Hello, good evening, friends, after much soul-searching, I’ve decided to take a hiatus. This may turn into an indefinite one, I haven’t decided on how long it will be, but I have come to the conclusion that this may be my last and final post on here.
I give the main reasons below:
Stagnancy
I’ve become tapped out on any more ideas to further grow this site. I remember when I first got started on this blog in 2016 (that’s six years ago) I had so many art-related interests I had a hard time settling on just one, and at the time, I was advised by my coach (as well as other bloggers) to narrow it down.
I don’t want to bore you with all the details, but from 2016-20 I had a veritable menu of topics. I wrote about duct tape crafts, shoebox crafts, things to make with “stuff” like diskettes, Christmas lights, and all kinds of bric-a-brac. You’ll see it all if you go to the Wayback Machine and search my site from at least 3 years ago. I wonder if I wasn’t doing my (potential) audience a favor with having so many topics, as (from my perception) you may have come to the conclusion that I didn’t have expertise in one specialty, which is what I believed people who visit blogs are doing. I had a lot of “one-off” projects, but I thought that was not a good strategy . I wanted to change that, so I narrowed down my niche to just “one” specialty: First it was “recycled/repurposed crafts, then sculpting, then painting. Then painting in acrylics.
And yes, I may have been shooting in the dark with that, too. You may not have known what to expect from me from day to day, which I know didn’t bode well. Art is a highly nuanced niche that is tricky to draw an audience upon. There’s no such thing as “bad art” and “good art” in the same way that there is a “good” plumbing job (just an example…) I’ve seen other art bloggers do well, and I studied some of them to see what they were doing differently, but other than using more high-tech looking video filming equipment, I don’t think I was that different.
Which leads me to…
Lack of resources
I’m just a one-person show here and don’t have the resources to provide more visually engaging content. I’m also unfamiliar with what types of equipment, that I would need to make the experience of say, watching me paint something, more mentally stimulating. because, like I said, art is extremely nuanced.
In the case that I don’t close down this site entirely and move it in another direction, I’m thinking about adding articles about other topics. I still don’t know if that’s worth pursuing, as this is feeling more like the “sunk cost fallacy”. Just a thought. In my experience, it’s harder to get a new site off the ground because you are competing with older, more established sites that have earned more trust, backlinks, etc., and the saying “It’s better to till your own soil than scout for greener pastures” comes to mind. The SERPS favor seniority.
I have seen multi-topic blogs do well, of course they could have a much bigger social following than I have.
Niches and interests I have that would be worth pursuing
- Raising aquarium fish
- Gardening
- Cat related stuff
- Yard art
If you think you would enjoy any of my takes on one of these topics, let me know. Your feedback is appreciated.
So I will most likely be selling this website, either way I made up my mind that come it’s 7 year anniversary (July the 6th) it will no longer be my domain. Yep, I’ve got the seven-year-itch and can’t scratch it any longer.
You can find some of my older posts that I moved to the Blogger place, if you’re familiar with it, just look up “jennifercreatesit” (at) blogspot dot com. You can use the contact form under “Pages” in the footer if you want to get in touch about anything.
Til next time,thank you for your support!
