Summer Blogging

~ beetleypete

It’s that time of year again. People off on holiday, taking a break from the blogs, or seeking pleasure outside, away from their computers or tablets. Since I started this blog in 2012, I have always noticed that summertime is a distinct period in blogging. It is also a time when many people decide to start a blog. They tell us about their trips and travels, publish more photos, sometimes show off summer outfits, meals, and even drinks.

Summer is a good time to have posts in drafts, to save spending too long in stuffy small rooms (like my office) or being inside when the weather is good outside. I see new readers, acquire new followers, and notice the absence of those regulars who are busy with ‘summer stuff’. For the other half of the world, the Beetley summer is their winter, and it is interesting to read about cold weather and bad conditions in the southern hemisphere, when we are experiencing record heat.

Summer is the time for shorter posts, less long fiction, and more photos around the blogs. It also seems to be the time when some decide to stop blogging altogether. I have recently noticed that four blogs I have followed for some time have been deleted. Maybe they were fed up with blogging, or just had better things to do, in the fresh air?

For me, the routine stays much the same. I blog earlier, so I can take Ollie out before it gets too hot for him. When it is cooler in the mornings and at night, I write up drafts for later use, and save them. I still get the same number of views and comments, although many visitors are new ones, perhaps discovering blogging as a summer pastime.

Much like life, Blogging seems to have its own seasons.

81 thoughts on “Summer Blogging”

  4. I love this! Summer really is the time of blogs for me. Something about the weather makes me want to open all those drafts I had and ideas I didn’t do anything with. Once it gets colder out I usually focus more on fiction.

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  5. Let me say, that I do believe that this is going to be my very first WordPress comment as a subscriber. You know I have to be new if I’m saying that. I very much like your writing style. It has a very elegant and thought out flow to it. I would be interested to experience you talking. I prefer to write as I kind of stumble through my words in everyday speech. I even struggle through typing words at times too. I seem to write the next word before writing the first one.

    I can’t believe how funny it was to come across you mentioning people start new blogs this time of year. LOL! I’ve always been curious and hopeful about writing a blog. I never know what topic to focus in on though. Pretty much always end up writing about myself. I don’t really have an expressed interest in much particular anything. I like everything in the world about the same amount, and I can’t think of any particular thing that I would want to create an everlasting relationship for as long as I would have to blog about something.

    Whoa, I’m too afraid to edit that paragraph just up one. LOL! I’m rambling, and I don’t care. Grammarly hasn’t told me of any errors. Like it’s even reliable enough to do anything than find spelling mistakes.

    So, yeah… thanks for writing. It’s inspiring. Thank you.

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    1. Hi Alex,
      I am very happy to the the first recipient of a blog comment from you. Thanks for the kind words too.
      I am sorry to tell you that the experience of listening to me talk would be very different. I have a strong London accent, somewhere between Michael Caine and Danny Dyer. Perhaps that’s why I choose to blog, rather than ‘go live’? I let the writing express my thoughts, rather than be judged on the idea of appearance and accent. 🙂
      I hope that you enjoy your new blog, and feel free to contact me by email if I can ever be of help or assistance. petejohnson50@yahoo.com
      Remember, it is all about engagement, and community.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. I hope your summer as been wonderful, even with the heat. It is surely a big change for up here too. The heat wave that began in Spring and never left, except for a total of around 5 days. That is when we get out there and work in the gardens that need heavy work to be done. I’ve had to trim trees that have gotten out of hand and wait for a cool spell of a day or two to cut the branches to smaller sizes for yet another permaculture bed in the making for next year.

    Soon the entire back yard will be a growing place other than grass and weeds. My tree seedlings have grown into a thing of beauty and I’ve kept pruning them to keep them at a proper height for the garden beds not to be shadowed .. your last few words of your post here is so true… there is a season… Take care, Laura

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      1. I have read most of your posts-never want to miss yours. Goodness, I am selling my house-got to find one (much smaller) starting a new school year and mu my daughter is having a baby in September!! What a season! Glad you and Ollie are having a good summer! raining here for weeks! your friend always-Michele

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  11. I’ve neglected my blog this year. When I have time to write, and I’m not exhausted, I tend to prioritize my fiction writing. Yesterday, I spent seven hours and wrote less than a page of text. So it’s slow going—at least in this first chapter. You often suggest ideas for limericks, and I appreciate that, but I tend to lose track of those suggestions as the days slip away… As for “seasons,” the word evokes Terry Jacks’s “Seasons in the Sun,” which is something of a tear jerker.

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      1. Thanks, John. It doesn’t actually take me long to write a post. I wrote and published this in around fifteen minutes, and the remake post yesterday only took just over thirty minutes. Fictional stories are a longer process, as they involve constant corrections and rewrites..
        Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. Pete, like you, I opened my blog in 2012. My main focus was to follow trials, so most of the activity on my blog was during a trial. Since 2013, less trials are live streamed. They are harder to follow that way because media reporters don’t usually publish until the end of the day. Recently, I’ve ran into some media sources that only allow about 5 free visits a month. Then they want you to subscribe.

    Yes, there is a decline in visitors, likes, and comments during the summer, and also during year-end holidays. That holds true also for bloggers.

    Many of the participants who were very active on my blog beginning in 2013, have found that priorities call their names. Some have obtained full-time work. Others have new grandchildren, or ill spouses to care for. My life has also undergone some changes. For one, my eye doctor instructed me to spend less time looking at the computer screen.

    I’ve not had a regular writing/publishing schedule for about 2 years. I do try to reblog to fill in the gaps. Blogging has been an excellent activity during retirement, and I’ve met many great people, but I might only have another year of doing it before calling it quits.

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  14. I hadn’t thought of that. I did start my blog in July and I have no idea why I did that. I do notice fewer posts at the moment and I think about half the people I started out following two years ago are gone from the screen. Without a goodbye even. They must not have felt as connected to their readers as I felt to them.

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    1. It”s always sad when bloggers disappear without so much as a farewell, I agree.
      I always worry that they might be ill, or have perhaps died.
      Maybe we should all have an ‘obituary post’ ready? 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  15. This is very interesting. I never thought of it life that. One thing I lvoe about blogging is that readers are from all over the world. I feel connected to everyone and they are in their own little worlds doing different things experincinf different cultures, seasons, time zones. It’s all quite surreal

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    1. Looking at the stats for countries is fascinating indeed. I have readers in places like Bhutan and Laos, a follower in Rwanda, and a regular reader from Togo. It is a wonderful world-wide connection.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  17. Well…I don’t really have a season to blog, but I do notice that there are certain times when there is more (and less traffic). I don’t really have a schedule myself (I would not be able to, as I have a pretty busy dayjob) so I just post when I can. The only thing I do every day is check and read the posts from blogs that I follow and comment on them (well on most of them anyway lol 😂)Nice post Pete!

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  18. Good insight Pete. I’m amazed that you’re able to post so consistently everyday (and sometimes twice a day!) I seem to be going through a drought lately and now that you mention it, I think it is seasonal! Too hot in my office sometimes to sit and type, or I’m out and about on vacation. Hopefully it all evens out eventually!

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    1. Most bloggers are seasonal. I tend to be the only one pumping out stuff all the time! (I write a few at a time, so I am not actually compiling posts every day. It just seems like it.) 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. Pete, I always have a dozen or more drafts going, and my goal is to either post in the morning when I wake up or reblog something in order to keep consistency…but when the weather is nice it is indeed more difficult to put time toward an indoor activity!

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    2. I had to go to bed this afternoon (well on it, not in it) as I was a little ‘overcome’ by 34 degrees. I felt like Elizabeth Barratt Browning! I can’t do too much when it is this hot. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. I saw the weather forecast and Norfolk is getting the best?worst of the heatwave, we’re having rain tomorrow and maybe flashfloods, then more on Sunday, but still in t he 20’s. Drink plemty of water, as they say!

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  22. I can understand how some lose interest in writing, maybe just from time to time. It’s a shame they feel it necessary to delete it all. Only my very first blog was deleted as the host site closed down, not deleted by me. I regret now not saving it or transferring it elsewhere as enough time has past for me to read it without being self-conscious about it.
    I must have about ten dormant blogs, and some other social media accounts, in existence out in the ether, like time capsules or messages in bottles.

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    1. Time to copy them all onto some flash drives, BF. You wouldn’t want to lose everything.
      That said, I haven’t saved this blog since 2015! Perhaps I should get on that? 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  23. I’m used to that pattern Pete, it happens on forums. People get out during the Summer, some will take communications with them, some won’t. Then Winter arrives, everyone has to come in and find something to do.

    Mix into that cycle, the fact that social media is like an addiction which takes away time for Blogs, and even normal life. I don’t do social media.

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  24. Summer is a good time for reading – outside in the shade. I’ve severely neglected my reading – it’s piling up on a shelf at home. I’ve come down South to babysit and dogsit for offspring and can’t believe I only brought one book and forgot my kindle.
    Blog-wise, I’ve come to the end of the series on commas I’d prepared for the benefit of my writing group (whose stories I’ve been proofreading for an anthology) and I’ve no idea what I’m about to follow it with.

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  25. I always seem to see a dip in visits each year and you’re right, new people sprouting up.
    (I especially get a kick out of those in their teens giving life advice to the older generations! They’re cute.)

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    2. If the “Older Generations” wish to keep abreast of all the changes going on around them, perhaps they would do well to listen to some of the advice from the youngers. It is very easy to get out of the loop as we age and then we become alienated from everything that surrounds us. We need to keep up or get out and advice from the younger people are more than welcome here in this house where I am now 80 years old and quite archaic and dated.

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  26. Enjoy the remaining days of summer Pete. I am presently hooked on reading that is why I just write short posts just for updates. So excited to have found lovely books around.

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