This is the end of { this moment }. I have been sharing special photographs on a weekly basis for almost 4 years but it’s time for a change.
Why change? Well, my reasoning is threefold:
- In my reader surveys there were a staggering amount of people who didn’t enjoy my {this moment} photographs as much as I enjoyed sharing them.
- It’s become a chore. I take oodles of pictures every week but selecting just one to share can be hard. Or there might be a week that we’ve been so busy experiencing and living but not taking pictures to go with it… then Thursday rolls around and I’m scrambling to get/find a picture. Blogging should never be a chore.
- Ever since I switched to self-hosted WordPress I have been learning the ins and outs of bandwidth (in case you’re wondering, I’ll be sharing my wisdom soon). I have learned that every bit of space matters so you don’t want to be posting for the sake of posting, but rather sharing only the content that you really want to be showcased.
So, this will be the last {this moment} posting. However, for those of you who enjoy glimpses of us, I invite you to follow us on Instagram. I will be starting to use the hashtag #thismoment when I’m taking a picture of one of those special moments and you can also follow my #100happydays posts!
In addition, I will launching a monthly installment called {these moments}… a monthly sharing of a few photographed moments from our lives.
Without further ado, here is my last {this moment} as inspired by SouleMama
Taking a moment to share a moment. An extraordinary moment. A moment I will cherish… a moment captured in a photograph yet burned into my heart and mind forever.
“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” Maria Edgeworth
Wishing you an amazing weekend full of memorable moments!
SHARE WITH OTHERS
Regarding bandwidth on self hosted WP sites: install the Jetpack plugin and enable the Photon module. All of your post images will be delivered over the WP CDN (content delivery network – for free!) which will take the bandwidth load off of your server.
Thanks Danny! I have Jetpack but never had that part enabled. With all of my new posts I’ve been hosting the pictures through Photobucket in order to lighten the load. I’m still learning the ropes here on WordPress… lots more learning to do but it’s awesome.
Thanks for stopping by my moment.
I live and breathe WordPress. Let me know if I can assist you.
Thanks for the offer Danny! I’ll keep that in mind.
Hi there, this convo was super interesting. I installed and uninstalled Jet Pack because it was SO slow! Are you guys having more luck?
Very interested in lightening the load as well @danny_nelson
xo
I love Jetpack Rene and I did what Danny suggested by activating Photon and I think it has made a difference.
You have lots of big and beautiful pictures – do you upload to WordPress? If so, I would suggest hosting them elsewhere – like Photobucket. I’ve been adding new pictures to Photobucket and linking them via URL and then for the featured image for the post (that would be used in widgets) I upload a smaller, super compressed image to WordPress). Maybe Danny will have a better recommendation… but this seems to be working for me.
The person I work with who has helped me with my site also recently pushed my site through Cloudflare and there has been a significant drop in bandwidth usage. My most popular days are on Thursdays when I do the SHINE Blog Hop – this past Thursday, with the site going through Cloudflare, it used over half of the bandwidth that the previous Thursday had used but there were almost 100 more visitors than the previous week.
I hope you find some solutions Rene. This is the part about switching from Blogger to WordPress that I really didn’t expect. It’s made the transition quite difficult but I think I’m starting to understand it a bit better.
I think your site looks amazing. So clean and pretty so switching to wordpress was a good choice!
Thanks for the info. I will give photobucket a go for my next post and check it all out. I prefer JetPack over Disqus but worried about the speed. So continuing with it for now.
Is there special embed code to link the photo on wordpress so it doesn’t just come up as a link? I’ve no idea :)
Thanks lovely Jennifer :)
Thanks for the feedback Rene. I’m quite pleased with how my site turned out. I sent you an email about Photobucket. I hope it helps!
Sorry it had become such a chore for you. I wouldn’t continue either if it would become so taxing. For me, the picture posts are my favorite ones. I haven’t conducted any kind of survey, but my Friday posts are always my highest “comment” posts. And by a lot! I also use my blog for journaling purposes most of all so the pictures to me are so important.
Looking forward to reading your new content. Although I’m not really looking to monetize my blog, I find your informational posts very interesting. Who knows… maybe someday that will change.
Good luck on your new path and I will honestly say, I’ll miss your moments.
Have a wonderful week-end.
Thanks for your kind words Yanic! There’s some aspects of the {this moment} postings that I will miss but the effort I use in publishing them will be better spent on living and creating more “real life” moments.
I hope you’ll come back and enjoy my other posts as well as my monthly {these moment} postings.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Goes to show how differently people work… For me, this post is the one that allows me the most freedom because I post when I get up at 5am and I’m done for the day. LOL! Creative juices… if we all had the same, the world would be a very boring place!
Again, good luck on your new ventures. :-) I’ll be back for sure!
I just loved seeing that photo on Instagram this week! :) I’ll still be following you there and look forward to the monthly THIS MOMENT posts! Have a wonderful weekend, Jennifer!
Yay I already am following you on instagram! I enjoy seeing your pictures, but I get the dilemma. But good thing instagram is there right? :)
Hi Jennifer! Getting used to a new platform really takes time, but it’s all worth it. I liked your photos, but of course if it’s a ton a work I can see why you’d want to stop doing it.
Looking forward to reading your lessons learned, as I am on WordPress too, although I use DreamHost.
Happy Weekend making fun memories, sipping Sangria :)
Ceil
i’m glad i caught your last moment !!! have a great weekend
Thanks for stopping by my moment Erica. Wishing you a lovely weekend as well.
I of course love seeing any photos you post (especially photos with you in them). But totally understand. You never want to blog something if you don’t feel it in your heart. I know I’ve done that many times but am trying so hard not to.
Have a great weekend Jennifer!
xoxo
Thanks Tiffany. It was a tough decision to make but I think I’ll be better off in the end.
Wishing you a lovely weekend too my friend!
xoxo
Curious to hear more about #3 :)
Oh yes, I’ve working on a post about #3. It’s been quite a journey so far!
I’m definitely sad to see them go but hey- these moments aren’t really going anywhere! They’re just kind of being shuffled around a bit. Well I’m excited to hear more about the wordpress bandwidth thing and as always, I’ll be cruising the instgram! lol I loved this picture- and so nice of a stranger to offer to take it! Getting IN the picture is always a challenge <3!
You’re so sweet and so awesome Rebecca!
Yes, I finally got into a picture… yay!
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
xoxo
Whew, still get to see all of your moments on Instagram! Your girls hats are the cutest ever. P.S. Looking forward to a post on bandwidth soon :)
Thanks Jen!
Well I don’t know lots about bandwidth but I’ve learned a few things in this transition that have helped me… so I look forward to sharing.
I think I’ll be participating in your #mommyreality challenge this week. I’ll make sure to link up as soon as I publish my post. Brace yourself Jen… this isn’t going to be very pretty at all.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
xoxo
This is a great moment to be your last Moment post!! Such sweet girls. And you are right, Instagram is great for sharing moments :) Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by my blog :)
Thanks Katie. It’s sad to see the end of an era but I’m beginning to see the necessity (and benefits) of sharing these things across social media, as opposed to putting everything on my blog.
Wishing you a lovely weekend as well!
I get it. I was never too big a fan of This Moment. Just because I like more in a post. I think the community aspect is cool but I stopped joining years ago.
By the way, your site is giving me a hard time posting. First it said my comment was spam. Then it said I needed to “go back and spend some time reading the post.” WOW!
Thanks for visiting Cory! I agree with wanting more in a post… especially since there’s now social media (like Instagram) to share just photos!
Sorry about the spam message thing. I just tweaked the spam settings to be a little tighter… I guess they were too much! I changed it back so there shouldn’t be a problem now but please let me know if you encounter it again! I’m trying to find a happy medium… I never anticipated the amount of spam I would get when I switched from Blogger to WordPress!
I’m so sorry to see it end because I actually enjoyed seeing them but I’m happy to see that you’re actually in this one. The last one and you’re in it! Awesome! Why wasn’t I following you on Instagram? I was following everywhere else. Well I’ve corrected that so I can follow all your moments. Hope you’re having a great weekend my friend.
Thanks for the follow on Instagram Amanda! Yes, I thought it was perfect that the last moment I was actually in! Wishing you a lovely weekend as well.
I’m going to miss you on Fridays!! I feel just the opposite. I love “This Moment”s. It allows me to find bloggers that I probably never would’ve found before and I love to catch glimpses of other people’s lives which is always fun, too. : )
I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!! ~ Wendy
I still plan on visiting others’ moments and I would love for you to still pop by my monthly {these moments} postings too.
I hope you’re having a lovely weekend Wendy!
Well luckily I follow you on Instagram so I can still see your moments there! I’ve always enjoyed your posts because I love seeing a moment captured, but I agree that it’s not worth it when it feels like a chore. Thank goodness for Instagram, it’s main purpose is to capture the moments!
I had been tossing around ideas of changing my blogging schedule (as I indicated to you on your blogging schedule post). I’m also trying to think of ways to not blog “everything” but to share across social media to distribute the load… Instagram is great for those quick pictorial moments.
Have a great day Jessica!
Four years?! Wow. That’s impressive.
I’ve been at this for a while! I’m an oldie!
All good things must come to an end, but it’s still a shame. I have recently joined Blipfoto, where I add a daily photograph – or at least try to and I added it as a widget in my sidebar. I enjoy it and people can either look at my pictures or not – as the case maybe.
What I did find interesting in your post and comments was the conversation on bandwidth and photographs. I am new to blogging and took the step of self hosting my site in March. I look forward to reading your post on bandwidth as I really am clueless.
I do have JetPack installed, but am on the verge of uninstalling it as I’m not overly impressed by it, but I will now check out the photon plugin there.
Jetpack does have some awesome features (Photon is one of them). With Photon your pictures automatically get pushed through WordPress.com which means means less load on your host (which saves bandwidth) and faster images for your readers. There’s a few other elements of Jetpack that I also like as well.
I’m still crafting my post about what I learned from my transfer to WordPress. It should be published within the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for visiting Debbie! Wishing you a lovely day.