❤️ Angelicscalliwags Homeschool ❤️
Welcome to Blogging my Heart #4. I’m thrilled to have you! Here are all my online endeavours for the past month.
Blogging. This month I pulled back from writing five posts per week to three posts per week. I will be going down again to two posts per week, due to time constraints. My blog stats haven’t grown much this month. In last month’s post I mentioned that they had gone up to just under 300 views a day. Over the past month there have been some days when I’m hitting closer to 400 (often the days when I write a post), but there are still some days when I am not reaching even the 300 mark. Overall, I think October’s monthly views will show an increase, which means month on month they have been increasing steadily since April of this year.
I have been busy updating some posts from 2012, but not as many as I would have liked. This coming month I’d like to try to update three each week. I have already noticed that updated posts are slowly getting more traffic than prior to updating. Whilst this increase is small, I think it is still worth my efforts to update past posts.
Another goal this month is to fully optimise my pages at the top of my blog (lessons, articles and so forth). I am learning that it is these pages which seem to be more important to google so it is here I will put some time and effort.
I am current doing a ‘Keyword Optimisation’ course, and I’m learning so much. I kind of want to kick myself for not looking into this years ago, but honestly, I was so busy homeschooling my five children that I did not have even a minute to learn any additional stuff. I’m still trying to get my head around a lot of it, so I’m not setting any specific goals this month.
YouTube. Oh. My. Goodness. Not to sound too dramatic (because you know I hate drama of any sort 😬), but I do not know how I am going to find the courage to post any videos I do.
So, over the last couple of weeks I have been filming. I thought my first video could be extolling the benefits of the unit study approach. Only, I couldn’t get past the ‘Hello, I’m Claire…and today I’m going to talk about Unit Studies’. I must have made ten plus videos of me just saying that line. They were getting worse, not better! Let’s just say, filming oneself talking (to oneself) is cringeworthy in the extreme.
Literally, no-one is going to want to watch a video of mine unless I can get myself looking less awkward.
One of the hardest things I find is that you have to look at the tiny square of the camera that is filming you, instead of looking at yourself on the screen. For starters, looking at yourself makes it a little more like real life – you are at least talking to somebody, even if that somebody is you and is talking back using the exact same words at the exact same time. However, what is being filmed is you talking and looking slightly off to the right. The person watching the film wouldn’t be blamed for thinking you were having a side conversation with someone not on screen.
Sigh. The best recording I had of me was when I was sticking a plaster next to where I should be looking. I drew a face on it and called him ‘Bob’, which I found hilarious, and of course that is far more my natural personality than a serious conversation about unit studies.
What’s a girl to do?!
Pinterest. Pinterest seems to be gradually taking off. I have 87 followers (which is nothing really, but is an increase of 23 on last month) but 206 000 views per month (a whopping 30 000 more than last month!). This is starting to show in the stats for my blog as there has been an average increase of almost 200 (from 581 to 761 last month) people sent to my blog via Pinterest. I have increased my posting to Pinterest from three posts per day to four. I may try to increase this to five this month.
FaceBook. I have a love/hate affair with FaceBook. This month I thought I would try to post more of my content to FaceBook to see if it made any different to my stats
First I tried to do this will TailWind, the app I use to schedule my Pinterest pins. I have found them to be brilliant with Pinterest posts and have had very little trouble. However, I have not been as successful using them for scheduling to FaceBook. They seem to post okay, but don’t leave a link.
I just happened to notice that FaceBook have their own scheduling tool, which also allows me to hashtag my posts 😊. I’ve never done that before, so it’s been an interesting learning experience.
These FaceBook scheduled posts have been going out seamlessly, two per day, and they have had a link attached! Yay FaceBook!
Just this small change has seen a significant increase in my FaceBook referrals, which are the highest they have been since the beginning of the year.
I think I will continue with this and maybe even increase my posts to three per day.
I occasionally post my blog to my personal FaceBook, but I very aware it may not be what my friends have signed up to see 😬. I shall probably continue to do this, but focus most attentions on my FaceBook page.
Creator Fast Track Course. This being unable to stand my face on screen creates another problem. Having whizzed through phase one of this course (which is meant to help you film, post, find followers and start earning on YouTube), phase two is going rather more slowly. At least, I went through the first few tasks easily enough. I even managed to decide on the contents of the first three videos and make notes and prepare to film.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I couldn’t get past the introductory sentence. The problem is that I can not move on until I have filmed those first three videos.
It worries me a little that I won’t be able to jump this (to me) enormous hurdle. I want to do this so badly, and these videos will make up a significant part of the Mesopotamian Unit Study I am creating right now.
This week is our half term, and I am going to attempt to film three videos of my hands making something Mesopotamia to see if I can come to terms with my hands being on video rather than my face (which I think might be unrealistic given my difficulties). You never know, next month’s post might have a link to three videos… of my hands…but we all have to start somewhere, right?
Mesopotamia Unit Study. This is the thing I have been pouring hours into over the last month. I have been watching as many videos and films as I can, listening to hours upon hours of archeological lectures and reading as many books as I can get my hands onto.
This week I am planning out the 25 chapters of the fiction book which will accompany my unit study. This is in preparation for NANOWRIMO next month, during which I plan to write as much of it as I can.
I’m both apprehensive and excited about doing this. I’m not sure I have the requisite skills but I am looking forward to finding out.
You can do it! :o) You have amazing talents! We have been following for SO many years (my homeschooling journey is complete with my kids in their early to mid 20’s) but we all loved learning along and springboarding from your ideas and projects. They were always a highlight of our homeschooling days. I still continue to follow along with you because I enjoy all your posts and your humor that comes across through your posts. You are amazing – keep going!!
Oh, thank you so much for the encouragement ❤️. I had to read your comment out to my husband! It made my day, thank you!
Very excited to hear about the Mesopotamian book! Story telling is such a huge help in education!
I wish I wasn’t on the other side of the Atlantic, I’d offer to come over and be your audience on screen. It would be lovely to spend the afternoon listening to you explain your material and ask questions. Perhaps there is some other homeschool mother in the area who could help you out, and then your youtube audience can eavesdrop on the conversation. I tried making youtube videos during the lockdown for some story telling I do and it was a mess. My deeepest sympathies and best wishes!!!
Hi Jenny 👋
I’m so sorry, I’ve just seen this, I’m not sure how I missed it! Thank you so much for your lovely words ❤️. I love the idea of you being my audience! It IS such a shame about the distance! And thank you for both your sympathies and your best wishes! I am certain I need both 🤣