I’ve been blogging since 2004, running an anonymous blog on my own little patch of electronic real estate on this world wide web. So when I started getting interested in woodworking, it made sense to me to chronicle my ups and downs on my own website/blog. Thus Adventures in Woodworking was born.
And so I did what most good bloggers do when first starting out: I visited other blogs. That’s a good way to get your name and website out there and to make friends along the way. I had very few readers, so I posted sporadically. Then one day, I emailed Christopher Schwarz a link to a Roubo-style workbench I made with my son’s Lego set, and he posted it to his site. My stats went through the roof (compared to the 5 hits a day I was getting), so I started posting a little more regularly.
And then I joined LumberJocks.
I received 10 welcome messages within a day of joining. In my 11 blog entries posted here so far, I have gotten over 100 views on most of them, and no fewer than 4 comments on each one – not to mention personal messages within LumberJocks via email. I’m getting valuable feedback on how to be a better woodworker and am making friends at the same time.
Who needs a personal website? I’m now considering shutting Adventures in Woodworking down, since LumberJocks seems to be meeting all the needs I had when I started the site.
So job well done, guys!
-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com
9 comments so far
Tomcat1066
home | projects | blog
573 posts in 324 days
posted 297 days ago
Eric,
I don’t know that I’d shut down your main site. After all, Chris Schwarz has a couple of blogs as well. You could just post different content.
Personally, LJ is my only woodworking blog, so who am I to talk :D
-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!
forkboy
home | projects | blog
48 posts in 303 days
posted 297 days ago
With any kind of “niche” hobby it makes heaps of sense to put it all together into a single location, and when its done as well as LJ has been, it’s a guaranteed success.
-- Perth, Australia
rikkor
home | projects | blog
8345 posts in 402 days
posted 297 days ago
Don’t be too hasty to shut down your personal site. Link it over to here—as a recruiting tool!
-- Maplewood, MN
Scott Bryan
home | projects | blog
9724 posts in 350 days
posted 297 days ago
I agree. Keep the personal web site.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
Thos. Angle
home | projects | blog
3409 posts in 490 days
posted 297 days ago
I think I would keep the website for personal use. It’s getting harder and harder to be seen in all the activity here.(That’s not all that bad)
-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon
mot
home | projects | blog
4851 posts in 564 days
posted 297 days ago
Blog in both places. It increases the reach of your message. LJ is great, and Martin’s continuous updates to make the site better is also great, but throwing all your eggs in one basket has been a universal questionable tactic.
-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)
Red Headed Merganser
home | projects | blog
751 posts in 702 days
posted 297 days ago
“Lumberjocks, an AID to bloggers.”
-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/
Russel
home | projects | blog
1299 posts in 467 days
posted 297 days ago
It seems to me that your private blog is your presentation to the outside where your LJ blog is your presentation inside. From inside you get feedback and encouragement so that you can put your best foot forward on the outside. Keep them both, since you’ve got two different audiences.
-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.
scottb
home | projects | blog
3037 posts in 855 days
posted 297 days ago
Yeah, LJ makes it so easy to blog here – and guarantee like minded traffic, it’s hard for me to keep motivated to stay on top of the other one… granted I can always double post so friends and family can comment there, without needing to register here…
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/