Twelve Years Blogging - How and Why I Persevered

Happy 12th Blogiversary!

I started this blog after attending Thomas MacEntee's Blogger Summit at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree in June of 2011. I had my blog title researched and the first posts planned before my return flight to Virginia. On 3 July 2011, I posted W.O.W. revealing a photo of my grandfather attending the Woodsmen of the World conference in the late 1890s. 

I soon became an avid blog reader both for genealogy and my much-loved profession of speech-language pathology. Within months of starting this blog, I started a professional blog, The Budget SLP, featuring inexpensive activities for speech-language pathologists and special educators. 

For a few years, I posted at least once a week on both blogs. Thousands of people read my professional posts. Over 24,000 readers alone read my 2015 post 35 + Mitten Links and Activities for Speech and Language.  I was ecstatic (and still am) when 200 readers clicked on one of my genealogy posts. 

As work (and sometimes life) got busier, my posts decreased on my professional blog, but I usually found time for my genealogy blog. Retirement ceased any new posts on The Budget SLP, but I continue to regularly write for this blog. 

I recently read that 80% of blogs fail each year. How and why did Moments in Time, a Genealogy Blog survive 12 years? Here are five reasons this blog is still a part of my life and why I persevered.  

• I do not blog for financial gain. 
• I am passionate about genealogy. I like writing about my ancestors and writing posts that might help other researchers. 
• Blogging is a priority but is not always my top priority.  I try to post at least once weekly. However, if I just don't have the time OR if I cannot give my best effort, I don't post. There's always next week. 
• This blog allows me to share my research now and make it available to future researchers. 
• Blogging has proven to be extremely beneficial to my genealogical research. There are so many good reasons to blog about family history research. Read about this at Why I Blog About My Family History Research. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page, where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

.

Diana

© 2023 

Happy Birthday, unused postcard, no date; digital image held by D. B. Quinn, from the privately held collection of Marguerite Cook Clark (1913-1989), Waynesville, North Carolina, 2022. Photos and other items were accessed and scanned at the home of Marguerite Cook Clark's daughter in Alpine, Texas, on April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016.

MacEntee, Thomas.  "Blogger Summit Part 1 – Beginner to Reader to Blogger." Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport, Burbank, CA. 11 June 2011.

Pedro Okoro "Percentage of Blogs that Fail – Why 80% of Blogs Will FAIL this Year and How NOT to FAIL!" blog entry, 26 January 2023, AstuteCopyBlogging (https://www.astutecopyblogging.com/percentage-of-blogs-that-fail-why-80-percent-of-blogs-will-fail/: accessed 29 June 2023).