Have you noticed I don’t post on my blog at 1Glories all that often any longer? Here’s why: it became a distraction. If you’ve ever blogged and tried to do so, you know that chasing visits, clicks, optimizing for search and such is exhausting! The blogger has to have at least one image that renders well across social media platforms, adhere to constantly changing search engine best practices in an effort to get people to the site, consider keywords, tags, sentence structure, use of transition words and active voice—oh, and don’t forget about keeping up with most recent CMS and plugin software updates to make sure you get all the newest features and that your site is free from hackers and other riffraff! Run on sentences are bad too.

You Don't Need No Stinking Platform

Here’s the deal, my friends; I am done blogging to build a platform. In fact, I have been done. It took me a long time to come to this conclusion, but the reality is, in the course of “building your author platform” as a blogger and social media account keeper, you’re taking away the time, energy, and passion that’s required for doing what you love—writing! Isn’t that the whole reason you started a blog and building your platform in the first place? It wasn’t to create courses, monetize your site, and the host of other distractions that crop up. Writing and sharing your writing with others is the goal. Not becoming an influencer or getting your first 1,000 subscribers. Writing.

Get Back to Chasing Your Dreams; Not Clicks n Visits

In 2007, I got the great joy to realize my lifelong dream of publishing a book. Even better, it encompassed my passion for baseball and community. And better yet, it set me onto a path of learning that historical research and teaching are things I love, and if I can be so bold to say, I am pretty good at doing. To that end, I am deep into some historical research dating back 100+ years and involving my community. I have an ambitious new project laid out and will continue to flesh out the narrative. Look for my first entry into historical fiction at some point in the relatively near future. I’ll continue to be an advocate for FoodThrifting, and 1Glories will continue to be my business entity. But from a blog post perspective, not so much. Been there. Done that. Time to get back to work—as a writer.