Genealogy resolutions for 2017

I wish you all a happy new year! A new year with new possibilities.

2016 became an exciting year as I converted my genealogy website to a blog. I first started to work on my website about 20 years ago.  I didn’t have that many visitors and I readily admit that slowly my inspiration dwindled. In the fall 2015 I tried to revive the website, but I found myself spending more time on technical issues that on actually writing. That’s when I converted the website into a blog run on the WordPress concept. Thanks to social media I have now had a large number of visitors and my subscriber list has grown steadily. Also putting just a little bit of though into search engine optimization brings in a steady stream of hits from searches.

So how do I look at 2017 when it comes to genealogy and blogging?

This is what I will not do:

• I am going to ignore the naysayers that always pops up when you stick your head out. Fortunately there haven’t been many.
• I am not going to worry about those who complains about the fact that I have some advertisements showing on my blog. This blog is a labor of love.  My only goal is to hopefully cover the server rent/domain fee etc. Blogging about Norwegian genealogy with ads from Google is not the way to go if you want to strike it rich 🙂 . 
• I am not going to worry that much if my inspiration is down or time is limited and I don’t publish new material in a while. Family, taking care of our home and work has to come first among my priorities. I am sure you will stick with me if I don’t publish new material in a little while.

This is what I will do:

• I will spend more time with my own genealogy. I have a lot of things that needs to be corrected and sources to be added. I am also going to continue helping others with their genealogy. When I do genealogy I come across problems and questions that makes me read up, think through and learn new things. Eventually these experiences can be the basis for an article here on the blog.
• I would like to make the blog more communal. I need to look at the way I write things to make sure I don’t come across as some kind of “Mr-know-it-all” God knows I am not, and it would be interesting to try to get some more discussions going. I write from my point of view based on my experiences and knowledge. It is always valuable to get other views on a topic. I also hope that people are not afraid to ask questions. I find it hard to believe that each topic I write about is that well written and explained that there is no questions popping up in your mind. In my view the only stupid questions are those that never gets asked.
• I would like to bring in other writers. I am not in the position where I can afford to pay for material. Fortunately I have some friends that have written some articles for me. I am truly thankfull to them. I will have to address this “guest blogging” question and try to attract others who might want to share their experiences.
• Above all else I want to have fun! History is fun. Genealogy is fun. Blogging is fun. The fun with blogging comes from the fact that I get in contact with so many great people. In the last year I have gotten a lot of new friends. Many of them I communicate with on a regular basis. Don’t hesitate to contact me, even if it’s only to say “hello”.

Well, then it’s just to release the brakes, throttle up and go ahead.