What went wrong?

 

As I woke up this morning, it suddenly struck me that today is the second last Monday of 2016!

The last 50 weeks have literally flown by.

Of course there were times when days seemed to crawl but as the year draws to a close, I feel it’s gone by all too fast.

It’s that time of year when the weather is cooler and everyone is feeling cheerier with the thought of year end festivities.

it is also that time of year when one looks back and reflects on what went wrong and what went right .

Looking back

 

Unfortunately despite the fact that my traffic has doubled and  my engagement increased, I still have not reached the dizzy heights that other bloggers have reached in the few years that they’ve been blogging.

I barely have 122 people following my blog!

What is going wrong?

My mistakes and how to avoid them

1 Chewing more than I could bite

There are numerous challenges posted throughout the year and I foolishly participated in several of them without really considering my time crunch. Juggling three babies, managing a household, travelling ,and entertaining makes blogging very difficult.

• In order to do justice to a challenge, one needs TIME. So the first thing I am going to keep in mind is not to accept a challenge unless I am sure I’m going to stick to it.

#2 Not looking before hitting publish

A major mistake I make is hitting the publish button in a rush. No sooner do I write something than I post it. This often leads to parts of the meme/theme/challenge left unexplored. Later on, when I re-visit the post, I find I can’t really understand what I meant by something. e.g. the context changes or the relevance changes; or sometimes I’ve referenced something that only I understand!

• So I am now only going to publish a post after I’ve read it and re-read it a couple of times making sure that everyone gets the point.

#3 Too many Gurus spoil the blog

In an effort to improve my blogging skills and largely to monetize my blogs, I’ve followed several Blog Gurus. But I find that I have not followed their instructions to the T. For instance if you have to write 31 days with  Darren Rowse, you should do that before joining Michelle on University of Blogging.

This mistake is closely related to #1 where I join several programs at once. Often times these programs have conflicting exercises so I easily abandon one for the other…….

• I should follow ONE guru at a time

#Diving into the deep blue sea of social media

Being inept at social media is a disadvantage in this digital world. Sadly, I leapt into the unknown when I publicised my blog automatically via WordPress.

Leaping into the world of social media without understanding how it works is as dangerous as jumping into the deep sea.

While Millenials may not be my target audience, they are the ones who are totally digitalised. Social media is attuned to their interests and effective use of social media so if I want a better Alexa ranking I have to master Social Media.

Last word

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Linking this post with #MondayMusings

Posts with the most footfalls

814 views Surprisingly, the post with the most views was my visit to Mumbai’s Flea Market. This is one fascinating warren of streets and back lanes in one of the most crowded parts of Mumbai. At one time, it was the whole sale meat market ( hence the name Mutton Street) that doubled up as a flea market on weekends. With a more regulated market for fresh provisions, this soon became the permanent home for the Flea Market or Chor Bazaar. Mumbaikars joke that if you find something missing at home, you will definitely find it in the Chor Bazaar or Thieves’ Market where new stuff sits cheek by jowl with the old. These days many of the antiques are reproductions (which the sellers will proudly tout as genuine fake madam) but you can get the occasional bargain if you look hard enough and know your antiques.

With many old buildings being razed to the ground, several architectural beauties like carved archways, door knobs, ornate cast iron grills and railings, seasoned Burma teak panels and exquisite porcelain tiles are found at this market and at Jogeshwari where there is more space to keep all the wares.

518 It would seem that my posts on shopping were the most popular with my recapitulation of the traditional shopping district scoring a close second. Extending beyond Chor Bazaar is  the higgeldy piggeldy mess of wholesale trade in the Island City of Mumbai. This place too is changing gradually with shiny brass and copper ware slowly giving way to the more pedestrian stainless steel and (sigh) all pervading plastic!

My favourite posts

However, during the last quarter of the year when I was visiting the US, I discovered the joys of two Apps – Ripl and Snapseed. These two allowed me to make quick posts with just a photograph or two.

Seeing the sunset at Carmel was not only a calming experience but the perfect end to a wonderful day. The sun smiled on me during my brief visit to San Francisco and I was lucky enough to enjoy the sites  and sounds in the company of family.