Tuesday, May 15, 2012

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!! The winner of the John 3:16 Blog Hop drawing on this blog is:

Amanda Stephens!!!
I thank you all for entering the drawing. Those of you who did not win I am hoping that you are intrigued enough to consider shopping on Amazon or locally for the set of books you were hoping for!

Today I am interviewing myself about the John 3:16 blog hop:

"In retrospect, how did the blog hop go?"  At the end of the first day I felt like I had been standing in front of a couple of those huge 5 foot tall stereo speakers and both were emitting intense subsonic frequencies all day! Every part of my being was vibrating! I have learned not to take seriously the proclamations I make during such times because they are expressions of the intensity rather than the direction I will take. I rarely if ever follow through with such emphatic statements.

"What was I saying?" Mostly, "I will NEVER do another blog hop, EVER!"

"Why do I think I was feeling that way?" I had never done a blog hop before so I had no idea what was involved. I assumed I should check in on every single blog each day. Now, that was not stated as being manditory, it was just what I assumed. One of the dangers of being highly sensitive is that you are easily overstimulated. By the time I got to blog 35 or so, every nerve in my body was on fire and jangling; my eyes glazed over and I was mumbling incoherently! My poor husband had to get his own supper. When I could finally talk straight the first thing I said was, "I'll never do that again!" But folks, that was the first day!! There were six more to go and I was already fried!

Responsibility kicked in--I had made a committment and I was going to keep it. So on the second day I started at the bottom of the list and worked my way up. Some wise lady on day two made the observation that there was no way under the sun that a person could get through all 55 blogs in one day. She divided the week up and allotted 12 or so blogs per day and workrd her way through the whole list in the week, visiting each blog once. Brilliant!

Another reason I think I was jangled is that I am very highly sensitive to light and color and of course, one cannot control that on someone else's blog! Some blogs were soft on my eyes and others not so much. Hmmm, why didn't I think to have my sunglasses handy? Other blogs were information dense and would take you from level to level. They were more like a maze or labrynth; when all systems are on overload already, little energy is left for comprehension! However, I did come away with some wonderful ideas for developing my own blog and some important marketing information that will be helpful in the long run. I say "long run" because it takes me longer than most to implement anything remotely associated with technology!

"What impressed me the most about the blogs I visited?" The creativity! My goodness, the Lord has blessed us with marvelous multifaceted, varigated gifts. And secondly, I am impressed with the love this group has for the Lord and their willingness to work to get out to the world the words that God has given them to share whether it fills their pockets or not! For many of us writing is a ministry, the calling of the Lord!

"What have I learned about blog hops?"
  • To pace myself. I will prayerfully decide the number of blog hops I will participate in for a year
  • To pace myself within a hop; i.e. be up front with how many blogs I will visit in a day
  • When I find myself being overstimulated to leave a blessing and move away
  • A blog hop is a good place to find good books. I found a big stack of good books to read--a really big stack
  • I believe that blog hopping is to be a butterfly activity--alight upon a blog, sip and flutter off to the next. It is not a prairie dog activity--I need not burrow down and ferret out every bit of information from every page of the blog
  • But statistically speaking, this blog had 7 followers before the blog and there are 25 now. That is a measure of success. I have no idea how book sales will be affected. That is entirely in the hands of the Lord.

So thank you readers for stopping in and following. I take seriously the Lord's calling to share His words with you. Now I will continue with the "God Thoughts" until some life happens and I will blog on that from my perspective. The Lord has been very clear that my assignment is to stay one step behind Jesus so that I am close enough to hear what He says and write it down. And so I shall.

1 comment:

  1. Carol, thanks for your honest appraisal of your first blog hop. It was fun, and yes tiring, and we will need a good time to relax, but in the end it brought exposure to the John 3:16 Marketing Network and that was the goal. Not to mention, we were able to showcase some amazing authors and their books. Blessings to you!

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