Always Write has moved to https;//www.tchistorygal.net. All the articles that were on that site are housed on this site. I am in the process of culling and organizing the nearly 1,000 posts to keep the most relevant and eliminate duplicates.

Why Move?

Three reasons caused me to consider closing down marshajustwrites.com, my Always Write site.

The first reason was financial because the renewal came up. Even though it only cost $143 per year to host on SiteGround, it cost $143 to host an extra site.

Always Write was a WordPress.org site and this is a WordPress.com. When I started with WordPress.com, it was not as versatile as it is now. For the price of $99 per year I have more space and fewer problems. It is easier to monetize should I want to do that.

Keeping up two sites is not hard if you have a clear vision for both. Since I am a hobby blogger, not a professional, it didn’t make sense to keep up two. Always Write focused on writing. Before it was a travel blog, this blog was random. In truth, both blogs covered many topics because writing covers all topics. Sometimes it was hard to decide where to publish a post.

Blogging Changed

When I started blogging, my goal was to experiment. Now, I understand blogging and it has many purposes.

Most blogs inform, and I enjoy that aspect of blogging both reading and writing. I’m sure you read blogs every day when you are looking for information. I read one post today about the Spanish Flu and one about a couple, not much older than I am, that succumbed to COVID-19 six minutes apart.

Some blogs are personal, more like long Facebook posts or long letters made public. That’s what I enjoyed about my early days of blogging, the social connection. I made some very close friends through blogging.

There was little of that on Always Write and I missed it. Most of my early connections are now friends on Facebook. It is much faster and easier to post on Facebook than to compose a post for a blog. To be honest, it’s much easier to read a post on Facebook than to click to the blog and read the entire article.

Where Will Always Write Go from Here?

This blog began as a personal experiment, Streaming Thoughts. I recorded my frustrations with blogging more than anything and kept a running journal about my daily life. I don’t want to lose the place where I can share my history and the varied interests in my life. However, I will take out posts that have little purpose other than rambling.

Always Write is my brand. I couldn’t let it go. So I have rebranded this site once again to keep my Always Write brand. Eventually, this blog went from Streaming Thoughts to Traveling and Blogging Near and Far. The new Always Write will include the travel aspect, once we are able to travel again, if we are still alive after the COVID-19 Pandemic ends. Travel will not be the primary objective of the blog.

Always Write tried to be primarily informative. It included book and movie reviews. As it got better known, many people asked me to review their books. When I started reviewing books, I did it because I wanted to remember the book. I’m going to go back to that. If you want to write a review for Always Write, you may do so and submit it to me.

Always Write primarily offered advice about writing and blogging because I was writing a novel and establishing a blog. Many people emailed me asking me to publish their articles. Your great articles, published on Always Write are still here. Great articles about writing, photography, and blogging still have a place here. However, there are so many good articles about writing, I doubt that I will spend my time informing you on how to write. I will keep any pages and posts that I think might be helpful to you.

Photo Challenges and contests took a lot of my time when I first started blogging. They are a great way to connect and make friends. I won’t take out my Photo Challenge page, but will discard or revise my old posts. If you have blogged a long time, as I have, you have probably done the same thing. It takes a long time to do this, but it makes it usable for others to enjoy. I want to remove all the posts that are not useful.

Blogging made me take more interest in everyday things. I took more pictures than I ever had in my life, more than 37,000 of them, most of which I could throw away, but I’m a hoarder. Without my WordPress.org site, I have one less place to hoard. 🙂

Communication

I look forward to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones by keeping this blog current. It is almost ten years old, and has seen a lot of remodels and it’s time for another one.

How about your blogging experience? Where are you in your journey. Made any changes recently?