Almost a week ago I started a new type of post here at ProBlogger by asking readers – What Were the Best and Worst Blogging Experiences You Had This Week?
The response was fantastic. I actually found quite a bit of inspiration in some of the comments left and think that there were some great ideas and lessons shared. I think that by sharing the things that have gone well as well as the ‘worst’ stuff (mistakes, problems etc) that we can all learn a lot.
So…. I’ve decided to make this a weekly post that I think I’ll run on Saturday my time (Friday for those of you in the US).
My Best and Worst
Worst – This week was a tough one at home. The whole family (including me) has been sick at different times. On top of that I’ve had a few extra things to do outside of blogging (for example this weekend I’m preaching at church – something that takes a lot of preparation). As a result my main struggle this week has been around finding the time and head space to blog. I think I managed to get through it but did have to lessen my load a little by pulling back on some of my normal social media activities like Twitter.
Best – While I struggled to keep putting out new content this week one of the best things about the week was that some of what I did manage to write seemed to resonate with readers. A couple of posts (this one on declining traffic and this one on my ‘sock drawer’)got over 100 comments which is always a level that I look to on this blog to signal a post did well and for some reason this was one of those weeks when the positive feedback emails outweighed the complaints (always a nice thing).
What was your best and worst of the week? Share anything you like as long as it relates to your experience of blogging!
Best – Launching http://www.aliventures.com – I’ve had a couple of blogs in the past, but this is one I’m feeling really invested in, and I’ve been working away on draft posts, pages, guest posts etc for a few weeks; it’s great to finally have it live!
Worst – Launching http://www.aliventures.com! It’s been a busy week (like you, Darren, a heap of church stuff – I’m doing the opening prayers on Sunday and I & boyfriend are running a church lunch today — so lots of preparation.) I was determined to get the blog launched yesterday, though, and made it by around 10pm…
My worst week – when work and personal stuff got caught up or went bad and because of that, time had decrease for me to concentrate on writing my post.
My best week – Of course is time… but the best is, when ideals kept flowing into my mind, that really urge me to share with my readers, which I’m sure most of then would love my content.
Best:
Readership increased,alexa rank improved,link popularity and backlinks also improved.
Worst:
Got no participants to first funny title contest.
My best and worse were really one in the same. My site has been up since June 19 and I had not received any comments on my blog, even though I’m receiving about 200 visits per day and have 500+ subscribers.
I was finally notified by a subscriber that he/she could not post a comment on my blog…then another reader told me the same thing. Turns out, a certain plugin was creating an error message when anyone tried to post. I removed the plugin and viola…comments galore!
It totally sucks that I probably missed a lot of good comments, but I’m really happy that it’s fixed. :D
My Best was finding that Google searches were finding my site again after a URL change.
My Worst is that I’ll be out of town for most of next week and need to get busy writing some posts!
This didn’t happen this week, but a couple weeks ago, but I still have to post it..
Best: wrote an very impromptu post late at night while in bed about the socially redeeming factors of twitter and it got circulated three times over two weeks.. spiking my readership three-fold each time. Never happened to me before.
Worst: not having come anywhere near that before or since, though I’m trying to find that magic connection again…
worst — I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging bc I had to go out of town with my husband for cancer checkups.
best — I had some new readers and commenters to my blog. They were fantastic people and I made some new friends!
I am going to join a blogging group. I have thought of ideas for niche blogs I want to do. I’m dumping Blogspot and going with WordPress soon. These are all things I should have done a long time ago (but was too involved with my husband’s health). These are all very smart moves!
krissy knox
follow me on twitter:
http://twitter.com/iamkrissy
Best: this week’s contest is giving me some ideas of what to blog about and also how crutial a blog redesign is for me. Much of what people want to see is there. I need a better layout so they know it is there. Single column blog is not doing it for me.
Worst: person I hired to do my blog (and paid a big deposit) has gone missing. This hurt my plans and is a lot of lost money.
*** darren – not sure if you saw me ask last week but would you mind if I incorporate this idea of best/worst into my blog occasionally? Email me back and let me know. [email protected]
Best: Steve Pavlina posted a lengthy comment on my blog. :]
Worst: I’m starting to notice my eyes hurting — likely due to too much time in front of the computer monitor. :[
Worst – My net connection was down whole week.
Best – There was not much to blog about.
Best: Getting reader email asking for advice.
Worst: Realizing that the relaunch of my blog could cost me my job and having to take down my blog.
I hope your sermon went well.
Yes, there’s the best and worst cases along the week with blogging!
Best – Got amazing traffic for my blogs.
Worst – Too many works to do. Less time for blogging =(
Best: I managed to bag my blog a sweet deal with a football club here in the UK. They put my name and url on their football kit for the season plus ads on their site (which they are paying me to create) and Facebook page.
Worst: Someone who downloaded illegal stuff onto his computer and then caught a nasty virus is going around and telling everyone it was my blog that gave it to him. People are believeing him!
Best: Someone asked to publish one of my posts on their group site, which has far more readers than I can dream of having. That was pretty exciting.
Worst: Not enough time to write…but then I wrote a post in 20 minutes, dashed it off really. I wasn’t happy with it, but wanted to post something. Then, I got positive comments on it and a couple people even emailed me to tell me they really needed to read it. So that was nice :)
Best – Enjoying writing a piece that I thought turned out to be a really nice little article.
Worst – Having said article get hardly any traffic.
Best: I wrote my 100th post today
Worst: I got a negative comment again for my worst post ever, I need to delete it. I am learning a lot from those comments. (It’s my worst for my lack of technical knowledge on the field, the space community is teaching me a lot with the comments and criticism)
Worst – I had to study for daily math quiz, finish writing english papers, and finish up my java programming for my summer classes.
Best – Despite the facts that I was busy, I gained more traffic to my blog by writing little post everyday. I also gained some new followers and subscribers. This gave me motivation as a new blogger.
Worst – most definitely labouring over a guest post for 4 days when it really should have been done in half a day. The really annoying thing here is that I always feel as though I’ve lost a lot of character in my writing when I drag it out like this. I tend to do this often when the post is not for my own blog, I guess it comes back to wanting the post to be perfect.
Best – I obviously didn’t mess things up too much as I’ve had a 38% increase in subscribers since that guest post appeared 3 days ago!!!
Worst- It’s really hot in southern california and I didn’t put in as much time as I wanted to in writing.
Best- I started developing a site in a new niche that I think is going to be quite profitable (thought no evergreen).
My visitors and reader won’t comment my post.
Worst: I was having hard time focusing my mind and efforts. My mind is all over the place as there is so much stuff available and I’d like to take it all in. Classic information overflow situation. This resulted in getting stuck on content creation too, with so much to cover I didn’t get anything done before I managed to re-focus myself near the end of the week again.
Best: I wrote my last post about social networks, a simple post listing the biggest and best of them (in my opinion). I hoped that it would pick up exposure on different social networks and this morning I’ve witnessed over 130 clicks from Twitter to the post = by far the most traffic I’ve gotten to an article yet.
My Worst —> my wife sicks and need operatioan last week. Now is good
My Best –> my adsense earnng still hight..
I like this post! Here goes mine:
worst: having no internet connection for two days! worst possible case if I may say :)
best: being interviewed by Alex Fraiser of Blogussion and Asnio Dot Com for his Young Blogger series. I loved that interview :)
Update on my earlier comment:-
Best, i had an 18 views yesterday, 53% new viewers. Small, but good news.
Worst, No Money.
Best: this month has brought an new all time high for income on my blog, and the month still has 11 days left! Loving it! Also hired a writer for my blog who is doing a great job!
Worst: Got a few bigoted comments left on my blog. Always a bit sad when people leave hate filled comments.
Best: New to blogging, enjoying the process, stiff tyring to figure out how to write.
Worst: after about a month and a half – not really seeing any real traffic
Best: Hit adsense jackpot (4 clicks and $26$)
Worst: No post this week :-)
Best: Getting a great response to articles in term of number and quality of comments, twitter links and mentions on other blogs. It’s a great feeling to know people actually like something I wrote!
Hi,
thanks for sharing your experience.
Best – one of my blog post got almost 50 views after several minutes when i tweet it. Sweet!
worst – blog post couldn’t stay on google first page.
Best: regaining the feeling of having a deadline of some kind thus establishing a done point on something I’m writing. I been journaling a good long time and pegging out short stories and false starts on books for ages, but stuff never feels done unless you hand it over to an editor boss teacher whatever.
Worst: losing my first batch of readers (the social network) for utter lack of audience consideration. (political diatribes of the disorientated and disenfranchised don’t get it) got to write stuff people want to read or they tend not to subscribe or say much of anything. learned to ramble less… 500 words max… and that sifting through your thoughts live on the blog isn’t the best way to go
Worst: having my Firefox browser crash repeatedly (too many tabs open – I suffer from “tabitis” according to my husband) and losing my draft WordPress post because I forgot to use the save draft button at some point (usually best after the first crack at the headline).
Warning: if you don’t click save draft at least once before your browser crashes WordPress 2.7 something doesn’t temporarily save!!
Best: came across Common Craft and read their “Our Story” page. Truly uplifting moment for me and an inspiration. I ended up watching their video on Zombies and then went on to write about surviving a zombie attack. I never thought I would write about zombies but the whole survival aspect of it fits with one of my sites.
Worst: Since working two jobs (besides blogging), I did not feel like doing the Firefox Friday post I usually do the night before so I went to bed instead (procrastinated and felt lazy).
Best: I actually got up an hour early the next day (today) to get the post done before the email subscriptions went out. I even felt better going to work because I had more time to wake up!
There you go! The best AND the worst was the same situation!
Best: one day of the week i earned about couple hundred of dollars!
Worst: My laptop crashed and finally got a Desktop PC after 1 month of online absense!
That sucked so much that i can’t afford to happen again in my life ;)
Best: Posted my second video-tutorial-a-day-for-a-week without stopping for my Drum and Bass Tutorial and actually learning quite a lot about producing the genre.
Worst: Realised my blog is reaching a plateau from its exponential growth – a shame the exponential blog growth theory doesn’t apply all the time!
I guess that means it’s time to find some new niches to tap into :)
Best: Posted my second video-tutorial-a-day-for-a-week without stopping for my Drum and Bass Tutorial and actually learning quite a lot about producing the genre.
Worst: Realised my blog is reaching a plateau from its exponential growth – a shame the exponential blog growth theory doesn’t apply all the time!
I guess that means it’s time to find some new niches to tap into :)
Best? – My Traffic is on the increase
Worst? – My Submissions to DIGG.com are unread!