While I started this blog for many reasons, one stands out. My main motivation? The blank looks given to me by friends when I talked about different places that I had taken my kids . Many of them had never heard of some of the smaller places that our family had enjoyed visiting in our Nebraska community.
Looking back now, possibly I should have taken on our city before taking on a state. Yet since we studied Nebraska as a part of our homeschool last year, this blog has provided us with the perfect excuse to go out and explore our great state. From the beginning, I wanted to post about places we had experienced and only write occasionally about upcoming possibilities. After all, while we would enjoy weekly adventures in the Sandhills, practially speaking that is just not going to happen.
For a long time I would try to post upcoming Nebraska events on my Odyssey Through Nebraska Facebook page. Yet due to the changing FB regulations, I am not even sure if any of my postings are even making it to your page. Spending time compiling a list that no one hardly sees does not seem to be the best use of my time.
Two of my blogging friends who wisely stuck with just writing about Omaha share weekly posts about the upcoming events in their town. Kim (at Oh My! Omaha) and Julie (at Family Fun in Omaha) both also send out newsletters full of updated activities. I have contemplated sharing my top 5 Across-Nebraska picks each week with you in the same manner. Or possibly I could just share the events of my city (Lincoln) in a week-end round-up.newsletter.
But since I really am trying to simplify my focus, I wanted to check with all of you first. Where do you find out about events in your area? If you are a Nebraskan, how do you know what is happening near you? Would a short newsletter be a resource for you? Or just another e-mail in your inbox? If I know that people are clicking on my Facebook page, I am glad to continue posting there.
Feedback Requested!
Should I just keep on keeping on? Or would you also like to get a monthly (or possibly bi-weekly) newsletter full of Nebraska happenings? (In the summer, I might be able to send a weekly one, but I am not sure that I can keep that up during our school year!) Please comment below or send an e-mail to odysseythroughnebraska@gmail.com If I hear that enough people are interested, I will add a newsletter sign-up section to this site. Thanks in advance for your responses!
P.S. Today I added this blog to the “The Mom Blogs! and Bloggy Moms as well!
I think a newsletter would be a great resource! I also appreciate the emails….I feel like sometimes facebook “chooses” what is in our news feed, so I’m not sure I’d always see your posts? 🙂
Thanks for responding – I really appreciate it! And I do agree that Facebook chooses what we see – pretty sure that I do not see many posts from people that I care about!
It is too bad that we can’t just get it through Facebook, but then again I may miss it if it isn’t in my inbox. However, the amount of emails I get stack up and I don’t even get to all of the great things you write about. Not sure how an events page could be added without adding more emails. Is there a way to make a calendar, like Google calendar, that could link/add to our own? Just a thought.
First, thanks for sharing my blog! My opinion on a newsletter is the it does take time but it is worth the effort. You are going directly to your readers. Another perk is that you can reshare old posts in a newsletter that might be relevant again, in addition to your new post. Your newsletters could have themes sometimes, posts about attractions in different regions of the state, posts about different cultural influences in towns, whatever. If you had no time to write one week, you could still send out a newsletter and try to bring people to your blog by promoting older posts.
What a great idea. I never thought of doing that for my town. I will comment back http://www.oldefashioinmom.com
Hi Gretchen-I started a newsletter for Midwest Guest about three years ago. I do it on an every-other-month basis, and I’m not sure I’d want to do it more frequently as it’s fairly time-intensive. I usually include a short section about where we’ve been in the last couple of months and a short section with links to articles I’ve had appear elsewhere besides my blog. The rest of it usually consists of a few event previews or interesting news items about the Midwest I’ve found online (the one that pops into my mind immediately is a little blurb I did about the sale of a lighthouse in Michigan and the possibility the new owners might open it up for tours at one point). I’ll sometimes do little event previews based on press releases or letters that appear in my email box. I don’t know that I’ve settled out on what shape I really want this newsletter to take, but I’ve been OK so far with letting it evolve over time as it builds an audience.