My 6 Month Blogging Update. Oh My!

At the point of my writing this post, I am still a relatively new Christian blogger, having been at this for just under 6 months. The first month was a whirlwind of trying to understand the technical side of website creation, navigation, and design… all of which I had never done before, and still don’t consider myself to be proficient at, but I’m leaps and bounds ahead of where I was 6 months ago. I actually published my blog for the world to see just under 5 months ago. You can read my other updates here, here, and here.

So, here I am at this nearly 6 month point, and feeling a bit… well, lost.

Oh, yes, I now understand some of the basics, and I have a fair enough amount of content on my blog. I’ve been satisfyingly successful in my stats, by my criteria, which is not necessarily what others might consider successful, especially in bigger niches. I am also satisfied with the overall look of my blog, (although I am always prone to tweaking things!) even though I have chosen to go against the grain and have a more colorful blog background than most blogs I see. What I guess I’m saying is that I have come to understand more and more of the “process” of blogging. This is not to say that I don’t have much room to grow in these areas, (I definitely do!) but that I feel like I’m doing ok for the 6 month anniversary looming in front of me.

I hear that a lot of bloggers never make it past this point and most new bloggers quit before they reach the 6 month point. Even when the going gets tough, I am determined that I will not be one of those bloggers that fall by the wayside! I really do enjoy this thing called blogging! But, truth be told, I don’t know that I expected it to be this all-consuming!

I wasn’t naive enough to believe that it would be a piece of cake or anything, but I did think blogging would gain more momentum of its own by this time. It has more than at the beginning, but for me, it still takes constant daily work or I see my stats drop. I also thought that by this stage I’d feel more adequate about balancing all the different aspects of blogging, but that is still a constant struggle for me. All in all, one of the biggest things I’ve learned to date is that…

Blogging is hard!

I don’t mean that its harder than many other endeavors in life, or other types of work, but in its own right, its a lot different than I expected.

Fulfilling, challenging, time-consuming, mentally taxing, rewarding, humbling, overwhelming, Spiritually strengthening… these are words I would use to describe this thing called blogging. Is it worth it? OH Yes!

If you are a new blogger, just starting out, or a blogger about like me, in your first year, or even a more experienced blogger needing a boost of purpose, I want to encourage you to stay the course! Keep on keeping on! All things worth doing are hard and challenging, but that’s one of the reasons they are so worth doing! They stretch us. They grow us. They help us to be more than we thought we could be.

I know I have a long way to go before I can say I am a seasoned and knowledgeable blogger, but I have a vision of getting to that point some day. And, without vision, the people perish, the Bible says in Proverbs 29:18. My personal vision, that I believe is God-given, is that my blog will reach and encourage others who want to walk with God in friendship and unity like Enoch did in the Bible, all the way Home to Heaven. I want to help believers and seekers understand that God wants a deep and powerful relationship with us, His children, on a daily basis! That He cherishes time spent with us, and longs for our fellowship and friendship, as BFF’s so to speak. My secondary goal in blogging is that I want to provide lessons, ideas and resources for Children’s Ministry workers, and also parents and grandparents to use with their own children. These are the 2 side-by-side goals of my Shadowing Enoch website and blog. I think they fit hand in hand together, especially for families.

So, why do I feel lost? Well, just because I feel like Ok, now I’ve got some of the basics down in blogging, but how do I take the next step from newbie blogger to more experienced blogger. Good blogging is always about growing to the next step. Or, actually figuring out what the next step is to take. That is where I am right now. Just a pause, a deep-breath, a looking around for a moment, and then deciding how do I get to the next step in my blogging journey.

For me, I know I need to begin to add more resources. So, that is one of the next pages I will be developing on my blog. Over the next couple months, that is what I plan to be working on. Along with more encouraging content, and children’s Bible lessons, and balancing social media… and all the rest of the things a blogger has to do everyday!

I currently have affiliate marketing on my page that links to companies & resources I believe will help you grow in your faith walk with Jesus, but I also need to figure out how to make that more relevant to you personally, fine-tuning that aspect and finding specific options for tools to help grow your faith and walk with Jesus. Most of my affiliates are Faith-based, and the others are tools I have used in my own blog and would recommend. (and Yes, if you click through one of those links, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you 🙂 ) I do believe in those companies, and they are part of my current resources for growing families of Faith.

If you are reading this somewhat current to when it was written, than this is like my goal statement for the next 3-6 months for Shadowing Enoch. If you are reading this past the year anniversary of my blog, (I started mid-July 2017) than my accountability is showing! Have I reached my goals?! I plan to. And I plan to still be here blogging for years to come, God willing, or until Jesus comes and takes me home. That is the biggest accountability statement of all!

Some bloggers have a real affinity for all things blog related and have already reached higher levels of blogging at this point than I have, but others are still striving for the levels I have reached. We are all different, and even in the Faith Based Christian niches, you will find a wide gamut of styles and levels of ability. That is really the beauty of it all! There are many Christian bloggers, and they each reach the audience that God has intended for them to reach. I’m sure that is true of other niches of blogging too.

If you are a new, or not-so-new, blogger, be encouraged that its God’s Word that doesn’t return void, and your style of blogging is intended for whomever God intends for it to minister too. Just continue being faithful to Him, and to what He has called you to do, and be a voice for Him in your own way. He is the one who will bring the increase as He sees fit. And the best increase, of course, is the eternal one!