The Bloggers' Geneameme - Describing Your Blogging Journey

Jill at http://geniaus.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-bloggers-geneameme.html is celebrating NationaI Family History Month  in Australia with this Geneameme to hear about the practices and thoughts of fellow bloggers

She is  inviting bloggers  to respond to the questions in this short geneameme via a post on their blog.

"Please write as little or as much as you like and don't feel obliged to answer all the questions. Once you have posted your response please share your link on the comments section at the bottom of this post or send the link to bibliaugrapher@gmail.com. Once I have a few replies I will compile a hit of responses"

 

1. What are the titles and URLs of your genealogy blog/s?
   Family History Fun. Rather unoriginal, but  I wanted to convey the enjoyment that can be gained from family history and also have FH in the title from the point of view of search engines.  ScotSue in my address was a mistake - when setting it up, I thought I had to include my user name  - hence it came out  rather longer than I would have liked.  
   
2. Do you have a wonderful "Cousin Bait" blog story? A link to a previous blog post might answer this question.  Not one single post as such, but a newly found third cousin contacted me having found  my blog after a Google search for our common Danson   ancestry.   It turned out we lived only 50 miles apart, met and Stuart has given me access to a wonderful new set of stories and images that I have featured on my blog.
   
3. Why did you start blogging? Is there someone who inspired you to start blogging?
   I have always had an interest in journalism and have written press releases etc.  for various activities I have been  involved in.  My work had just started  a blog which I contributed to, and the format and writing style appealed to me.  Then  I was reading "Woman & Home" magazine (aimed at the mature, enquiring woman!) and an article said if you enjoyed writing, had time to write regularly   and had something you felt strongly about,  set up a blog.   So I did and have never looked back!  The support of fellow bloggers has been crucial. 
4. How did you decide on your blog/s title/s?   See Q 1.
5. Do you ever blog from mobile devices? What are they? No
6. How do you let others know when you have published a new post?  
   At the start I did e-mail some friends with a FH or local history interest, giving a link to my site.  Joining Geneabloggers was a key step in widening my audience, followed by the Sepia Saturday network  Otherwise I do nothing particularly pro-active and rely on my follower's to pick up  posts.   Perhaps I should be doing more.  I am not on Twitter or use Facebook much.   
7. How long have you been blogging? Since late August 2010.
8. What widgets or elements do you consider essential on a genealogy blog? 
   Not sure about this.  I make full us of Labels/Topics, but suspect this is more for my own benefit in finding past material more easily.   I like a  clean, unfussy, uncluttered  look to my blog, so moved Blog Favourites and Blog Awards to a Page each  which works well, I think. I also like my other Page headings in giving a long term overview of my activities.
9. What is the purpose of your blog/s? Who is your intended audience?
   To reflect my own family history.  To "meet" fellow enthusiasts - I don't count my family amongst them! To have a medium for my writing.  Anyone with an interest in family and local history.
10. Which of your posts are you particularly proud of?   Where do I start!  Blogging in particular has helped me to  appreciate more the lives of  my parents and I am proud to pay tribute to them though my posts.  Historically I am proud  of the posts relating to my ancestors'' experiences in two world wars which were moving  to write.  Posts which receive a lot of comments are very satisfying to look back on. Until I joined Geneabloggers I never thought of my own memories as being part of my history. Writing personal  accounts to various prompts has been fun.  From the start I was amazed how the photographs showed up so well on screen and blogging has helped develop my interest in photography to better illustrate my posts.  I could go on and on....!
11. How do you keep up with your blog reading?  
    With difficulty.  My priority  - posts on my reading list and other contributors to the weekly Sepia Saturday prompts.  Following Geneabloggers daily prompts has fallen by the wayside to a large extent.  Their new way of featuring photographs is attractive to see,  but it does not make it as easy or quick to pick out posts that could interest me - as in the old method when just the title was shown.   I tend now to focus on one prompt subject a day, instead of running down the list of  all the topics.
12. What platform do you use for publishing your blog/s?   Blogger
    
13. What new features would you like to see in your blogging software?
    Don't know  - I am not particularly IT savvy to answer this. I wish there was some way whereby spam page views were not counted in my stats. 
14. Which of your posts has been the most popular with readers?
    I used to be n avid reader of my stats with the story of my great grandfather sitting merry  in the stocks coming top, followed by anything to do with wedding photographs.  Unfortunately the past year has seen me getting a lot of spam which has played havoc with page view figures, so I now rely on the number of comments. My posts on  the A-Z Challenges and on Sepia Saturday have  proved most popular.   I recognised that some posts are more for my own interest and satisfaction than a wider audience.
15. Are you a sole blogger or do you contribute to a shared blog? Sole
16. How do you compose your blog posts?
    Straight onto blogger.  I have a long list in my Drafts folder of anything that occurs to me for future posts - many times it can be no more than a photograph  or title to develop further when I have time.   .
17. Do you have any blogs that are not genealogy related? If you wish please share their titles and URLs. No other separate blogs, but I have touched on topics not family history related e.g. on local history,  on the changing seasons,  on featuring photographs of where I live. .I am keen to promote my own area of the Scottish Borders which is often a forgotten part of Scotland between Edinburgh and the English Border - with a very distinctive history and culture.
18. Have you listed your blog/s at Geneabloggers?   Yes
    
19. Which resources have helped you with your blogging? Basic - digital  camera and scanner.  Where would I be without Google for help with background information!.   Top of the list - fellow bloggers,  I have learnt a lot from them e.g. Amy Coffin's e-book on blogging.
20. What advice would you give to a new Geneablogger? Just start writing - think carefully about the title of your post as it is crucial in encouraging  readers to open your post.  Make sure your first sentence/paragraph is full of interest to attract the reader and ensure a high search optimization.  Make full use of images to add interest.  Build up your followers by making comments on posts from other bloggers.  Learn from other bloggers.  There are lots of tips out there.    

Please feel free to add an extra paragraph or two with extra comments.

Blogging has been a huge benefit to me.  I  expected to have exhausted my family history material long before now, but the prompts and support from fellow bloggers has been so stimulating, so  here I am still!  Recognition is a great motivator.   I cannot emphasise enough what pleasure and satisfaction I get from this all engrossing hobby.

The links to responses can be found at : http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/feeling-love-responses-to-bloggers.html