Personal Website Check-In (6 Months Later)

About six months ago I refocused everything I was writing/publishing to my personal site CJChilvers.com, assuming this would be better for my readers and my writing. I also committed to writing something every weekday. I wrote about it the reasoning for daily blogging here and here.

I theorized that readers were more likely to visit and stick around on the writer's website, not the book's website. I bet that committing to writing daily would be like committing to a daily mental workout, but in public. The benefits could be increased audience size and loyalty, or better mental health, or both. It could also possibly do the opposite if I was wrong.

It was a gamble.

So, was I right? Did I make a horrible mistake abandoning the A Lesser Photographer blog? Is anyone still reading now that I've expanded beyond just photography? Did I kill my "personal brand"?

Apparently not.

A quick scan of the stats (which I almost never check) shows that since I started blogging every weekday, the page views on my personal site have increased to ten times what they were on the A Lesser Photographer blog.

I've received lots of notes of encouragement from my readers as well. This was unexpected and sooooo appreciated. It can be very scary burning your ships and focusing on a new strategy, based on a theory.

It hasn't all been perfect, though. The number of subscribers to my newsletter hasn't increased much. I need to concentrate more on the newsletter and offer better incentives to join. The newsletter is still my favorite way to publish, because email is the still the most effective form of communication online for reader engagement.

Even though I said above it was a gamble, it really wasn't. Win or lose in the audience stats, I knew this would benefit my writing. It was a success the minute I started, whether or not the numbers followed.

Lucky me. I got both.