Blogiversary!

It's true! Today marks the one year anniversary of the blog! Seriously! So let's take a moment and look back on my first blog post:

"After much waffling I've decided to start a blog dedicated to my science based craftiness. I'm pretty sure the first post is supposed to be all "mission statement"-y but since my ultimate goal is for this blog to be as awesome as I pretend it's going to be in my head the stakes are a little high. Let's just go for, "I really hope this doesn't turn into one of those unfortunate decisions I tend to make". Yes. Sounds lovely. Enjoy."

Hmm...I'm not sure I really stuck to purely science based crafty posts, but I am very pleased with how it has turned out and certainly do not think this blog was an unfortunate decision! I think this calls for a list!

Kate's Lessons in Blogging (based on my year of scientific culture blogging experience):

1) Scheduling blog posts is awesome. It lets you write when you feel like writing and takes the pressure off the whole "what will I blog about" thing.

2) Blog often and blog well. It's good to keep those readers happy with loads of updates but don't slack on content - crud posts won't get you anywhere.

3) Pictures are key! Just like with etsy selling, good pictures bump up your professionalism and make your blog more appealing.

4) Write for yourself, not your readers. If you focus on pleasing others too much you'll suck all the fun out of blogging! It's great to be share what projects you've been working on or what inspires you and if you write about the things that tickle your fancy your passion will show through. The internet is an enormous place so I try to not get caught up in how to stand out and instead try to offer the one thing that differentiates me from the rest of the world - me! There is only one kate mccurrach out there (at least I hope so...) so I try to let my personality (and gleaming wit) peek through my posts. Oh - and everyone loves a giveaway...

5) Positivity! No one wants to spend their precious minutes of the day reading angry rants and sob stories. Keep those for the diary. Blogs should be fun!

6) Join the blogging community! No better way to get meaningful comments and readership than to be a good blog reader yourself! I like to use social networking (aka twitter, google reader, facebook, etc) to meet new people and gain inspiration. It's awesome finding crafters who share loads of common interests (like pom poms and doilies!!!) and it's fun to get to look into their interests they write about too!

7) You can never overdo the exclamation marks!!!! Okay - you totally can. I just re-read the last few points on the list and thought it was funny how many I use...

Whew - what a rambler I am. Hopefully now that I'm reconnected to the internet (at long last - I was starting to get twitchy) I'll be able to whip up some blog gems to share with you (and maybe even another giveaway?) We'll see! Here's to another wonderful year of blogging!