Regular readers of Blog will remember I asked back in October what folks like to read here. I'm making an attempt to cut down on the various chores I do each day so that I'll have more stitching time. I asked for input and an amazing number of you revealed how you use Blog and what you think is important for me to keep. Thank you!
Blog itself breaks down into three areas:
Daily updates, which tend to be news from blogs, websites, and Facebook. That's the bulk of Blog postings these days. Folks suggested I cut back to 3 times a week instead of a daily posting. I may do that as blog news continues to dry up elsewhere but it doesn't save me time to do so. I still have to read all the postings and pick the ones that are worth repeating. That is what takes the time, not my creating links and brief descriptions. I am just going to try to be more discriminating. More and more things are published on Facebook only, which bothers me since some folks don't like or use social media, but there's nothing I can do about it except hope you non-FB folk can see at least some of the links.
Informational tabs, which list things such as Monthly Clubs, Classes and Events, new items from the latest trade show, etc. These are more reference material items. I'm going to stop updating the listings of classes and events. Although people use them, they are a lot of work to keep up to date. I'll leave the list of counted thread designers, list of tutorials, etc. alone for now. The bulk of the work is already done on these. I have combined the list of shops that service non-U.S. customers with the list of favorite shops already and will stop updating the Tutorials and Tips tab as folks rarely use it. I'll still keep a list of new items coming out as the shops who don't go to a trade show use these and regular stitchers also look at this a lot. It's some work to do but that is more manageable than other areas.
Blog-stitching is the most popular thing I do. Folks love watching me stitch things and listen to my explanations of what I've done and why. That's the most popular part of Blog, actually.
I hope to do more of this in 2016, since I've stopped doing models and writing custom stitch guides. I simply don't have the time with Real Life chores and the grind of constant deadlines is getting to me. I may do a model here and there, but I won't be stitching 4-6 a year any more. I will still do guides, but for canvases that I own, love and want to stitch. Many of those will be blog-stitched although folks who want all the information on how to reproduce what I did in one compact piece will be able to purchase a guide.
So, that's The Plan for 2016. I hope it frees up more time in my busy day to stitch. Happy New Year!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright October 26, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
