Tag: writing

I’ve Forgotten My Positive Attitude Lately

Posted on by Miranda

It’s hard to be positive all the time. It really is.

I’ve been very ill for far too long and it’s taking a toll on everything. Luckily, I didn’t need a doctor to tell me the one thing I needed to do the most…stop eating dairy. I’ve experimented with it before and when it felt like I had snakes in my intestines that had been soaked in gasoline and set on fire to go with their squirming, I tried the one thing I should have tried first.

No cheese, no butter, no milk that isn’t lactose free, nothing. It’s showing in more ways than one. I’m not losing weight because I’m constantly being ill now, I’m losing weight because I overloaded on cheese and bread all the time. That’s a good thing, right?

I baked yesterday, no dairy anywhere, and ended up with a rather strange but totally edible apple and pecan pie sort of thing and a pork pie that was better than I thought it would be. Some cheese or sour cream on the pork pie would have been nice, but I’m coming to value not being ill over my cravings for cheese.

I am a writer. That means I’m sedentary more often than not. I do get up and walk around outside of the apartment, but I don’t go out into the world often at all anymore. It’s not just Covid I have to worry about, it’s getting pneumonia or the flu again. My poor little lungs can’t take anymore abuse.

And yes, today, my thoughts are still whirling around, but I feel calm.

I’ll be adding to my book today, poking at what I’ve already written, and maybe rearranging or adding to it. That’s what I do.

I can sit down and write a novel in two weeks, less if I push myself. A novel being 50,000 words according to Nanowrimo.

I like to sit and ponder over them though. When I first started writing, I was pushing myself to get out what I could, to establish myself, and all I saw were publishers and people with far more money than me taking the top spots. Some of that was down to book stuffing and other gimmicks, sure, but most of it was down to how much money you give to various advertisers.

I was working to support my loved ones, and trying to invest what I could into my own brand, but that wasn’t much. I finally decided this year that I’d write at least four books this year for myself and that would be it. Four.

If it took me all year to write them, that’s fine. If it took me longer, that was fine too. I also decided to work less. Not because I was rich but because it’s taking a toll on my health. I’m still not rich in money, but in health? I’m getting better. Things are improving. I think.

I forgot that idea about writing only four books and spending less time working for a while. Covid started, I was sick, and panic set in, though I did it quietly. That’s what I do when I’m emotionally drained, I go quiet.

I was overwhelmed, not sure of what direction to head in, and floundering. Yep, that was me, a big ole giant flounder just floating around, watching the world go by. It took me a few months to realize what a mess I’d knotted myself into, but I finally did. That’s when I started to look out at the world again.

Maybe it’s not so scary out there?

Well, it is.

Covid isn’t the only thing that can turn you into a hermit in this world, but I know how to deal with most of those things. And the things I can’t control? Well, I can’t control them, can I?

This time, I decided to come out of that quiet with a little more strength and with my positive attitude back on top. It’s not all hopeless and I can deal with life a little better now. I can get back to living again and focusing on the good things there are in life.

Let’s see what I can write today, shall we?

You can see a huge but ugly apple, or you can see one apple that can make an entire pie. It’s all perspective.

How To Write A Blog That Gets Page Views

Posted on by Miranda

That’s been a question I’ve typed into search engines a million times. Some other questions include:
1. What are the most popular blogs?

This one comes with lots of head scratching. Like the title question, it leaves a lot to be desired. You end up with thousands of pages on how to create a blog on a variety of blogging services, which ones are best, and which ones you should give money to. If you’re like me, that’s not what you want to know.

You also don’t want to know which celebrities have the most popular blogs, mainly because they’re all on Tik Tok or Instagram anyway, and you may not care about that particular celebrity. I’m not looking for any of that.

When I’m online, I’m either researching something for a project or looking for recipes. If it’s not either of those, you might find me researching my ancestors or reading about some obscure topic that nobody cares about. Which leads me to another question I’ve searched for.

2. What do people want to read about?

That’s a tough one because we don’t all have the same interests. We don’t all have the same passions. I don’t have one single passion that guides me through life so the results I get, which generally revolve around answers that are addressed to question one tend to infuriate me.

I have titled this post what I have because the question remains unanswered, mainly. I have no idea how to write a blog post that gets page views but I do know that the post should be engaging. But that’s a given and heads the top of every article I’ve read.

You see, I’m not a fussy woman, in most things. What to write about, however, stumps me. I could write about the art of writing, but the stories I write are from my imagination. I’m not writing about SEO tools or SEO analysis, I couldn’t tell you what any of that means or if it’s even relevant in post-Covid 19 world. Do people care about search engine optimization now? I kind of think a world left to do nothing but surf the internet probably does care about SEO now, but at the same time, it’s not my passion.

I also don’t want to join the ranks of thousands of others talking about how they’ve made 6-figures this year by doing this one single thing. Or sell tutorials of how to write the steamiest sex scenes you could ever conjure in your steamy, adventure-starved brain as you clothes the door on the real world of politics and, well, reality. Oh, and I haven’t made six figures this year, so that’s a non-starter anyway.

So, how do you write a blog that gets a lot of page views? Might I suggest things from what I’ve learned people are doing now that social-isolation is a global thing.

A. Anything to do with ancestry. It’s becoming popular to get your DNA taken and analyzed for ancestry registration. While people are trying to ignore their boss’s 10th email of the day or trying not to hear their kids having their 150th argument of the day, they’re looking up who they are, where they come from, and the people that came together to make them who they are. I have read quite a lot of blogs about my ancestors and perhaps you’d have an interesting ancestor or two?

B. Anything to do with pets. People have questions, so many questions! Especially about chickens, which I find odd, because I grew up with chickens, with a garden, turkeys, pigs, goats, and everything else.

C. Sewing and crocheting, although most of these seems to be moving to YouTube. I’m camera shy, so you’re not likely to find me hosting a video, unless I don’t actually appear in it. Maybe my hands?

D. Sports. Your team, your passion, your own experience, or lack of. People love it.

E. Politics. But this I mention only for the truly brave. It’s not an area I want to go into, because I’m just tired of arguing, avoid confrontation when I can, and have become a super-hermit. What’s a super-hermit? Someone like me that just wants to be left alone, for the most part, haha. I don’t want to discuss politics with people, but others do. Maybe create a blog where you can argue with people, if that’s your thing?

F. Vacation destinations, places you’re knowledgeable about, all sorts of things that have to do with travel. I’m from West Virginia and the one thing people all over the world know is a song by John Denver. There’s even versions of said song in different languages, and I’ve heard them all. Once people get finished singing those versus at me, they want to know about the area I come from. A lot don’t even know West Virginia exists. They think it’s part of Virginia, and some still insist on saying I’m from Virginia when I’m not. I’ve learned to go with it, though. Anyway, yeah, you’d be surprised what people want to know. Especially writers looking for knowledge about areas they can’t travel to right now. You’d be doing those writers a service!

G. Anything that isn’t in the top results when you ask any of the questions above. I think a lot of the times some of the results we get when we search a question is because people are trying to sell selling ideas. I look up top SEO results and get results on how to optimize SEO. Not what those results are, which tells me that simply writing about SEO is the top result. And if everyone is doing it, how are you going to get your result seen? It’ll be a tag, that’s for sure.

Overall, I think the top way to write a blog post that gets page views is to write about something you know, write it well, and then post it. This post, for example, will probably get very few page reads even with tags, because it’s not about Search Engine Optimization, about how to earn a 6-figure income from home or from writing, and it’s not about writing the same content that everyone else is. It is the start, I hope, to me exploring what I can write that might be of interest to others. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.