A Blog with a Purpose

The Original Purpose of this Blog

When I started writing this blog, I knew nothing about blogging. So I set off on a journey to learn about blogging and wanted to share my quilting journey with whoever wanted to read it.

Since the start of the blog I have learned many new things about blogging and my life has taken many turns along the way, some of which I have shared here. They included personal quilting projects and experiences, stories about my personal life, sprinkled with whatever quilting information I could find on the web. I have shared videos, photos, and websites and even taught a few quilting lessons here. On occasion I also put up information about the happenings on my Classroom website. So you can see the purpose or direction was varied and a little unorganized, but then so is my mind and life! LOL

Blog Number 2

Then came blog number 2. As if this wasn't enough challenge I thought I would take on another blog. The main reason was to explore another blog format that I had heard so much about on the web. http://www.wordpress.com This site while still in the free blogging service category offered me statistics and reports on traffic and allowed me to fine tune some things. This was very exciting to me. I now could tailor my writing to fit what the readers wanted. (I am still perfecting this as we speak) And if you are curious about my other blog take a look at Online Quilting.

The Challenge of Running 2 Blogs

Now the challenge of running 2 blogs was becoming ever increasingly difficult for me. I wanted them to be both about quilting, which is my passion as you all know. But how was I to keep them unique? I again fell into a similar habit. (Old habits die hard) I was posting all the same things. Yes the articles were different, (well some of them were exactly the same). I figured I could get away with that as there were bound to be different readers on both blogs, right? At first this may have been true, but as time went on I found that there was a huge following of the same people on both blogs. Now I was beginning to find it difficult to find new topics for both blogs that were interesting enough to keep you all happy. (Not an easy task)

As you may know with blogging and the internet in general the attention span of the reader is very short. My attention span for writing is even shorter! LOL I knew I had to plunge ahead as both blogs offered one common goal. "To reach as many quilters as possible, and offer them the help they needed to succeed at quilting."

Blogging Burnout

The final straw came with Blogging Burnout. I was finding blogging less and less fun. It was becoming real work. Well if it is work, then I run the other way. I only like to do things that are fun. Don't criticize me; you would agree if you can get away with not working at your job!

I took a few weeks off and just let the blogs sit. This is not a good thing in the world of blogging as you run the risk of losing your readers. I spent this time working on my website Quilting Weekly, as it is what pays for my fabric habits. At least all that time wasn't spent just having fun! I was actually trying to build my business up.

Once I got past the guilt of not writing daily or every few days, I found that the pressure was off and I could think more clearly about how to handle this situation. And today it finally hit me!!

Making each blog Serve a Specific Purpose

I needed to give each blog a specific purpose. This will have many benefits to me and the readers.

I decided that this blog Quilting Lesson Online will now be called Quilting Weekly. It will be the official blog for all the news and goings on at Quilting Weekly, giving my members and other readers the inside track to what we is happening there.

1. Classes - Sharing sales and news about new classes
2. Teachers - Sharing news about new teachers, their classes, or websites and services
3. Chats - Our monthly live chats offer members and non member’s ways to interact. I will list all the information about our chats here so you can plan your month accordingly. At the end of these chats I try to do a summary, (because we offer 5 different chats in 5 times zones) so I will post those summaries here.
4. Notices of when our newsletters are posted on Quilting Weekly. (Sorry I won't post the newsletters here as this is a benefit to the members). If you want to read them you will need to register at Quilting Weekly 

As for the other blog, Online Quilting is where you will now find all my other quilting related articles.

1. This site will be full of resources - Including a links page. I have one set up for quilting related blogs, and one set up for quilting related websites.
2. Articles on quilting - Articles written by me or others will be found here. If it has to do with quilting I will find and write about as much as I can.
3. Tips - Quilting tips will be posted in articles, and I may even set up a page just for them over time.
4. Quilting news - If I find important news about quilting I will post them and any relative links.
5. Websites, videos, or other help I find on the web - I will continue to scour the web and bring you what I find.
6. Lessons - Yes on occasion I will post free tutorials or quilting lessons on this blog as well. 

In Conclusion

So you see, now that each blog has specific goals it will be much easier to keep them unique, allowing me to reach a more targeted audience.

As for the frequency of my posting, that is yet to be determined. Because there is so much useful information on this blog, I don't want to remove it just yet. I may decide to in the future. If and when I do, I will move it all over to Online Quilting. That way none of it will be lost for ever.

As always your comments, thoughts or suggestions are welcome. (That is why there is a comment section) Please don’t be shy about using it.