April In Review

Happy May Day! As a blogger, with the start of a new month, we often review the past month and post a little recap. As I reviewed my April posts, I was kinda dumbstruck. I wrote nine posts in April.

Nine?!?

My norm has been 4-5 posts each week with two or three of those being a painting tutorial. What in the world happened last month? It sure seemed like I was busy. Incredibly busy, as a matter of fact. What happened?

I can tell you what didn’t happen. I didn’t post. I got swallowed up in a riptide of new work, new commitments and old self-doubts.

Doubts? How can you have doubts as new work is pouring in?

If you’re a blogger, and happen to be female, you just might be able to relate to some of this.

Do you remember why you started blogging in the first place? I do. Clearly and distinctly. I started Mural Maker & More as a way to promote and market my original art. At the time I had no idea what blogs were and I didn’t read or follow any. I just thought it’d be fun to show some behind-the-scenes stuff about painting murals.

So I started out as an Artist Who Blogs.

I signed up for everything I could find online – Twitter, Facebook, Etsy, and a host of others that have since fallen by the wayside. And, of course, I started reading other blogs, mainly in the DIY world.

Link parties? How fun! I can paint some crafts too! Tutorials? Sure! Why not?

Little by little, without me realizing it, I became a Blogger. I loved it. I caught the fever and I couldn’t wait until my l’il ol’ blog became as big and popular as some of the DIY blogs I was reading. And that’s when the trouble started, but I didn’t even know it.

As I met more and more bloggers online, I began to learn how much I didn’t know about blogging. I began to *gulp* compare my blog to everyone else’s.

Big, big mistake.

As soon as that comparison thing started, I started questioning myself, my ability, my talents, my . . . everything. Big mistake. The harder I tried to be like ‘everyone else’ the more I lost my way.

I became a Blogger Who Paints.

Now, if you’re a blogger, you know all of the pitfalls that come with trying to make your blog ‘popular’ and ‘big’. How do you get more readers? Subscribers? How do you get advertisers? How do you get ‘big’ blogs to feature you?

If you read all of the How To Be A Better Blog blogs, which I do did, they pretty much say the same thing: Focus on your content. Content? Um, okay. So I looked back over which posts got the most traffic. Then I was really stumped. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason which posts took off. Projects that I thought were awesome, no one else did. Projects that I thought were bordering on ridiculous skyrocketed. *shaking head in confusion*

As weeks turned into months and months turned into years I was more confused than ever. It’s one thing to be a ‘people-pleaser’ in person, but to try and be a ‘blog-pleaser’? There’s no one thing that makes a blog popular. It could be timing. It could be content. It could be who the blogger knows. It could be a combination of all of that.

I have no idea.

Here’s what I do know – I’ve been blogging for three years. I may never be one of those ‘big’ blogs. And I’m okay with that. I like writing about paint. I like writing tutorials. I like sharing my art. Sometimes I even like just sharing random thoughts, like today.

Right now I can’t describe myself as an Artist Who Blogs or a Blogger Who Paints. I’m okay with that too. I’m just me. And for those of you who drop by from time to time and enjoy either my ramblings or my tutorials, I will say I will try to post more consistently. At least for this month.

After that, who knows?