I have a new blog! Isn’t that exciting?
No. No it is not. There is, I fear, nothing new there.
When I started 23thorns.com, all the advice I could find said that I should pick a topic or theme and stick to it, so I decided to write about as many different things as I could.
Despite my attempts to do so, the bulk of my posts seem to have been about wildlife. I’ve decided to start a new blog full of old stuff. I am reposting all of my old wildlife and Lowveld posts, just to see how this whole focussed approach thing works out.
I’ll do a repost every couple of days until I catch up with myself, and from then on, I’ll post any wildlife stuff both here and there simultaneously.
If you are new to this blog, and are keen to see some of the earlier wildlife stuff, go and check it out. If you been here a while, as I said before, there is nothing new there. But go and check it out anyway. It’s making me sad. It’s been there since last week and only four people have looked at it. There are only two people following it and I happen to be one of them (I like to keep an eye on myself; I am not to be trusted).
23thorns 
I too was told to have a narrow focus, and I too ignored that advice. But I love your blog, so I’m sure the new approach will be winning as well.
There is something deeply satisfying about ignoring good advice…
This is the really annoying thing about blogs vs. books. You write something and it quickly gets “lost” in the archives. I will be sad when my latest post “Gardening in a Zombie Apocalypse” isn’t being read, and when you are writing a post a day that seems to happen so fast! I would happily read a 300 page book in a couple days but clicking through 300 archived posts isn’t going to happen. Reading a book vs. clicking and scrolling is so much more enjoyable. But of course, writing a blog is much simpler…A LOT less logistics involved! And instant gratification certainly has its place. Here’s to getting “discovered” so someone else will do those tedious publishing logistics for you!! haha
If only…
At long last my internet is allowing me to play. I also like your new blog. Let me know when you get that book published, I’ll buy a copy or two 😉
Are you copying Mrs 23thorns?
Always. It causes no end of problems when she orders badly in restaurants.
Don’t be sad. WordPress withholds gratification … somehow. I get “Likes” and even new Followers on days that the Stats graph says “no views.” Or it will grant me 1 visitor, then have 2 countries on the map. Not likely. So I tell myself there are dozens of people out there •loving• my stuff, but the stupid Stats algorithm is just being stingy. Also, I agree. I wouldn’t go to the new blog if the whole post were on 23 Thorns. BUT, I dig the wildlife posts, so a teaser would send me over in a heartbeat. Keep it up.
I am going to kick over to the teaser thing once I catch up with myself, but it will take a little while to get there. I don’t want to put out more than a post a day.
Ok so you have THIS blog & your started a new blog…but they are the same blog sort of & you have to keep an eye on yourself on the new blog ….
Then there is the new blog with only 3 people reading & you watching those 3 people reading it…..oh no, I am so confused..I have a headache…
Excuse me I have to go lie down now…
Sherri-Ellen
Me too! I don’t think I thought this through too well…
Ah setting up a potential blog war to argue with yourself. I like it.
Somebody has to take 23thorns down a peg or two. It may as well be me.
Yeah, I am with KokkieH. Learning about websites this year has taught me heaps about search engine ranking. Luckily, I don’t give a shite about it and write to assuage and calm my muses or they would send me to a mental asylum. As it has become more than obvious that both you and Mrs 23Thorns are attempting to do the blogging/web equivalent of the taking of Pelham 123, I was going to suggest a few SEO enhancing things for you to do aside from starting numerous blogs to up your viewing traffic. Google has cracked down on how it sifts through its material to come up with the “top goodies” that get shuffled to the top of the class like husks in a sifter. To put it more clearly…my blog has no husks. It contains nothing but heavy bulk material (3000 words per post…HEAVY) and it sinks like a stone in the morass of blog/website “flour”.
If you want your blog to rise to the top of the search engine ranking naturally, you have to work with Google Penguin and learn to obey the rules ;). At the end of the year we are going to put our newfound web savvy into the creation of our own WordPress.org site. At that stage we will use everything that we have learned to at least attempt to enhance how the search engine spiders see my crudely battered out keyboard thumping’s. Till then, my blog readers are stuck with me. They know where the “unfollow” button is! ;).
I’ve never really got my head around that SEO stuff. I’m actually trying to get the wildlife stuff together in one place so I can try to peddle it to someone as a book…
Why not make yourself that book first up and THEN peddle it? Easier to peddle something that is already together? Not hard these days with lots of publishers willing to take on small (in some cases even single copy) book runs?
https://www.lulu.com/s1/paperback_b/r/site?mid=~sem_ggl_lulu_publishing_au&s_kwcid=TC|1027418|self%20publishing||S|b|13185001461&gclid=CN2H-trXh7oCFcdYpQod0nEA_g
Check it out Mr 23Thorns, might be an option?
Once you catch up with yourself, I think you should put up new wildlife posts solely in your new wildlife blog. To put up new posts in two blogs will decrease potential traffic to your wildlife blog – having read a new post on 23thorns, why would anyone then go over to your new wildlife blog to read the same post a second time?
I would suggest that having set up a new blog to feature wildlife posts then that is where you should post them. I would then post a ‘teaser’ on 23thorns – the first paragraph, perhaps, or a few short sentences from the new wildlife post and a link which will direct readers to the wildlife blog to continue reading the rest of the post
Just a suggestion 😆
Best of luck, anyway, with the new blog!
It’s a good suggestion. Now I just need to catch up with myself so I can put it into practice.
I love the lowveld posts, and am looking forward to that day sometime in the next year or so when you catch up and we get new posts. In the meantime I followed your new blog based solely on the fact that you now have everyone feeling sorry for you. It’s a sympathy follow really. But I will take one for the 23 Thorns team. You are welcome!
I’ll take whatever I can get. I will carry on writing new stuff on 23thorns until I catch up.
I like both blogs!
Thank you.
I really love the picture of you and the kids watching the elephant!
It is kinda cool that there are still places where you can do that.
I’d recommend you reconsider: posting the same content on separate blogs can actually cause both of them to drop in the Google search rankings, which means fewer people will find your blog via search engines. If you want to have two blogs, make sure each contains mostly original content (unless search rankings don’t matter to you 😉 ).
Bugger.
Okay, 23…been over there, read and loved the first posts, all the way through the crazed crystal meth Blair Witch Project cameraman, laughed like crazy…but. No way to comment? Not even a LIKE button? *sniff* Don’t you care what we think any more? Probably not. Can’t say as I blame you…just missing a chance to chime in, is all.
And still woefully behind on my blog reading. Workin’ on it!! Yours is the first I’ve visited in weeks, I think, so obviously not working hard enough. But I’ll be back. You’ve been warned………..
Oops! I didn’t even realise. It’s been a while since I set up the first one…
Thanks for the heads up; I’ll try and sort it out right away.
Relatively new to 23thorns, and have found your writing to be incredibly witty and enjoyable… Plus, if I follow your new blog, I will make up 33% of your readership and thus have power to dictate some terms 🙂
Bear in mind that power corrupts. If you find yourself buying a shiny hat, it might be time to tone things down a little.