Blogging . . .

... for those who know nothing about blogging.

First I want to say the moon this morning was amazing! It was huge and I wish I would have gotten a picture.

Gavin says "Yeehaw" to the giant cowboy on top of the car dealership on our way to Grandma's house.... so cute.

And... Chris missed the trax today. I think sometimes the trains aren't quite as on schedule as it is on paper. I'm not sure how people ride front runner on a regular basis... maybe they get a discount or something because I really don't see how it could save money at all. I always thought people just didn't take public transportation very much because it takes so much longer to get anywhere but I think maybe I was wrong. Public transportation is too expensive.... not that anyone actually ever checks for tickets.

back to the original reason of this post....

Blogging for those who know nothing about blogging. 

I had someone ask me to talk to their church group about blogging.  It didn't end up working out but I still gathered some notes and I want to remember them in case something like this comes up again.

A lot of what I found when I was looking for info on starting a blog was more for starting a blog that you would get paid for... and a blog where you're trying to reach lots of people. Don't get me wrong I would love to get paid to blog but that's not why I have this blog.


Reading about starting blogs they are described as a way to share information, express yourself and connect with others who share your beliefs, passions, and interests.

In my case blogging is a great way to journal, motivate myself and I hope to motivate or inspire other people a little bit too. I post more pictures on my blog then on fb/instagram.  I know not everyone wants to see all of those pictures (not everyone thinks your kids are as cute as you do). I don’t want to clog up peoples news/insta feeds so often I’ll post them on my blog. If you don’t want to see them you don’t have to look. I love words too, but I love pictures and sometimes pictures say more than my words. 

I started blogging around the time Chris and I got engaged. I wanted to let our families know what we were up to. It’s funny that it was one of my objectives to share our happenings with family because most of my family couldn’t remember what our blog was when I started it and so it kind of evolved into more of a journal. My blog started out with a different name and used to be private. My family looks at my blog more now that it’s not private and since I post links to my blog on facebook.

-       

          I use my blog for….

• Journaling

•  Pictures

• Crafts

• Running

• Motivation

• Sharing my beliefs

-           There are many many different blogging sites

• http://wordpress.com/

• www.blogger.com (I use this...obviously)

-       Coming up with a name

•  You can name your blog anything

• Ex: Not Your Average Draudt... I thought I was awfully creative with my title since our last name sounds like drought (like there hasn't been rain/really dry) ha ha, Andrea is in Montana, Poppins Goes to France, Pink Pistachio, Keeping up with the Kitchen Mom …. Basically whatever floats your boat 

-       Layout

•    Use a pre-made layout from the website

•    Use a site like The Cutest blog on the block (http://thecutestblogontheblock.com/)

•   Create your own custom layout

-          Pictures

• Instagram , photoshop, picmonkey

• or don’t edit at all

-       You can share on FB, Twitter, Google +

-       You can post from your phone

• Download blogger app

-       Private vs. Public

• Private - Write whatever you want for a limited, by permission only, audience. 

• Public – Write what you love but be careful what you share because you never know who is reading your blog. You can reach more people and inspire more people if you blog is public. 

-       Blogging challenges (sometimes it's hard to think of what to write and these can help)

• http://storyofmylifetheblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/blogtember-september-blog-challenge.html

• http://www.juneathon.com/

•  + many more (I know I was more motivated to write and more consistent with my blogging after completing(ish) a challenge.)

 

I love reading other peoples blogs and I really enjoy keeping my own blog. I love keeping a record of my family happenings and I love being able to share things with other people. Most of the time I share only the good things and the things I want to remember and most of the time no one wants to remember those crappy days but trust me we definitely have them. I hope to keep this blog for a long time. I am so glad that I can go back and show my kids things about our family, places we've gone, things we've done and memories I have. 

If you are contemplating starting a blog you should do it. It's really a fun and easy way to start journaling. Good Luck and if you need any help I'd be happy to help if I can. I'm by no means a blogging expert :)

Of course I had to add some pictures :)