Making It Up

as we go along

links

Around the blogosphere – what I'm reading this week.

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Starting with a very personal and thought provoking post on parenting from Alice Langley on her new Project Wanderlust blog – through their eyes as well as this, also on parenting and positive attitudes from TigerlillyQuinn “I want them to be able to look back and know just how thankful I was everyday to be their mum and to live this life.”

A long term blogging friend who I first ‘knew’ online as a home educator has stopped blogging, but it’s not completely the end. Here she sets out her vision for Blogging 3.0. Lots to think about there. Would you pay to read a blog? I set up flattr once upon a time but I don’t think it really took off, I do know of other bloggers with tip jars or donate buttons. Another alternative is Patreon which is something I’ve considered setting up.

I gather art inspiration mainly over on pinterest, but thought I’d pop this post from Tiny Owl publishing in as it’s too good to miss. How would you colour the world? It’s worth exploring the rest of the blog if you are interested in broadening your children’s horizons in picture books.

Jim has pushed his anxiety down and written about negative reviews, criticism and diversity. Primarily aimed at book bloggers, I think there are wider points to consider in what he’s saying.

And finally, is all new tech good for bloggers? Geekmummy is stepping back from Periscope and here she explains why.

Do you remember linking?

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web. Not the right kind of web, but it's prettyLast week when I wrote the period post, it went a tiny bit viral. Not very viral, but quite big for me, in that I was getting traffic from all sorts of odd places for three days after I wrote the post. That usually only happens when I review books on autism.

I am a stats nerd. Or geek. Or just plain obsessive if we’re being honest. And I was interested to see that I got a few referrals from sites on dreamwidth.org which is a kind of livejournal clone. When I chased them up, I found that the post had been included in a couple of reading list posts, which then seem to be kind of communal.

Struck me that that is something you just don’t see all that often in blogging any more. Linking just for the sake of linking, not to boost your profile, earn brownie points, drive up your domain authority, but because you’ve read a good post, and you think other people might enjoy it.

With that in mind, I’d like to share a couple of articles I’ve been reading. I quite often link drop on my facebook page, although I’m aware that with the facebook algorithm in play, I’m lucky if 20 people see a post on there, despite it having 690 followers these days.

This post from Sandy Calico resonated. Silenced. In our drive to be the best, we’re forgetting the community that blogging can give us. Visit, comment, link, read for the sake of those activities and the people behind the words, not for the value of the return traffic.

Learning to draw, I loved Creating characters, the birth of Horace and Hattie and Clara Vulliamy – drawing anthropomorphic animals

I went to YALC with Anne-Marie. She wrote it up. I didn’t.

And I’m rooting for Sara from me and orla, as she takes the leap into self employment. While admiring her pictures massively.

I do try to share posts I’ve enjoyed when I enjoy them. As well as the various networks in the top of the sidebar, I’m on stumbleupon and pinterest which will not verify my site for love nor money. (Well, I haven’t offered them money. Perhaps that’s what they’re waiting for?)

I guess what I’m trying to say in a roundabout way here, is that the internet is a network. A web. And it grows stronger and easier to traverse the more links we make on it. So bloggers particularly, stick some more links in your posts, and build a community on your *social* networks. In the long run, it will pay off on both a personal and a professional level.