My regular readers may have noticed a few slight changes that have taken place here at Tea Party Girl the last few weeks. Since the beginning of July, I have written around 50,00 words, the most consistent writing I’ve ever attempted. This is because of a commitment I made to write an entry every weekday of around 500 words. The last few weeks, however, I have only published an average of three posts/week.
You may also have noticed I have not written any tea party specific posts since I wrote about children’s tea parties in the middle of November. Part of the reason for that is the 50,000 previous words I DID write about tea in all the categories listed in my sidebar. While I still have a number of tea party angles left to explore, I needed a slight break.
During this time, my heading changed. While I enjoyed installing the new graphic, I omitted for sake of room my byline, “Teaching You the Beautiful and Simple Afternoon Tea”. This omission meant I took time thinking about my blog’s focus, direction, depth and breadth. Hence some experimentation with broader-focused entries,writing instead about hosting others in our homes in general.
I wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the reasons for these minor changes. I admit, setting aside time to write consistently has proved very challenging, with personal pressures wanting to steal the time away any chance they could. And in the past few weeks as sickness, holidays, and home projects encroached on my writing time, I let them. This resulted in fewer posts after a season of such consistency.
I also reached a point in my Blog Mastermind program of real challenge. And I’ve been a little stuck. I know what I need to do, but it’s going to take some time, even more than I’ve been giving the blog up to this point. I can’t seem to figure out how to move the blog to a new level AND continue to write 2500 words/week. So I’m wrestling through those thoughts as well.
During this season I’ve been watching my stats. I’m very excited to say that Tea Party Girl is now on the first page of Google results for the term “tea party” and “tea parties”, which has resulted in a great deal more traffic. However, my RSS feed count has stayed completely the same. And while traffic is great, as a blogger, I want to work for you, my regular readers, not Google, over the long-haul.
That’s where you come in. I would love to hear from you. If you are a regular reader of TPG, would you leave a comment? Let me know if you’ve subscribed to TPG through RSS or email, why you return, and what you would like to see more of here? Any type of feedback is very welcome.
Many of you comment here regularly, and it is great to hear from readers! Thank you for each and every one. Have a wonderful weekend. And whatever your obligations or weather, I hope you and your tea corner meet up sometime in the midst of it.
Hi! Sorry I haven’t stopped by and commented recently. I was reading your post via my feed reader but you changed to shorter posts so now I have to come here now to read… which is a good thing. 🙂
I read your blog regularly and I don’t even drink tea! But I do have tea parties and I like your ideas.
I love your blog! It is inspiring and practical at the same time. Thank you dearly for your wisdom and for the courage to pass it on.
I look forward to this blog daily!
I read your blog almost daily. I have a list of blogs I liked saved in my favorites folder, I don’t get involved with RSS or anything.
I enjoy tea, and reading your blog for tips on how to take time for myself.
I have subscribed through email, and I look forward to every post you make. I enjoy reading what you have to say about a subject that you seem very knowledgeable about. I love tea parties. I love what they encompass, and I come here to hear your ideas.
You are an excellent writer. I also enjoy some of the links you have shared to other blogs.
Thank you for sharing so much of your time and talents.
I’m a regular reader. I subscribe through the google reader and I get it in my email too. I hope you will keep up this blog, I find it very informative. Thanks for providing your blog.
I read regularly, but I don’t subscribe to any blogs. I read somewhere that when reading other blogs it’s good to read them via your blogroll, so the author of the blog can see on their statcounter where you came from. I like to see that I have subscribers, but I also wish I knew who they were, so I make sure YOU know who I am.
I read through my link list…I prefer not to have everything coming through my email (because hey, visiting blogs is like visiting a friend – seeing thier house, and all that). I don’t comment much (because I don’t really fit the apparent demographic of parents/kid interests), but I do read, just to see what’s going on daily here.
Hi! Sorry I haven’t commented lately. I subscribe through e-mail so I have been reading most days but I’m visiting family so I’m spending less time on the computer lately. I love all of your tea party ideas and general hostessing ideas.
Last night I went to a ladies tea at my parents church and it was nice. Each table was decorated by a different person, they served yummy finger foods and various teas. We each brought a tea cup wrapped and at the end picked up a different package to bring home a different tea cup. When I am back home I’m going to invite some friends over for a little tea party.
Aside from being your friend – I like your Voice. A steady, cheerful reminder to take time to rest, to breathe deep, to pay attention with all our senses. To be mindful of what we’re about. Plus, you have great party ideas!
I like the subtle expansion of topics. And I also think blogging should be as much for YOU as for your readers. That’s what makes a blog a blog – it’s YOU we come to hear! So make it work for you.