Eighth Blogiversary

34 Replies

When I wrote the introduction to this blog eight years ago, I hoped I would last a year. I did not imagine I would still be doing this eight years later. Blogging does take quite a commitment with few rewards other than the opportunity to meet many like-minded people and the chance to let our creativity out into the world. Those are good things but they don’t put food on the table so I can understand why people quit. I, too, have quit other blogs I started.

My wife got me started in blogging a couple of weeks before I started Bad Cat Chris. She was the property manager at a large apartment community where a rooster appeared one day and decided to stay. Rose thought it would be good PR for the community if I would write a blog about it. I knew nothing about blogging so I thought the easiest thing to do would be to start a blog at Blogger.com, so I signed up for one and called it Romeo Rooster.

I discovered I liked blogging and decided to start another blog about Chris because he is such an unusual cat, but after doing some research I decided to use WordPress.com for this blog. Around the same time, I bought a recumbent bike so that I could ride to work two or three days a week on a bike that was more comfortable than a traditional bike. I decided to write about that experience too and started a blog called Newly Bent.

Tigger and Chris on my desk with a Newly Bent blog post on the computer screen which has a photo of Chris investigating my bike.

Romeo Rooster did not last a year. By April of the following year, Romeo had disappeared and the blog was over. Newly bent lasted longer. After more than a year I moved it to a self-hosted blog and called it Bent for Life. That lasted another few months but then we moved too far away from work to ride a bike so that blog ended too. I never did move Bad Cat Chris to a self-hosted site and it is still on WordPress.com. I have three other blogs that I have been doing for several years but all of them have been sporadic and I rarely post to any of them these days, although I do want to try to be better about that.

CharlesHuss.com is my personal blog that I use for random thought but I have not posted in over two months. Another blog, JustFurLaughs.com, is a blog where I post animal memes. It’s been two and a half months since I posted there. I don’t have a lot of followers on those blogs, probably for my lack of posts, but Just Fur Laughs Facebook page is doing very well. Those two are self-hosted but I have one more WordPress.com blog at CharlesHuss.wordpress.com. It is where I post some of my photographs. Again, I haven’t kept up with it very well.

So I know first hand that keeping up with a blog is not easy and I respect those who have not only been blogging for years but who also continue to write several times a week. In eight years, I have posted on this blog 1091 times. That is an average of just over 2.6 posts per week. I could do better with more effort but considering everything else that is going on in my life I think I am doing okay. Writing more will probably take the fun out of blogging and it will start feeling like a job.

I enjoy writing and photography and I enjoy conversing with other bloggers and animal lovers so I will probably continue to do this for as long as people are willing to read what I have to say. Hopefully, that will be a long time.

34 thoughts on “Eighth Blogiversary”

  3. onespoiledcat

    We love Bad Cat Chris – and if we (MOM!) had more time she’d visit the others – but at our age (MOM) it’s enough keeping up with a daily blog all about ME and Cat Scouts which is time consuming as well – plus staying in touch with her friends through social media and email. It gets to be too much like “WORK” and she retired years and years ago and that’s about leisure not sitting in a chair for hours at a keyboard. SOOOOOOOOOOOO all we’re saying really is that eight years with this blog is wonderful and we do hope you keep it up – we enjoy Bad Cat Chris and keeping up with your family and adventures. Congratulations!

    Hugs, Teddy and the Mom

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    1. Charles Huss Post author

      That is why I don’t keep up with my other blogs. I just don’t have time to be in front of the computer all day. I also don’t visit as often as I like.

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  4. claire93

    I didn’t realise you had so many blogs to your name ^^ Can’t even remember how I came across Bad Cat Chris, but I enjoy reading about cat-life in the Huss family as we have 3 félines of our own.
    I’ve also got several blogs to my name: one where I blog about crafting (mainly) and occasionally my animals & garden; second blog where it’s the same, but in French (I live in France and have a few French followers; and a third more recent blog about dolls – not many people share that fascination lol. I think as long as we enjoy blogging, then it really doesn’t matter how often we do it.

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  7. Catwoods

    Many concatulations on your 8th blogging anniversary! I’m glad you kept at it! I always enjoy reading your posts, hearing about Chris and the others. And, I always say, post at your own pace so you can relax and enjoy the work.

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  9. databbiesotrouttowne

    we R tryin ta say; happee annie fursarry two ewe doodz N dad two….we due knot rememburr how we finded yur blog but we iz glad we did… N we R glad we iz friendz. we haz N joyed de fotoz, de postz, N dadz humor….heerz two de next 80….we R sorree we mizzed de rooster blog ….
    KNOT 🙂 🙂 ♥♥

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  10. iamthesunking

    My bloggiversary is coming up, too! What is it about June that makes people think, “I must document the escapades of my unhinged cats”?

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  11. Summer

    Wow, congratulations on your blogoversary! I didn’t know you had all those other blogs. It is hard to keep up every day sometimes, although some weeks are better than others for us.

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  13. Dennis

    Happy Blogiversary! You had a lot of blogs. I wouldn’t be able to handle several blogs. But I always preferred to have everything under one umbrella. Niche blogging or caring about several blogs is not my thing. I feel like I can be much more focussed if I have one place where I present myself or all my interests. While this might have deterred a couple of readers in the past (for example because I stopped to post about certain things, or because I posted stuff they weren’t interested in), I still think I already would have given up if I would have adapted to what people demand from me. So, I personally think, they either need to accept me as I am, or they’re free to unsubscribe. This is the recipe that worked for me the most, and why I have been doing it for so long.

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    1. Charles Huss Post author

      I think Blogging is supposed to be fun so you should just do what makes you happy. I don’t care if you post things that don’t interest me. I usually just don’t read those posts.

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      1. Dennis

        So true. It’s an individual activity. Everyone needs to do it in a way they like it and it seems we found ours.

        Recently there is a new crowd of bloggers growing up, I question that even 2% of them will keep blogging for over a half-decade. Because they don’t do it for fun. In fact, some of the new blogs I followed last year, are already dead now.

        Enjoying the activity writing, sharing or blogging, in general, is the best recipe. But nowadays, I see on social media or in forums, that new bloggers only complain about numbers (traffic/users) and I think if that is the main concern, they’re not gonna get far. Ironically, all that comes from alone, with time, by just enjoying blogging. But hey, that means work and persistence is needed… something this entitled new crowd isn’t exactly known for lol.

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