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Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

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We’ve come a long way in garden blogging

May 26, 2012 By Carol Michel 6 Comments

We’ve come a long way in garden blogging.

I remember the early days, when we were careful to not reveal too much information about ourselves. After all, who were our readers?  Who was really looking at our blogs?

Few of us posted pictures of ourselves, mentioned other family members by name, or even provided an email address.  If you wanted to get in touch with any of us, you had to leave a comment.

Times have changed.  

This past weekend 90 or so of us garden bloggers met up in Asheville, North Carolina for our fifth garden bloggers’ fling.  Some of us have been to all five flings and greet each other now as good friends who only get to see each other once or twice year. Others came for the first time or returned after missing a fling or two. It was a grand, good, gardeners gathering.  I give it four G’s out of four G’s possible in my rating scale of gardening events.

Yesterday, I attended a regional Garden Writers Association meeting at the Taltree Arboretum in Valparaiso, Indiana, and gave a talk on garden blogging.  One of the challenges I made to the group was to either start a garden blog in the next few days, and I would help promote it through my blog,  or if they already had a garden blog, do something to improve it in the next few days.

For my blog, I improved it by adding an “about me” page.

The keen observer will note that on my “about me” page, I have a last name that is like a botanical name.  It is not obvious how it is pronounced. Just like with  botanical names, some people will avoid saying it so they aren’t called out for mis-pronounciation. Or they will ask how it is pronounced before saying it. Or they will hear me say it and realize that they have been silently mis-pronouncing it and are sure glad they found out how it is pronounced before they attempted to say it out loud.

I like that.  It is just one more clue that I might be a gardening geek because even my last name is like a botanical name that is often mis-pronounced.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blogging

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karin / Southern Meadows says

    May 26, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    I love being a member of the garden geek club! I had to laugh when reading about your last name because I experienced the same thing with my maiden name. I think it is wonderful you embrace its uniqueness!

    Reply
  2. Janet, The Queen of Seaford says

    May 27, 2012 at 4:09 am

    Carol, HI, my name is Janet and I am a garden geek. hahahaha I appreciate how cloaked we were in the earlier years of blogging. It was like secret agents. I am glad to come into the light so to speak.
    Yes, the Fling = 4 G's!!
    As for my blog, I had an 'about me' page, but I added the location of my garden to better assist folks while reading my posts.

    Reply
  3. Pike Nurseries says

    May 28, 2012 at 5:30 am

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    Reply
  4. custom sheds says

    May 28, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. Denise says

    May 28, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    I've been thinking of improving my blog too, so accept the challenge — but doubt it can happen in the next few days. I've had this idea about a new header percolating which I hope to have the technical chops to deploy…

    Reply
  6. Gardening Tips says

    May 30, 2012 at 11:23 am

    What are the requirements to join regional Garden Writers Association? I am a keen writer of gardening related articles…

    Reply

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