Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Hello, I Must Be Going - #NewFrontiers #Blogging #SocialMedia


Marx Bros movie poster
By Lisabet Sarai

Almost exactly ten years ago, I took over the Oh Get a Grip blog from a group of romance authors who had been its founders. At the time, I was just getting my feet wet as far as marketing and social media were concerned. Blogging was all the rage, but I didn’t think I had the time or the level of commitment needed to start my own blog. When an offer of a guest post on Oh Get a Grip morphed into a suggestion that I become the blog admin and find new contributors, this seemed like a sign.

It has been a fantastic decade. At various times, the members of the Grip have included many of my favorite authors, and many friends. If you scroll back through the earlier posts (they’re all there, all 3000+ of them!) you’ll like see many names you recognize.

In the good old days, the Grip got lots of traffic. I’m amazed when I look at posts from five years ago. When I went to the Blogger dashboard and randomly chose a page with a 100 posts from 2014, I found we averaged about a dozen comments per post. One of my posts actually got 40 comments.

These days …. we’re lucky to get two. And that’s usually from another member of the blog.

Personally, I think this has to do with a shift in the way people consume information. In this age of Twitter and Instagram, words are a liability. Our posts have always tended to be thoughtful, measured, carefully crafted, and pretty long – in the 1000 word range or more (except when we played around with flash fiction). These days, nobody wants to put in the effort to read that much text.

At least, that’s what I believe. Recent posts are as insightful and challenging as the older ones, but we don’t get readers (or commenters) because, sadly, people don’t care.

Anyway, I’ve decided that after ten years, it’s time for me to move on. The Grip is experiencing a shake-up, and about half of the current contributors plan to leave at the end of 2019. However, there’s a contingent who wants to salvage the Grip, maybe changing its format to better fit the preferences of today’s audience.

We really haven’t decided yet. But don’t delete your bookmark. There may be amazing things ahead in 2020.

For me, though, this is the end of the road. Ugh, that sounds final, doesn’t it? In fact, if the Grip continues, I’ll likely be around, commenting as well as assisting the new admin. I’m not the type to keep totally silent.

However, this will be my last formal post for Oh Get a Grip. I’ll do a marketing post on the 17th as well. After that – well, you know I’ll be writing sexy stories. And you know, I think, where to find me.



2 comments:

  1. Nice sentiments, Lisabet, but as one of the hanger-on wannabes, it's bittersweet. You did grab me with the post title and movie poster however. Always loved that Marx Brothers film, and now I can't get Groucho's song "Hello I Must Be Going" out of my head! (I actually know all the words).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I guess I'll keep reading until there's nothing here to read anymore. I've enjoyed the posts here for years, starting with Garces' stuff--always thought-provoking and weird, yet insightful into what it feels like to be a man. I've shared things with you all here that my husband would cringe with embarrassment if he knew, so I won't tell him if you don't. But as a writer of naughty stories, who lives an overly-busy life that is the opposite of what I write, I've truly enjoyed being able to let my figurative hair down here, with like-minded folks. So I may be the last one around, who turns out the lights. So be it. And yes, Lisbet, I know where to find you.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.