Looking Ahead – What’s in Store for 2016 on Norm 2.0

The beginning of a new year is always a good time to take stock of how things went and look at where we’re headed.

I won’t bore you with tons of stats from the WordPress monkeys about how many times I supposedly filled the Sydney Opera House last year, because quite frankly I cannot imagine that anyone in their right mind would want to hear me perform in any opera house, anywhere.

However, I will say that aside from a few bumps in the road I was very happy with the progress I made in 2015. Followers, visitors, likes, comments and the number of posts were all up substantially from 2014; all of which is very encouraging.

As the actress Sally Field once said, You like me! You really really like me!! And all I can say is, that’s cool because it sure is mutual.

Sorry I don’t have a teddy bear emoji but you can insert sincere warm fuzzy feelings here 😀

At the beginning of 2015 I had set out with the idea that there was probably enough interest in Thursday Doors to turn it into a weekly link-up event that a fair number of folks would want to participate in and have fun with, and boy was I ever right about that!

Thursdays have turned into the biggest traffic day by far on Norm 2.0 and we’re fast approaching three dozen regular weekly contributors.

I have a few ideas that I’m looking into to expand things a little further. I’ll be keeping those ideas under my hat until I can confirm things, but do stay tuned because I’m hoping to have a few fun surprises in store for door fans in 2016.

The one thing I found myself disappointed with in 2015 was my ratio of photography vs writing posts. As I’ve said before, what started in the spring of 2014 as a place to display my creative writing projects, opinion pieces, and my different writing styles for potential freelance clients has morphed into more of a photography blog.

I could go a step further now and say it has become a photography blog with one star topic, plus some occasional other pics and writing posts thrown in when the mood and inspiration strike me.

However, even though I’d like to increase the number of writing posts in 2016 I’m going to be realistic about the amount of time I’m willing to dedicate to this hobby and say that I’m okay with things as they are for the moment.

With that in mind I can tell you that if my health situation stays stable in 2016, the blog content won’t change that much. Wordless Wednesday and Silent Sunday photo posts will continue – though hopefully with a bit more regularity.

I’ll be getting back to Weekend Coffee Share and Share Your World posts at least once a month each, and I will try to take part in other photo or writing challenges whenever time allows.

Another plan for 2016 would be to take the next step and actually meet more of you wonderful and talented photographers, writers, artists and poets.

I had planned on putting together a spring meet & greet for Montreal area folks last year but that was sidetracked when I got sick in April. Hopefully we can try again this year, so please stay tuned. And if any of you locals are interested, send me a note to let me know.

We have no major travel plans for 2016 but I do have a few short trips within North America tentatively scheduled: southern Vermont and New Hampshire, Boston, Ottawa, Toronto, Atlanta, and NYC are all possible destinations for business and/or leisure this year. Once those plans become more definite I will reach out via email to blog friends in those areas to see about getting together.

Of course if any of you from elsewhere are planning travels to the Montreal area this year and would like to get together, send me an email and hopefully we can make it happen.

In the meantime, I want to thank every single one of you for clicking that follow button here as well as on Twitter or Instagram.

Your likes, faves, comments and encouragement, and most of all your friendship and kindness have confirmed that I made the right decision when I first hit Publish back in April 2014 to join the WordPress community.

Here’s to fun and successful blogging and much health and happiness to all for 2016!

Cheers and as always, thank you so much for reading 🙂