A story:
Spring of 2008 and we still lived in Texas. Dacey was newly three and AJ was probably six months or so. I wrote a little piece on the dangers in "getting caught up" on vaccinations, a post on which I closed comments. An email arrived in my inbox for a lovely lady named Rachel and we talked about vaccination concerns a little bit.
She had a brand new blog and I pretty much fell in love with Small Notebook from the start. Oh sure, I loved her informational articles like How to Make a Worm Compost Bin and Why We Rent Our Apartment. (Kyle and I have been married for over twelve years and have never been homeowners.) More than those (extremely helpful and well-written) articles, I loved the artistic views on every day life with a little one like Scene from my day and The Clothesline.
When Rachel published this sweet and simple drawing illustrating a passage of Scripture that was incredibly meaningful to us at that moment in our lives, I emailed her and asked if I might buy a print of it. She responded to my email with the image attached (for free).
A few months later, we left Texas and moved in with Kyle's parents while the details on our new adventure back home in Oklahoma were being worked out. A few of you remember that long drought. I didn't blog much that summer, nor did I do any blog reading. You can imagine my surprise when I finally did re-emerge into life online and found that Rachel's Small Notebook had exploded from just a handful of readers to over 1,000 in just a few months!
Girl had found her niche.
Through warm email correspondences, Rachel and I have grown a friendship, and I was thrilled to finally meet her and her precious little ones last spring. My girls wreaked havoc on her gorgeous abode (which seriously is every bit as calm and inviting as the pictures you see at Small Notebook), but Rachel was the picture of grace and ease. (That's us in the picture above! Rachel's the one with the gorgeous eyes and precious baby attached.)
The blogging universe has expanded exponentially since those days, yet through it all, Rachel has remained consistent in offering her readers simple, approachable, and thoughtful tips and insights into intentional living. Now over 13,000 readers subscribe to Small Notebook - a number that continues to climb.
And now through her e-book Simple Blogging, Rachel sheds light on how to live thoughtfully and intentionally all while beginning, growing, and maintaining a blog.
It's funny. You can blame some of my recent unpredictability and lack of consistent writing schedule on Simple Blogging. And I mean that in the best possible way. From the day I first perused an early draft she sent my way for feedback, I discovered I was finding my way back to my center.
For those who don't do the blogging thing, this might be hard to understand, but many can testify to the fact that trying to build a blog can suck the very life out of you. Even if you have been doing it for years - maybe especially if you have been at it for years. Simple Blogging was the CPR I needed. I read it, and I felt peace.
Simple Blogging is filled with tons of practical advice, and it's written in a way that allows you to know, "Hey. I can do that!" I loved her section on managing email, and she lays out a plan for aspects of blogging that took me years to learn on my own: growing an audience, cultivating comments, writing "linkable" posts. The heart of all of her blogging advice and guidance is figuring out a system to make the blogging process more simple for you.
Rachel also says some things you aren't going to find in any other book about blogging. Things like "I've never been to a blogging conference" and "A successful blog isn't the one with the highest number of subscribers, it's the one that reaches the audience you intended" and "Social media is optional." (Say what? Oh, yes.)
I'll let you read more about it over at the Simple Blogging page. I truly, highly recommend this book for anyone who is starting a blog, thinking of starting a blog, or even has been blogging for a while but has struggled with spending way way too much time on the computer and not enough time living life in 3-D. At $8, it's a great little investment in your hobby or growing business.
And this week, you can win one! I'm giving away one copy of Simple Blogging for a SortaCrunchy reader. And the giveaway entry process is oh so simple.
Just say something - anything - that has to do with blogging.
You could tell me if you blog or not, how long you have been blogging, what your biggest blogging frustration is, what your happiest blogging moment has been, when you started reading blogs, how many blogs you are subscribed to, what your favorite blogs are . . . Really. Anything blogging related will count as an entry!
Comments will close Friday, December 10th at midnight CST and a winner will be announced December 11th.
I look forward to hearing more from you on blogging, and I hope to hear from you soon with your thoughts on Simple Blogging!
