Comment Love

Blogging Bomb Diggity: 20 Beguiling Years, 5 Basic Guidelines, & 3 Breezy Questions

/ Ally Bean / 283 Comments

Steve!!!

🔹🔷🔹

Sometimes I feel cuckoo banana pants about long I’ve been around blogland. I started my first personal blog 20 years ago this spring never imagining I’d write one for more than a year or two.

However my life took a few unexpected turns and I kept going, changing weblogs, refining my focus, learning how to write in a chatty way. Carrying on, in what I’d describe as a Steve-like fashion, despite my doubts and mistakes.

At this point I’m glad I was tenacious. I’ve come to realize that writing this blog keeps my brain clicking and my heart open. Also, my no-fuss approach to blogging means it is, for the most part, fun.

Occasionally someone will ask me, a blogging dinosaur, what I’ve learned about how to keep a personal blog. Over the years my answers have varied, evolved, but can be summarized in the following 5 guidelines.

I base my straightforward guidelines on the premise that a personal blog is about sharing stories/information, creating understanding, and being respectful toward other people.

As with everything in life, your mileage may vary.

🔹🔷🔹

5 basic GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A PERSONAL BLOG

Be specific. Life is in the details so share some. Have an opinion or point of view. Do some research. Ambiguity doesn’t make for compelling blog posts.

Be authentic. Have a personality and have the gumption to use it. Avoid anything that might come across as fake or spurious, readers respond to the real deal.

Be meticulous. Your goal is clear communication, so define your terms, use mostly proper grammar and sentence structure, add a little wordy razzle dazzle to keep it fresh. Reply in a timely fashion to comments left on your blog posts.

Be creative. Add something visual to your posts. Find a meme or snap a pic or use colorful fonts. Jazz it up, folks, don’t settle for blah.

Be kind. Once upon a time I wouldn’t have added this last guideline, assuming it was a given. However people can be tetchy now, so be discerning about what you say and mindful about how you say it.

🔹🔷🔹

Clearly I underestimated how long I’d be at this blogging thing.

I cannot say THANK YOU often enough or loudly enough to everyone who follows along and comments here on The Spectacled Bean. You, my little otters of bloggy friendship, give me the lift I need to keep going in blogland.

YOU ARE THE BEST!

🔹🔷🔹

Questions of the Day

Thinking about personal blogs in general, how’d did you get hooked on them?

If you write a personal blog, what has surprised you the most in a positive way about being a blogger? And what has surprised you the most in a negative way?

If you write a personal blog, when the time comes to end it how will you do that?

🔹• 🔷 • 🔹

Of Cool Kids & Comments: 2 FAQ Answered. Got More Questions?

/ Ally Bean / 224 Comments

Here is why you are the cool kids  

It’s my takeaway from one of the nicest compliments I’ve received on this blog. A long time ago a blogger told me I was one of the Cool Kids a la high school.

She explained that I wasn’t one of the Popular Kids, like the jocks with their toadies or the mean girls with their wannabes. Nor was I one of the obedient Do Bees who followed all the rules.

Instead she said that I was one of the Cool Kids, a quiet rebel, sitting in the back of the class, amused by what I saw going on, able to do my own thing with my friends.

I was flattered by what she said. It jived with my perception of who I am so I decided that: 1) if you comment here you are my friend;  and 2) as such that makes you a Cool Kid, too.

~ • ~

~ • ~

This is how I deal with comments

First of all I’m grateful to receive as many comments as I do. Cool Kids are the best. Thank you.

That being said, as many of you have noted, it does take some doing on my part to keep up with all the comments. I’ll admit this isn’t what I anticipated when I started blogging, yet I want to be friendly and conscientious because that’s the kind of blogger I am.

You understand.

Thus my approach to my comment section is to:

  • only post on days when I know I’ll have the flexibility to reply to comments as they come in;
  • check comments frequently, but not obsessively, on the first few days after I post; and
  • close comments on every post after about three weeks.

In other words, in a nutshell, I don’t turn my back on my comment section lest I be swept under and overwhelmed about replying to them.

[Also for those who are interested, HERE is something I wrote about blog comments a few years ago. The post received 388 comments. 🙄]

~ • ~

~ • ~

Do you have more questions for me?

It’s been a long time since I asked for your questions. I’ve no specific reason why I haven’t done an AMA post recently, just no planning on my part, I guess.

So to correct this lapse and to keep things fresh & different around here, I’m asking you to leave me some questions in the comment section of this post. The questions can be about blogging or me or seeking advice for a problem.

Anything that you’re curious about.

Then starting in July, in a different post [or posts], I’ll answer your questions to the best of my ability which is to say I reserve the right to not answer any questions that I deem unreasonable.

In my answers I’ll make sure to mention you and your blog, adding a link to your blog of course so that the Cool Kids can find you.

How’s that for an incentive to ask me a question!

Who Are You People? Allow Me To Tell You, Then Ask One Question

/ Ally Bean / 307 Comments

~ ~ • ~ ~

I said I’d be back in August, and true to my word, I’m here again, ready to tell you a little bit about you, the cool kids.

Intrigued, aren’t ‘ya?

For no particular reason, on a whim really, I decided to analyze who follows this blog & comments regularly.  WP tells me I have thousands of followers, but most of those followers don’t bother to engage with me, and other bloggers, via the comment section of this blog.

[This is fine by me. Speak up when you feel so moved. I’ve always had many kind lurkers who eventually join in.]

Welp, it turns out there are about 110 cool kids who make a habit of consistently checking in here, chit-chatting in the comments, AND who also write personal blogs of their own. The whole megillah, as they used to say.

[There are many other delightful commenters who say something once in a while and I love you for it. Spammers, on the other hand, make me say, “I hate those meeses to pieces.”]

Granted my methodology here is more subjective than objective: I’m telling you how I categorize/perceive your blogs. But, be that as it may, here are four things I’ve figured out about you, the cool kids.

~ ~ • ~ ~

I.  How often do you post to your blog?

  • 34% post Multiple Times Per Week (more than twice, less than daily)
  • 25% post Monthly (or less)
  • 20% post Once A Week
  • 14% post Twice A Week
  • 7% post Once A Day (or more)

II.  Where do you usually find your muse?

  • 76% are Independent Thinkers
  • 24% are Joiners who use prompts or challenges, always or most of the time

III.  What do you primarily write about regardless of the source of your muse?

  • 37% write about Family
  • 22% write about Ideas or Questions
  • 22% write about Hobbies or Special Interests
  • 12% write about Books or Writing
  • 7% share Photos

IV.  Where do you live?

  • 79% are Within the US
  • 21% are Outside the US

~ ~ • ~ ~

When I started my analysis I had a fifth question in mind, but quickly realized I couldn’t answer it on my own, so I’ll ask you. I’d like to know:

HOW DID YOU FIND THE SPECTACLED BEAN? 

  • did we do a challenge together?
  • did you see a comment I left somewhere?
  • did a friend point you this way?
  • did you find me on Twitter or Instagram?
  • did you surf by one day and stay?
  • did you get here some other way?

I await your comments below. 

A Spring + Summer Fling: The One About Simplifying My Blog Posting Schedule

/ Ally Bean / 217 Comments
BUT FIRST I AM ELSEWHERE…

On Saturday Yvette at priorhouse blog posted an in-depth interview with me for her ongoing monthly series.  I was thrilled to be asked to participate.  Go HERE to read the interview.

• • •

Image via @positivelytherapy on IG

If you’ve been around The Spectacled Bean for a while you may remember that last year about this time I decided to change how often I’d post to this blog.

At the time I had nothing written ahead and I was staring at a blank screen.  [History is repeating itself today, btw.]  It seemed like an opportunity to ditch my weekly posting schedule and try something new.

Because why not?

Thus I decided to change my modus operandi and post once every two weeks, usually on Tuesday, during spring and summer.  To become a fortnightly blog— and isn’t that a grandiose way to describe something so simple!

To my amazement this relaxed schedule was an excellent idea during the warmer days of the year.  Muse was onto something good.  All my happiness chemicals kicked in to make me, well– happy.

I wrote my usual posts, just less frequently;  I continued to share the comment love elsewhere;  and then I goofed off.  I was productive enough, connected as usual, but more carefree than during the colder months when I’m stuck inside.

So I’m going to do the same thing this year.  If something works, stick with it.

Right?

I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read and comment here because y’all make blogging fun.  I wouldn’t have lasted this long in blogland if it weren’t for all my gentle readers + kind lurkers + wordy commenters.  You’re the best of all the rest.

Thank you.

And with that sincere compliment I shall go forth, doing less while pursuing my Word of the Year: ENJOY!

• • •

AND FINALLY THREE READER COMMENTS…

About being the weird one in the neighborhood:

“If I’m being totally honest I am pretty sure that I would fit the description of the wackiest neighbor. I say that because I’m the one that my neighbors laugh and wave at while I’m running down the road chasing my donkey, or taking a walk and have my son, three cats (of the 6) cats strolling behind me, my two dogs wiggling around my legs, and possibly a stray duck, chicken, or even a goose following as well.”

~ LaShelle

“There was a time, long ago, when I kept rotten uncooked eggs and threw them from my balcony onto the car when the driver hooted … if there’s one thing I cannot stand, it’s hooting. He was a hooter of note.”

~ Susan

“When I got to the door, my neighbor, a very kind woman said ‘I don’t know if you’re okay with this, but your kids are playing on the roof.’ My kids were 5 and 3. They had popped the screen out of a bedroom window and as I could hear them just fine, I thought they were in the room. But nope. They had climbed onto the front porch roof, used that to climb onto the garage roof, and then onto the roof of our second story home. When I got them back in the house and asked them what they were doing I was told they were playing flood.”

~ Katie