Work has been super busy for me lately, so I haven’t been in the blogging mood. So… let’s do a meme! I stole this from Liza (originally from here) :)
How often do you try to blog and how often do you actually blog?
I try to blog once a week, but that doesn’t always happen. I don’t let my blog go inactive for over a month though. I have a lot of article ideas, but I also want to have a good mix of personal entries too. When my life is boring, I don’t have much to write about XD;;
Do you have a stat tracker on your site? Which one? What does it track?
I use Google Analytics, which tracks… well, pretty much everything – unique visits, page views, most visited pages, search keywords, referrers, location, browsers, OS, etc. I can even set up custom events and flows. I feel like it’s best used for viewing trends rather than overall though. By default, it shows stats from the past month, rather than of all time. It makes sense though. Really old data is often not as useful anymore.
How often do you change the layout of your site and how important is a good layout to you?
Gone are the days when I was obsessive about changing my layouts every few months. I change it maybe once a year now (and this blog is definitely due for a new one). A good layout is pretty important to me. I want my content to be easy to read after all.
How often to you check your blog for comments?
I get an email every time a comment comes in, so… how ever often that is.
How did you decide on a proper organization for your posts (categories, tags, etc.)?
I just picked some broad categories when I first started this blog, and I haven’t changed it much since. I just try to keep it simple, and I don’t really make use of tags (which I probably should).
Is your blog secret or open to people you know offline?
Sort of both. If someone offline finds it, then oh well, but I prefer that they don’t. I don’t link it in many places. For example, I avoid linking to it on my social profiles like Twitter and Facebook. However, it’s also not hard to find if you actually try. Most people I know just don’t try or don’t care to. I mean, I do link to my main domain, which has all of my sites linked on it.
/end meme
As mentioned, I have a lot of article ideas, mostly about photography and some about food. I just don’t want to post a bunch of them in a row, since I’d still like this to be a personal blog :) Here are some that I have planned:
Photography
- Lens review: Canon 35mm f/2, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6, Canon 85mm f/1.8, Sigma 50mm f/1.4
- Equipment: lens filters (specifically UV and Polarizing)
- Techniques: simple flash set-up, basic composition
Food
- Equipment: my favorite kitchen tools
- Demos: fondant, gumpaste, recipes
I feel the same way about people offline finding my blog. When I was in middle school, I had a different website and I hosted my blog on a subdomain using greymatter. I gave my dad the URL because he lives in China and it seemed easier to let him read it than to send him emails. However, I got into an argument with my mom and posted it on the blog. My dad called her, probably to tell her not to be so harsh on us (it was grade-related, my sister and I got some Bs) and he showed her the blog. She yelled at me and wouldn’t let me go to bed until I took the post down, so I did. I then moved my blog without telling my family and they still think I don’t have one. They know my online alias though, so it would not be difficult to find me if they tried. I’m glad they don’t though. It’s just too much trouble… XD
(Side note: I just noticed your layout is a PORTAL LAYOUT! Where have I been this whole time? lol)
Since I plan on doing this meme, I’m going to avoid ranting. :P However, I don’t get why some people are so paranoid about the offline world finding their blog. Unless, you are insulting someone all the time on it, and believe me I’ve seen blogs like that. I never really write anything personal so I don’t care who reads it. Although, for some reason I feel the offline world will say I don’t have a life, because the people are goddamn shallow.
I have only read one of your photography articles and it was very informative, so please publish those three soon! No pressure, aha.
I really think it comes down to the feeling of anonymity. There’s something freeing about writing to an audience of strangers, and that’s why a lot of people act differently online than in person. When someone offline finds you online, it breaks that anonymity. For some, it makes no difference. For me, it’s not bad, but it causes some discomfort. For others, it’s important enough that they’d rather disappear and start again elsewhere once they’ve been found.
And thanks, haha. I plan on posting another photography article soon :)
The danger in letting “offline people” know about a blog is when a blog has things that those offline people should not know. Some are complaining about their jobs, bosses, or express their hatred towards a person only through blogging. I think when that happens, might as well keep a certain post private so that the offline people will not use any information against the blogger.
Anyway, it’s always the blogger’s decision whether he/she will post everything on his/her blog or not. I personally think that not everything should be posted so stalking will not happen (if someone is interested).
By the way, I’m glad I found Himitsu (the photoshop tutorials site) and then found this blog. I used to visit Himitsu before. Thank you for putting up that site. I’ll visit again.
Yeah, I agree. People can post whatever they want, but it’s probably smarter to be careful about what you put out in public. Even though I don’t post private things like that, it’s still a little uncomfortable for me if an offline friend finds my blog.
And I’m glad you like Himitsu! Sorry it’s been forever since I last updated it ^^;; I’m working on merging it with my graphics site now, which should make it easier for me to update more often.
Thanks to this meme at least I have a ready-made blog entry in case I can’t think of something! :p I also try to blog as much as I can but gone are the days that I get to blog at least every 2-3 days or so. Oh well. Times have changed, got busy with work and all.. and my family doesn’t know about my blog. I’d like to keep it that way :p
Nice answers &mash; yeah, I remembered your site the moment I landed on it because of the layout, which I’d seen sometime late last year! :P
I look forward to your photography reviews. :)