I first started blogging back in 2004 with my MSN Space. It was like MySpace, only it was private, and only accessible to my hotmail contacts that I gave explicit permission to. I mainly wrote about grad school applications and university life.
When I started using Facebook in 2006, I started using the Facebook "Note" application to write about my apartment hunt, my dog, politics, teaching assistant union news, and anything that crossed my mind.
In August 2008, I started using Blogger. Originally, I had a blog named "Sinner, Saint, Shiksa" and I wrote exclusively about religion.
In December 2009, I moved most of my "Sinner, Saint, Shiksa" content to my new Blogger address at "A Sundial's Saga." Instead of exclusively blogging about religion, I expanded to discuss anything and everything. Politics, social justice, current affairs, movies, books, food, and colors at first. Then it took on a more personal twist, I've covered a lot of my wedding planning, my self-improvement regarding exercise and health, and somedays I just use my blog to express my mood.
2011 was the biggest year of my blogging, and I've slowed down quite a bit in 2012. I still have plenty to talk about, and I plan to keep blogging for a while.
Especially because, I was just recruited to become a member of Paperblog. It's an online blog aggregate. It re-publishes blog posts from it's members in an online magazine format. It offers incentives like reaching more readers, and having your posts selected as an "Editor's Pick." It also has a handy stats tracker which tracks how often posts are read on my actual blog here at "A Sundial's Saga" and how often they are read on the Paper Blog site.
I was really careful before I accepted the offer. After reading all their conditions and policies, I was pleased to see that my intellectual property remained mine (or Blogger.com's), and that I would not have to change the content of my site, or the tone, or anything.
And for full disclosure - I make no money off of this, and Paper Blog makes no money off of me. That was key. I still blog for free and am under no obligation to produce a certain number quota of posts.
I took the morning and started to set up my profile. Paperblog does the rest. As I publish an article, they find it, categorize it, and republish it. My most recent 25 articles are already republished on their website.
While you will always be able to access my blog posts from my original address (http://sundialsaga.blogspot.com) I encourage you to check out the neat layouts and my profile at Paper Blog by clicking here.
You can also browse the website to come across Editor's Picks of blog posts in various categories. I believe my blog is going to be categorized under "Diaries & Self-expression."
Anyway, this transition is a bit exciting for a few reasons. I'm flattered to be have been recruited to participate in this blogging community. I'm looking forward to reaching out to new readers. And, I'm considering bringing back a few older posts that have long been hidden in my "Drafts" folder - including my 13-part series that was originally posted on "Sinner, Saint, Shiksa" regarding my quest to define my religious beliefs.
For now, I'm just going to giggle over how "meta" is it that my post about Paper Blog will be republished on Paper Blog.
Culture Magazine
