What My Blog Wants to Be…

Still toying with templates, it occurs to me that there is so much to think about in creating a blog. I guess I should clarify–dependent upon the reason why you blog, there are a number of decisions to make. Given that my blog is one part business, two parts personal, I have to think about this strategically in addition to finding something that I enjoy and feel as if I can make it my own.

The first decision point, albeit brief, centered around which provider to use for the new blog. Most of my blogging friends now blog using Blogger. Yet, because my blog is, in part, a marketing tool for A Blessed Heritage Educational Resources, I needed a provider whose search engine would increase the traffic to my sites. My understanding is that Blogger uses the date of a post as a search key—who ever heard of such a thing? Darcy’s post explains this so much better than I could (and check out her tremendous photography skills while you’re reading her post!)

As I agonize over themes, how many columns, headers, content presentation—the list goes on and on—every post I’ve read regarding user-friendly blogs keeps coming to mind. I keep thinking, not too busy on the template, clear on the categories, non-offensive on the colors– Geesh! I think the real problem is that age-old struggle with change that we all have, to some extent, when faced with something new. I had gotten my old blog right where I wanted it and it was as comfortable as a pair of old house slippers. As I think about it, this is what’s truly hilarious: my last statement on my last post, appropriately entitled “Saying Yes to Something New,” (though I didn’t know it at the time) was that I am often tried in the very area in which I attempt to minister. I prayed that the Lord would find me faithful in embracing a change. Two days later, I was faced with the possibility that four years of online journaling might have gone down the drain. Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up!

And then there’s the entire hullabaloo about branding. (My apologies to those who would be offended by referring to blog branding as “hullabaloo.”) What does my blog want to be when it grows up? 🙂 Do I talk solely about home education? Should I feign expertise in marriage or in raising children? Should I limit my discussion to spiritual growth and development? The problem for me is that if I restrict my posts to any one area, chances are great that on several days, I’d have nothing to say. My life is busy enough that on one day I may be graced with some revelation in any one of these areas and then some; on another day I might find myself totally befuddled in all of these areas and then some. And the reality of my old blog, with its non-branded and admittedly eclectic variety of posts, is that I didn’t get many comments, but I got e-mails from people with whom I made a real connection. In fact, they stay in my prayers as much as people whom I’ve met in real life.

So, I’m still toying with presentation, still wrestling with how to minister as the only Bible some may read, and growing increasingly agitated with myself for giving all of this so much mental time and physical energy. Yet, the one thing I have decided is to just continue to pen my heart, and to write as if I’m the only one who’ll ever read any of this. No matter where my writing travels, that’s what’s worked, and that’s what I’ll continue to take with me. God bless you in your travels as well.

P.S. Praise God for import/ export abilities!   My old blog is now here, so the “Saying Yes to Something New” is a mere two posts below.   Hallelujah!!!!!