Vacations, broken wrists and gorgeous island days make for iced tea, my famous frozen margarita pie and a little reflection. I’m leaving you today with a post I originally wrote on For Bloggers by Bloggers—along with my hope that you are finding some time to get out in the sun and enjoy these beautiful days before they go ‘whoosh:’ 

Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Chirping robin, budding rose.
Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Gentle showers, summer clothes,
Here comes summer,
Here comes summer—
Whoosh—shiver—there it goes.

Shel Silverstein, “A Light in the Attic”

Now get out there and enjoy it! (But read this first.)

A Blogger Turns Three: 10 Things I’ve Learned

My blogging self turned three years old last month.

I’m past the ‘terrible 2′s,’ with those annoying, nonstop questions (although, come to think of it, I’m still asking ‘why?’ questions a lot.).

Blogging is so much a part of me that I forget that other people might not be even remotely connected to the concept.

That they might not even know what a blog is.

I found this out last Christmas Eve. The CatsEyeWriter blog had just been named one of the best writing blogs on the Web.

I knew I had been busted because now I would have to explain to my family what I do for a living. (They understood it much better when I was a teacher.)

So on Christmas Eve, I called my site up and showed my dad my cool award badge. It said: “Winner – Top 10 Blogs for Writers.”

I knew this conversation was going to be difficult, like the time I tried to show my mom how a fax machine worked.

“But how do the words go through the phone like that?” she said.

(In a way, I couldn’t blame her. How many of us really understood that one?)

That night, after a couple of false starts, I told my dad, “Well, see, a blog comes through the computer. People subscribe to it—you know, kind of like your newspaper? Except it gets delivered in a different kind of mailbox, on your computer.”

“You write stuff to help people solve their problems. They see how much you know and how much you give. And they start feeling like they can trust you. Some of them will even become your clients.”

He squinted at the computer screen.

“O-o-oh.”

I could tell he didn’t have a clue.

10 things I’ve learned about blogging

We all started blogging with our stinky first post, which at the time, we thought was fine enough to hit “publish.”

I’ve learned some things about blogging since then:

1. I can’t explain blogging to a mother who doesn’t even understand voice mail.

“I tried to call you yesterday, but I just got your answering service,” she said.

2. I left teaching, but I am still in education.

My readers want to learn something new from my posts—something about the world, about themselves, about how to be a better blogger. And I must revisit the concepts again and again, in different ways, because I am constantly getting new readers.

The trick is writing in fresh ways, with different angles, so readers who have been hanging around for a while will also find something new and useful.

3. Ideas for blog posts are everywhere, but executing them is the challenge.

There are thousands of ideas—millions, maybe—for topics. They can come from personal experience, from reading, from watching movies, even from comments left on your own blog.

Figuring  out what to do with them, how to craft a post that educates, engages and entertains, is harder, but it’s also the fun part.

4. When I know who I am and what I do best, it makes everything so much easier.

I was worried that ‘nichifying’ my blog would lose me readers.But then I thought that the right niche just might work.

It did. It’s easy for me (I have a focus now!) and easier for my readers because they know what to expect when they open one of my posts.

5. It’s better to have 100 involved, excited readers than 5,000 subscribers who don’t hang around much because they don’t really care about your content.

Okay, I have more than 100 readers now, but I wish I had realized this in the beginning. That the building of community is where the gold is, not in a bazillion page views.

6. I don’t need to hide my true self, even the quirky parts.

My readers know that I was once attacked by a mob of angry mosquitoes in a hotel bed in Senegal, West Africa. That, because I used to teach first graders, I can sing “I’m a Little Pile of Tin, Nobody Knows What Shape I’m In,” complete with the hand motions and honking sound effects.

That I wanted to be an interpreter at the United Nations when I was in third grade and for that I got laughed at a lot.

All of these things and more are on my blog’s about page. And still my readers choose to hang around. (Well, some of them might have left after the “Little Pile of Tin” disclsoure.)

7. It’s okay to break the writing ‘rules’ when I blog.

I’m not talking misspellings and typos here. But if it works better to start a sentence with “and” or write a one-word paragraph to drive home a point, I’ll do it. The old writerism still applies: “Know the rules, but don’t be afraid to break one if it makes sense.”

8. Turning a blog into a business is hard work.

But not quite as challenging as starting my first business in a little town where old men sat on sidewalks in chairs and placed bets on when the latest store that opened was going to fold. (Yes, this really happened in Ocean Shores, Washington.)

9. There are things I can do to get more reader comments on my blog.

Writing with passion and a focus are only part of it. If I make my readers copy letters and numbers they can’t read—even in a sober state—or recite the alphabet backwards to leave a comment, I’ll lose them.

If I don’t ask for comments at the end of my posts (because they aren’t mind readers), they won’t leave one.

If I trick them with a headline promising something the post doesn’t deliver, they won’t stick around long enough to engage with me.

10. If I live (and blog) on an island, I’d better be good at social media.

The magic of social media means that I can live anywhere, even on a no-bridge, ferry-only island. With Twitter and Facebook, I can connect with fascinating beings, even dogs, and when we meet face-to-face, it’s like we are old friends.

What about you?

How long have you been blogging?

What one thing have you learned that you wish you had known on day one?

Oh, just one more thing. I seldom pitch products and services on this blog, but if you’ve been thinking about a new website or blog, bobwp has an unbelievable start-up special going on only until Monday, August 8. You won’t believe everything you get with it for one low price.