2018 Blogiversary

April: National Poetry Month, the Diamond Month, the showers of which bring flowers in May, and my WordPress blogiversary.

I specify WordPress blogiversary because I didn’t really take my blogging seriously until I made the switch to WP, in April of 2015 (read about the switch here). I have been blogging since about the summer of 2014, but some life changes in that same fall and winter had me reevaluate many things, least of all blogging. Since that April of 2015, I’ve narrowed my blog focus, activated my own domain, and have connected with many inspiring people here in the blogosphere. This past year, and especially in the last six months or so, I’ve really put all of my extra energy into blogging (and bookstagramming!), for reasons I’ll sort of get into below, and have felt quite proud of the things I’ve written and published. In case you hadn’t already figured it out, this is my one big reflection post for the year – I like to reserve this kind of post for my blogiversary because if I don’t, I would likely make every other blog post a reflection post, and I find that to be quite dull. This post will consist of things I’ve learned and experienced, as well as future goals and ideas I’m excited about. So here we go.

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I will first say, Hi! Welcome to There’s Something About KM. I’m assuming that if you’ve read this far, you are likely to be one of my wonderful, delightful, intelligent followers, so I want to say thank you for reading my posts, interacting with me, and giving me an audience apart from the plants in my apartment. So many of you have helped me (in the past year especially) and continue to inspire me. If you are not a follower or usual reader of my blog, I want to thank you for being here as well. For both groups, I will give you a little bit of a background that extends beyond my About page.

My name is Kelsey, and my blog name is a mashup of two things:

1. When I decided to start a blog (2014), I had just moved to Long Island, New York to attend Graduate School to study journalism. I came up with the name “There’s Something About Maine,” and set out to write about my experiences as a Mainer outside of New England. I started having a hard time with the journalism program, because I felt very much like an outsider (because I was), and not at all confident in whatever abilities I had. I also lost my paternal grandmother that fall, and after missing many days for the funeral and my mental health, I just felt defeated and exhausted. Knowing I did not want to continue the journalism degree, and that I could not afford to live on Long Island, I [very] reluctantly returned to Maine just before Christmas.
2. Over the next couple of months, now in 2015, I started migrating my blog content over to WordPress, because Weebly (the platform I was using) was hands down awful. It was not user-friendly and not as customizable as I would have liked. I kept my web address (this time as a reminder of what I had been a few months before), and started writing again. This carried on through the end of 2015, and in March of 2016, I decided to choose my own domain name. Which meant I really had to commit to my blog’s title. I liked “There’s Something About” because while I now have a primary focus on books, I also like publishing some of my personal writing here, so strictly calling this website a book blog didn’t really work for me. Wanting to keep the domain simple, I opted to use my first and middle initials to finish out the title. Because who else is the blog primarily for, if not the creator?

Since creating my domain, I’ve improved my posting schedule, which has had a lot of help from my annual Reading Challenges. I also embarked on a journey to read all of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and started a monthly feature where I share the books From My Bookshelf. I have sort of abandoned my On The Road segment, but I’d like to bring it back to life; that will be one of my goals for April and the rest of the year.

Speaking of blogging goals, I have a few more in mind that I will share here:

• I’d like to have a really consistent post schedule. I’m thinking of implementing a Tuesday – Friday – and occasional Sunday pattern; with my full-time job and in favor of the quality of my content, this is reasonable (and doable).
• I’m going to post to #bookstagram every day. I spent half of yesterday photographing shots for the month, so I’m already off to a good start with this goal.
• I will continue reviewing and editing past posts. I’ve fallen away from this lately but I need to get back to fixing up a couple of posts every week.
• I’ll start posting more personal ramblings and essays. My book reviews and other book posts will almost always be scheduled – to give myself time to read the book and create a well written review – so doing this will give me heightened feelings of spontaneity, not to mention it will give me a way to develop and improve the things I’ve written on paper.

That’s about it, I think. Of course, some other goals I have will help these – like read more, spend less time re-watching The Office and more time being productive, come out of winter hibernation and be more social – but they pertain more to my personal habits and not primarily towards my blog. Overall, I’m quite happy where I am in this blogging adventure. Of course there are times when I read other bloggers’ posts about being online for a year and having thousands of followers when I feel down, but honestly those times are few and far between. I am happy with the things I post, and that’s all that matters.

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Thank you for reading, as always, and be sure to check in all month long to read what I’ve written – or better yet, subscribe over there on the right to get my new posts delivered to your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Flipboard, and please, share your monthly or yearly blogging goals below or in an email to me – I’d be happy to see what you’ll be up to this month and the following eight months.

OH, one more thing – I’m working on a book review policy page, because I’ve been receiving more requests lately. Most of them are great, and I’m excited to work with the authors who have reached out, but some have been a little vexing so it’s time to put out an official list of rules for requesting. Which makes me seem a lot more formal than I am, but I’ve put it off for long enough.

Okay, that is really the end of my blogiversary post. I hope you’re looking forward to April as much as I am, and hope to talk to you soon.

xx
Kelsey