Mary powered up her laptop computer; it had Linux Mint on it. She turned it on to look for security and feature updates.
One and a half minutes after, she logged into her WordPress account. “I am going to write a blog post today,” she said with a smile on her face.
Mary was one of those women who loved blogging. She could not care about the number of views her blog posts received, the number of followers she had or how many likes that her blog posts received. All Mary cared about was having as much fun with her blog while she was logged in.
Mary also knew that having a Linux Mint-powered laptop computer made her computing tasks easier and her computer never froze while she was writing a blog post.
The greedy RAM-eating Block Editor was no match for her laptop computer and she was able to type quickly without Grammarly lagging along.
Her husband, James, walked into the study room with two cups of tea in his hands; one for his wife, Mary, and one for himself. “What are you writing about today?” he asked while handing her the cup of tea.
Mary chuckled loudly and said, “10 reasons to stay away from Windows 11.”
James laughed and said, “That sounds as though it is going to be a huge hit on WordPress.” He kissed her on her soft, red-coloured lips and said, “I will leave you to write in peace, my love,” and he exited the room.
The Electronic Device That You Blog On Can Set The Mood
Yes, my friend, the electronic device that you blog on can set the mood.
And, why is that so?
Because if your laptop computer, desktop computer, tablet computer or smartphone has technical issues from the beginning, it is going to affect your mindset (You will be angry because your electronic device is not working well).
Besides, it is difficult to have a great time blogging if the electronic device that you blog on is malfunctioning.
When you switch on your electronic device to blog, you should be focused on blogging and not have your attention taken away by the horrible state that your electronic device is in.
Personal blogging will be fun if you blog using an electronic device that works well (And, that is the reason why Mary uses Linux on her laptop computer).
Having The Full Support Of Your Significant Other Helps
Do you know that there are husbands who believe that their wives are wasting precious time blogging?
Those husbands would prefer that their wives spend all of their time:
- Cleaning the house.
- Taking care of the children.
- Cooking food for the family.
- Doing the laundry.
- Ironing their work clothing that they are going to wear for the entire workweek.
Little do these husbands know, that their wives can do all of those things and still find the time for writing and publishing blog posts.
A Canadian friend of mine used to publish makeup tutorials on her blog (Her husband was not pleased when he found out).
There was a bit of proverbial tug of war taking place between her and her husband in the beginning.
He eventually saw things her way and bought her a domain to house her blog on.
A wife is not going to feel one hundred percent comfortable blogging when she knows in the back of her mind, that her husband disapproves of such actions.
Therefore, she can and will have fun with her personal blog when she has the full support of her husband (Much in the same way, that Mary had the full support of her husband, James).
It Is Impossible To Have Fun With Your Personal Blog If You Are Deeply Worried About What Other People Think Of You
The sad truth is that there are personal bloggers who are deeply worried about how people will perceive their blog posts (As a result of their fear, they post very little or nothing at all on their blogs).
If you are one of those bloggers who are always worried about what other people think of you, my article, Stop Worrying About What Other Bloggers Think Of You, will emancipate you from that unproductive mindset.
Dear friend, it is your personal blog (Which gives you the right to publish the things that are of importance to you on it).
Therefore, you should not be overly concerned about what other people think of you and your blog posts.
Besides, it is impossible to have fun with your personal blog when you are overly concerned about what other people think of you and your blog posts.
There Is No Need For You To Overcomplicate Things
There is a small percentage of personal bloggers who overcomplicate things by:
- Worrying about SEO.
- Worrying about using the right WordPress plugins.
- Worrying about knowing the best time to publish their blog posts.
Personal blogging used to be simple in the good old days.
Today, people are going through a lot of trouble to make sure that their personal blogs are so-called perfect.
For the record, you are free to worry about SEO if you want to, but it takes the fun away from personal blogging.
However, if you are hell-bent on implementing SEO techniques on your personal blog, I recommend reading Phoebe’s article, 7 Useful Tips to Optimize WordPress SEO without Plugins.
If you are a blogger on the free WordPress.com plan, you will not have access to plugins (You will have to upgrade your WordPress.com plan in order to gain access to plugins).
Those personal bloggers that use the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) will have full access to plugins from day one.
Worrying about the best time to publish blog posts is a bit useless because people read blog posts at a time that is most convenient for them.
Dear friend, you are guaranteed to have fun with your personal blog by keeping things simple.
Stop Being Overly Concerned About Views, Followers And Likes
Many personal bloggers have been mesmerized by views, followers and likes.
Do you remember Mary from the introduction of this blog post?
Of course, you do!
Mary was not caught up with views, followers and likes. All she was concerned about was having fun while she was logged in to her WordPress account.
Guess what? You can do the same.
The truth is that the number of incoming views to your blog will fluctuate (It will be low at times and high at other times).
In regards to followers, there will be a bunch of people who will follow your blog and the same thing applies to people unfollowing your blog.
And, likes can mean nothing; such as in the case of people pressing the Like button without ever reading your blog posts.
In most instances, personal bloggers waste a lot of their mental energy worrying about useless things or things that they have no control over.
The Bottom Line
Personal bloggers can make blogging fun by:
- Seeing to it that the electronic device that they use for blogging purposes work well.
- Having the full support of their significant other.
- Refusing to be deeply worried about what other people think of their blog.
- Keeping things as simple as they can be.
- Not being overly concerned about views, followers and likes.
Dear friend, you must never forget that personal blogging is supposed to be fun (So, do the things that make personal blogging a fun-filled activity and refuse to do the things that steal the fun away from personal blogging).
I agree with your thoughts, Renard. I still can’t use the Like button, no idea why.
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π€ Thank you for sharing that with me, John.
Have you contacted the Happiness Engineers and told them that you are unable to use the “Like” button?
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Yes, I did that yesterday, they have no idea what the deal is! I am getting very frustrated to the point of putting this blog aside for a while.
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π€ No, that is a bad idea. There are people who look out for your daily blog post.
Give WordPress some time to figure out what went wrong.
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That’s also my approach, Renard. Patience, they do have some responsibility here somehow. And thank you! I do enjoy chatting with my friends here!
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I lately have that, too. It’s frustrating and time-consuming.
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Very frustrating!!! π
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I love this post and it was resonated with me. I’m so lucky my partner is so supportive of my writing career. I don’t worry too much about views either lol.
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*it resonated
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π Thank you for sharing that with me.
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Inspiring!
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π Thank you!
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The device thing is real. When my computer is lagging and freezing I get so mad I could throw it across the room! Physical pain and/or illness can make blogging not fun either, if you’re uncomfortable and can’t focus on what you’re doing.
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“lagging and freezing”
Due to your own fault (lack of maintenance, using Windows) or caused by a bad ISP?
In the first case you can do something, for example by installing Linux Mint or get a new computer. Often the old housewives trick helps: Just clean the innards of your machine! Get rid of dust devils and pet hairs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T54GsfgmIXE
Or did you crud up your hard drive with junk, noty grrrl? Get rid of the useless bloat- and spyware. Your PC phoning home without you noticing it? STOP THAT with an easy jump to Linux Mint!
https://linuxmint.com/
In the second case you can’t do much. Maybe ask the ISP if they have a faster connection you can sign up to.
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Hi Orca. I think it’s simply the natural life cycle of an aging Windows laptop. I’m just so used to Windows–I can focus on my task and not how I’m doing it. Not that I’m not capable of learning a new system, so who knows what the future will be. Thanks for all the info though.
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“natural life cycle of an aging Windows laptop”
No thing like that, Hetty!
It’s an electronic device a simple thing, a very simple thing. 1 and 0, On/Off is all it knows. A computer isn’t subject to biological aging. If your lappy is slower now than it was on its first day in your service it’s caused by either bad maintenance, careless operation, malware, viruses, and/or more complicated software it wasn’t build for in the fist place.
Windows 11 is the best example for that. Microsoft themselves are stating that only the latest and bestest PCs can run this OS. Depending on the age of our laptop you can make it a functioning and useful member of the computing world again by a simple swap of Windows for Linux.
Agency, Hetty, agency!
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I’m not cruel to it i swear.
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π Yes, those things do happen.
Thank you for participating in the discussion.
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“those things do happen.”
No, they don’t!
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π€¨ As a matter of fact, they do happen. My comment was a response to Hetty’s, “Physical pain and/or illness can make blogging not fun either, if youβre uncomfortable and canβt focus on what youβre doing.”
Hetty is correct in that regard.
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I have actually done that! My thought process:
* The computer exists to do what I tell it to do.
* If the computer doesn’t do what I tell it to, then it has no reason to exist.
That was the last Windows computer I ever had.
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I definitely see the logic on that. But I like to get every penny’s worth out of my devices!
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Blogging is very fun! These are good examples of that.
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π Thank you, my friend.
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Great post! But upon reading, I knew I screwed up. I meant to sign up with the .org, not the .com of wordpress…. Luckily, I’m still on the free version and haven’t committed any money yet. Hopefully it’s not difficult to transfer everything.
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π WordPress.com (the WordPress-hosted version of WordPress) has both free and paid plans. Whereas, WordPress.org (the self-hosted version of WordPress) requires signing up with a web hosting provider like Bluehost, etcetera (There are quite a lot of web hosting providers to choose from).
Thank you for reading and commenting.
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I love Mary! I know she don’t give a dam about it but she’s a blogger I’d love to read.
Renard, did you model her after me? π Awwww. π
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π€ Come to think of it, Mary and yourself do have similar qualities. Now, that is an interesting coincidence.
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βOur writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughtsβ ~ F. Nietzsche
βSometime in 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriterβa Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, to be precise. His vision was failing, and keeping his eyes focused on a page had become exhausting and painful, often bringing on crushing headaches. He had been forced to curtail his writing, and he feared that he would soon have to give it up. The typewriter rescued him, at least for a time. Once he had mastered touch-typing, he was able to write with his eyes closed, using only the tips of his fingers. Words could once again flow from his mind to the page.
But the machine had a subtler effect on his work. One of Nietzscheβs friends, a composer, noticed a change in the style of his writing. His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic. βPerhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom,β the friend wrote in a letter, noting that, in his own work, his ββthoughtsβ in music and language often depend on the quality of pen and paper.β
βYou are right,β Nietzsche replied, βour writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.β Under the sway of the machine, writes the German media scholar Friedrich A. Kittler , Nietzscheβs prose βchanged from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.β β
β from βIs Google Making Us Stupid?β in the Atlantic
https://darastrata.com/2010/07/31/our-writing-equipment-takes-part-in-the-forming-of-our-thoughts/
And itβs true, innit? We already replace the formulating of complex feelings with smileys. And while the smiley arsenal is growing steadily our own vocabulary is shrinking. π¦
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π Thank you for sharing that with me, Orca.
In regards to emojis, I only use them in the comments thread; you will never find them in the body of my articles.
Also, my vocabulary has not shrunk.
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“people pressing the Like button without ever reading your blog posts.”
I always press the Like button. Not necessarily coz I agree 100% with the post but more as a sign like “Killjoy was here!”, to show the post has been noted and was read. If I have anything to say about a post I do so in the comments.
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π Case noted.
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The ‘like’ button seems to be temperamental lately. I’ve seen other complaints about it and perhaps, a WordPress glitch. My hubby is very supportive of my blogging and since we are retired we share the household chores, which means I have plenty of time for my blogging. The device I use and where I blog have everything to do with my productivity. Yes, I have Win 11 but my laptop moves along quite well with no glitches. I agree blogging should be fun and not stressful.
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π Thank you for sharing that with me, Eugenia.
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You’re welcome, Renard.
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Good tips here Renard.
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π Thank you, Sadje.
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Youβre welcome! Iβve noticed that youβve changed your posting schedule?
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π Yes, only for the month of August.
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Cool.
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I just realized I don’t think my SO knows about my blog! I’m sure they would be supportive of me blogging but maybe not a fan of when I mention them so I think I will just keep up the omission.
Also I cracked up at your “Mary also knew that having a Linux Mint-powered laptop computer made her computing tasks easier and her computer never froze while she was writing a blog post.” Very clever and humorous way to push your Linux agenda xD
Also I really liked your last point to not be overly concerned about views, followers and likes. I think this can apply to other hobbies as well if you translate it to you don’t have to be “good” at something to enjoy it. For example, I like running and I will do races but by no means am I anywhere close to fast and I just don’t care because I have fun!
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π Thank you for your valuable input.
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Completely agree! I am having fun here, although Iβve been trying to get more people to follow my blog so as to get more views, it does not matter so much to me as long as my thoughts will always be here for everyone to see at anytime.
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π Thank you for sharing that with me, Abigail.
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Ha! I just want to see my husband make even a week “meow” about my blogging! Then who is going to make delicious food I am blogging about? He is the first one running to the rescue when my electronics go on strike.
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π You have him wrapped around your finger, Dolly.
Also, your food is to die for.
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LOL, you should’ve started with the second statement, darling! π»
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I absolutely agree with your thought! Wonder ful.
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π Thank you, Ayush.
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I don’t do anything bad to it besides writing documents, surfing internet, and playing Morrowind.
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That was for Orca..
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Topic on point, exactly what we tend to forget yet exactly what we are meant to remember π
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π Thank you for sharing your perspective.
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Amazing advice as always my friend! I rarely check out my followers or likes, my computer is a piece of crap but hopefully I can upgrade sometime soon, and I definitely have the support of my husband who reads my blogs from time to time and gives me space alone to write π₯°. Wonderful post! So true
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π Thank you for sharing that with me, LaShelle.
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Encouraging
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π Indeed!
Thank you for reading and commenting.
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π€
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This was the article I needed today. Thank you!
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π You are welcome, Preston.
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Good tips here Renard. The reason I ventured into blogging was to write with passion without being fixated on getting tons of likes and followersπ
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π Thank you, Mthobisi.
Your approach to blogging is a wise one.
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Very much agree with this Renard, and it is something I try to bring to my practice every day. Thanks for checking out the blog, my dude, and have a stellar week! π
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π You are most welcome, Kyle.
Do enjoy the rest of your day!
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Good day Mr. Renard. Thank you for this.
I currently started my blog and so far, I’ve uploaded only one.
I was wondering if you could check it out and give feedback π.
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π€ It is a most interesting piece on the Metaverse.
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Thank you very much for reading π.
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π You are welcome, Dennis.
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