Gentle Readers, This meme was started by The State of Denmark. I thought this would be a good opportunity for you to learn a bit more about this blog. Other bloggers, please feel free to pick these questions up. My answers sit below the cartoon.
1. How long have you been blogging?
2. Why did you start blogging?
3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
4. How many times a week do you post an entry?
5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? If so, are you satisfied with your numbers?
8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?
9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
10. Do you blog under your real name?
11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
1. How long have you been blogging? Since August 2006
2. Why did you start blogging? Self-Expression and interest in the topic
3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging? Connection with people of like minds and, as I said, self-expression and sharing of information. I was also frustrated with listserv discussions. I was tired of expressing a mere opinion on Jane Austen, her life, and novels and then having my statements nitpicked to death by peope who analyzed every word and pounced on every issue. This blog gives me a forum to discuss Jane Austen and her milieu without having to defend myself 360 degrees and 24/7. The comments left on this blog are civilized and unargumentative. I like their restful approach to discourse better.
4. How many times a week do you post an entry? Since I manage several blogs – daily or more often.
5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis? Fewer each day. I’d say less than 10. I used to read more, but I am swamped with my blogging commitments. However, I rotate blogs, so I estimate that I visit between 50-70 blogs weekly. This is not counting websites.
6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs? Yes, frequently. Daily, actually.
7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? If so, are you satisfied with your numbers? Yes, I keep track. I’d say that I’m satisfied, but I am a bit competitive. I want more unique visitors and fewer casual hits.
8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote? Not frequently. When I do, I delete it. I also edit my posts after they have been published. It’s my blog. It’s not an archived newspaper or magazine article. If I see a mistake, I will fix it, even one or two years later.
9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog? Absolutely. They understand that I love social history and the Regency Era, and that I want to share my research with others.
10. Do you blog under your real name? No. I began blogging in the WWW dark ages. One of my blogs is outrageous and I say outrageous things on it. I do not want to jeopardize my professional position. Since an astute researcher can relate the three blogs, I have decided to maintain my anonymity as much as is possible in this transparent medium. Aside from my name, I don’t hide certain details about my life, and often share that I have a dog, am divorced, live in Richmond, and work in professional development.
11. Are there topics that you would never blog about? Morality. I’ll blog about politics, but I will not sit in judgment of others and impose my religion, ethics, or personal philosophy on them if I can help it. (I am human, after all, and am quite opinionated. Those qualities shine through in my twitter account.) Before opening my mouth, I think of Jane Austen and ask, What would she say?
12. What is the theme/topic of your blog? Jane Austen, the Regency Era, Jane Austen in popular culture, popular culture, and my take on things.
13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why? Yes, I oversee three blogs. I have an extensive background in marketing and I believe in targeting your audience very narrowly. Each of my blogs speaks to a specific group. Interestingly, there is very little overlap of readership among them.
Jane Austen's World 
Thank you for the set of questions, Vic. I will use them on my Reveries blog. I often a backlog of ideas for blogs and it takes time to get to them all — since I try not to do more than one every four days or so, since no matter how I try not to, I work too hard on them and take time over them.
Here I wanted to reply to two of your answers. I’ve been blogging a long time if you include three failed attempts before Jim came on with me for Ellen and Jim have a blog, too. Maybe I started blogging when blogs first emerged. I start here because I want to say that I blog out of some necessity in my nature to write and reach people through writing — partly but only partly the result of my inability to socialize with ease and comfort f-to-f. I guess that would be your self-expression and of course I chose topics that interest me and I know about.
Which gets me to my response to your answers to questions 12 and 13. You say you keep your blogs narrowly aimed and targeted to a niche. I realize that’s the way to build a big readership since it seems the majority of people don’t read to read an author (as I do mostly) but to find out some topic they are interested in. They are reading themselves so to speak. I can’t get myself to do that though I have divided my blogging into two types (not well distinguished yet I know the difference). What I’m trying to get at here is that the answers to your questions don’t go to the root of the matter enough since both of us start out with similar “reasons” for blogging and yet produce such different blogs which we rationalize as you do your answer for 13.
Ellen