optimization (SEO), social networking, social bookmarking, blog design, blog widgets, blog writing style and sooooo… much more.
I learned a great deal in those early years and I had spent a lot of time doing research. Before too long I realized that I was going about things all wrong. For one thing, I wanted my own domain and a more powerful blogging platform. Then I decided that I should find a single topic I would like to blog about.
After much deliberation I thought it would be good to blog about blogging. Share what I had learned and help other bloggers along the way. Thus, Blogs With Wings was born.
BWW Sharing A Personal Journey
I knew I had learned a lot, but I also realized that I still had much to learn. I decided to try sharing my personal experiences and the things I was learning with other bloggers. Maybe I could help others reach their personal blogging goals.
I don’t profess to be an expert, I know I don’t have all the answers. But I am a natural explorer and researcher. I love learning new things, I enjoy finding new and better ways to accomplish any given task.
To that end, much of what I write about is from my own personal experience. Things I’ve learned, sometimes learned the hard way. I have no problem pointing my readers to another blog if I think they will find the information there helpful. I get the most satisfaction when I can assist my readers to move closer to achieving their vision of success for their own blogs.
Getting Personally Involved Like Any Good Angel
I’m always ready to answer a call for help (my regular readers will tell you this is true). I happily help others with their blogging issues. I’m always available to help fix problems with templates, give honest critiques of blog layouts or writing styles. If I can’t help you with an issue I will do my best to find a site or an individual who can.
That desire to help is why I chose “Blog Angel” as my nickname. :angel: Angels like to help people learn and grow, to become better. My halo isn’t always on straight and I’m just a junior Angel, so I still have a lot to learn, but it’s fun and rewarding.
Those of you who remember Blogs With Wings in the days before I moved over to WordPress will recognize the above image as being based on my original header design.
I found the design too dark. But it illustrates the BWW mission statement very well. Creating a blog is a leap of faith and a journey into the unknown. I believe that every blog does indeed deserve a chance to fly. To that end I blog and I offer assistance to anyone who needs a hand with achieving their own personal blogging goals. For me, my niche blog is very personal.
Blog Angel A.K.A. Joella Molson is a passionate: blogger, graphic designer, blog template designer, gardener, crafter, cook, CSI fan (all of them), Stargate fan (all flavors), Sci-Fi buff, mother (girl & boy all grown up), pet owner (2 cats, 2 dogs) and passionate mate to Steve. The love of her life.
20 Comments
Hey “Blog Angel”
I like the template you are using it’s very fresh and angelic lol.
Glad you have moved over from blogspot, your writing talent should be see by many not hidden away on there.
Looking forward to more posts from you,
Speak soon, Sally
Thank you for your kind words Sally.
I designed the header myself and adapted the color scheme of the Thematic blog template that I’m using. I was going for a fresh, bright look that was as hopeful as a summer sky spotted with fluffy white clouds. I think it works.
And oh yes, Blogspot was quickly out-grown. Thanks for stopping by and leaving such a sunny comment. :angel:
I agree, this is much better than when you were over on blogspot.
Yes indeed. WordPress gives a blogger more opportunity to strut their stuff. I fell in love with the extensibility that all those delicious plugins give us and the great opportunity to set up static pages. Gotta be thrilled with the fact that WP is so much more than a blogging platform, it’s very able bodied CMS too! :heart:
Now I want to start making WordPress templates. Oh goodie! Something else for me to learn. I love messing with new skills and knowledge. :sideways:
I myself think that personal blog or business blogs sometimes has not separate border. The most important thing is how to brand ourselves from blogging and our posts are articles are not similar to other bloggers at least writing style
Tinh recently posted..7 “MUST” Steps To Start A New Blog
Yes some people do use a personal blog as a business platform. And branding yourself and your blog is very important. Getting your self out there, being unique and standing out is a real challenge. But that’s half the fun.
Hey Angel,
.
Great post. WordPress is much better then blogspot.
You’ve got awesome talent Joella. Keep up the fantastic work
Thanks for sharing !
~Dev
Dev – Technshare.com recently posted..How To Get Traffic In 45 Seconds
Oh I couldn’t agree more, WordPress is a much more powerful platform than Blogspot. But for some people, I guess, Blogspot serves their purpose.
Thank you for your kind words. I like to think I write some useful stuff, but it’s not very often that I get told I have awesome talent. That was very kind of you.
Hi Joella,
What you’ve just said is very honest and while we’re surrounded with so much blogs on what’s the right way to go, do it the way that’s personal to you takes you further in the long run. Kudos for finding your niche and also for letting your thoughts touch us in the blogosphere.
I’m looking forward to that blog carnival now. Thanks for sharing.
Thu
Hi and welcome!
I’ll be posting a link to the Blog Carnival once it’s published August 2. It should be very interesting and we’ve already got some awesome submissions. I couldn’t help myself, I had to peek. :angel:
The “right way to go” can change at a moments notice. The face of blogging, the tools, the software, the focus… always changing. The best bloggers are the ones who can think on their feet, adapt quickly and are not afraid to try something new. :cheerful:
Hey Joella,
I was actually thinking the other day how much I liked your blog design and look. Very fittingly represents the traits of the owner
Thanks for sharing your own personal journey with us, I think your new design is MUCH nicer.
Oh btw, I have given your lens a bit of a plug, it was awesome and deserved it.
http://alexwhalley.com/traffictips/how-do-you-squidoo/
Alex,
You’re the best! You went above and beyond the expectations I had when I asked you to give the lens a few tweets and maybe a couple of bookmarks.
So thank you so much. You are the kind of person who exemplifies how reciprocity between bloggers can be real force. We all need to help give each other a leg up. That’s why, when you need a little help, you should just ask. the worst thing they can say is NO. But maybe, just maybe they’ll say yes. And some people will surprise you and go out of their way to be truly helpful. Like you, Alex. Big hug and many thanks from the Blog Angel. :angel:
Woah!
Sorry about that. I cut and pasted something from word and it obviously took ‘just a little bit’ of code along with it.
Sort that out will ya!
Jeeeez.
Yup, MS Word barffed up a whole mess of guts all over the place didn’t it. LOL
That’s okay I cleaned it all up. Hope there wasn’t anything important in that mess.
This is why you don’t let MS Word near anything to do with web pages. It hasn’t got the stomach for it.
Loved reading how it all began!
I think we all have great stories about how we got started blogging and how we got to where we are today. And of course the journey isn’t over, is it. Who knows where blogging will take us in a day, in a week, in a month or 10 years down the road.
I love a good adventure! Don’t you?
Love hearing how it all started. I’m not a big commenter (something I need to work on!) but I’ve been reading your blog for a little while now
Oh you should really comment more. I have adopted all my regular commentators and dubbed them “family”. It’s true that commenting can help promote your blog, but it can be fun and rewarding in and of itself.
Hope to hear you raise your voice around here more often! :biggrin:
When you want to take your Blogging to the next level , Opting for WordPress in place of BlogSpot is the best option!! I wish you luck in your Blogging journey and hope to be friends for ever.. Anyways..(Offtopic) Happy Friendship Day!!
Rohit Sane recently posted..Some Cool Notepad Tricks for Windows PCs
Thanks Rohit,
I am really loving WordPress and don’t miss Blogger Blogspot at all.
Belated happy friendship day to you too.
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