There are times in the blogging world when you might despair, posting blogs that no-one or very few read, not to mention a comment. When Multiply, my old blogging site collapsed, I had the same problems as most of us - where to go. I was always backing up my Multiply site, so automatically drifted to Blogger. I also had a second back-up at WordPress. With time I realised that WordPress had the most to offer for me. Writing is my main interest and WordPress have a lot to offer in that direction. Daily Prompts, Weekly Prompts as well as photography sites, they always start their postings with "We love bloggers" and I must say they have now proved to me that they even read the hundreds of blogs they receive daily.
New themes are always being developed and you are informed through your site how they look and what they offer. Some cost money, many are free with an option to build in other features which would cost money. I have never paid anything. I am satisfied with how I can construct my site and as many know WordPress has become my main blogging station. I get a lot of interaction from others and have met many new friends.
Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from the WordPress people yesterday telling me that one of my blogs had been featured on their freshly pressed site. This is a site where they pick out various blogs and highlight them. They also informed that I would probably get quite a feed back and my widget was ready to be put on my site. They were not kidding. Today I got 300 views on my site and my award winning blog Weekly Writing Challenge: A Manner of Speaking had a record amount of visitors.
So please allow me this little bit of showing off, I have been blogging for more than five years and when something like this happens you have a sort of satisfied feeling.
Remember - many of us were thrown out of Multiply and had to search for somewhere to blog. Those that are reading this arrived in Blogger. I always had a Blog here, and luckily I more or less kept it up to date as a back-up, so did not have to do a lot of copy past when Multiply decided to go commercial. I also had a Wordpress account, not so complete, but all my stories and poems were there as a second backup.
Blogger is a good place to be. No unnecessary gossip, serious and well planned. Many of our old groups in Multiply migrated to Blogger and it works very well, thanks to the work and efforts invested by the administrators of the groups.
You can do a lot with your blogger site. Make different pages, connect links, and add widgets. You can make a very attractive site. Decorate it, add design and photos Perhaps just a little effort is required to get the hang of things.
I decided Blogger was now my main blog, and Wordpress my backup. However, I have now promoted Wordpress to be equal with Blogger. Wordpress has qualities which I only discovered about a month ago, but for someone that enjoys blogging (writing) it is ideal.
Wordpress is very much there for the blogger and they have many various groups in this direction. I discovered the Daily Prompt and for a blogger, ideal. Every day there is a subject to blog about. Others join in and at the end of the day some interesting blogs appear. Above all there is a great interest to read what you have written. Sometimes I "re-blog" my efforts for the Daily Prompt here on Blogger and mark it as such, so if you wonder what this is, you now know. Sometimes an interesting theme and sometimes not so interesting.
They also have a weekly photo challenge, like our Picture Perfect. The theme is once a week and you can contribute photos to the theme. I partook once, but to be enjoyed in small doses. Whereas in Picture Perfect you might have perhaps one hundred entries (I am not sure) the contributions can go up to a thousand in WordPress and it is absolutely not possible to visit everyone. On the day I contributed I set up my record in Wordpress for views on my blog for 50 views. I decided I would not participate any more as it is almost too much stress. Even Picture Perfect got too stressful for me and then the competitions started. I am just not here to compete against anyone, but to enjoy.
Some say that the problem with Wordpress is that it can become expensive. They ask for money for everything. To a certain extent this is true. They have many themes and if you take them as they are they are free. You can develop them with widgets. If you want to change the colours, type, etc. you have to update, costing $30 per annum. you can even go profi and that can really get into the expensive. Photos are limited, although not for me as the amount allowed is generous. If you are interested in having a photoblog mainly, then it can become expensive.
I just wanted to say this to explain sometimes why my blogs have a Wordpress title. Basically you find me in Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss and The Cat Chronicles at Wordpress.
You discover something new every day and today was a discovery day for me. Many of us lost our domicil when Multiply decided to throw us all out. There were many alternatives and we all made our own choice. I decided for Blogger and Wordpress, double sewing seams are always stronger.
Anyhow today I discovered something in Wordpress. It has always been there I suppose. I have been starving for new challenges in the writing world. Multiply had writing groups and Blogger has none. At least I have not found one up to now.
Today I discovered something Word Press calls The Daily Post with tons of challenges to participate in or not. They are all listed on the righthand side under the heading Recent Posts. You can insert your e-mail address to follow them and you get posted in your e-mail box when a new one appears.
I was thirsty for a challenge, and the first one arrived today. I competed and it is like the old days in Multiply where everyone in Wordpress that partakes has a look at what you have written. Of course, I also look. It seems that the blogging world is not so dead as I thought.
Of course I remain in Blogger and Google+ as No. 1 and will be putting my writing efforts on the WordPress challenges here as well, but really I am so happy to have found a new place where writing is appreciated. There is no have to, but just want to. There is even a photo challenge available.
For those like me that might be missing this sort of thing, have a look.
