I love my blog. I love sitting down and thinking about what to write and connecting people from all over the world. The Internet is a truly wonderful thing. There are a couple of things that bug me too so this will be a balanced five today... I hope.
1. 14 People who I have never met in real life follow my blog. This is amazing to me. I love the thought that people from all kinds of places are finding at least the occasional interesting thing among my mixed bag of offerings. I have barely mentioned the fact that I blog to people that I know in real life and I have found that to be very freeing. I can truly be me.
2. It is a form of creative expression that I have been missing for a very long time. I always used to write and then I left University and I stopped. I missed it but I did not really have any idea how to bring writing back and I have never been a journal keeper. This has enabled me to write again without any pressure and to remember just how much I love doing it.
3. Generally the blogging world is super supportive. I have found that bloggers are almost all generous with their knowledge, ideas and keen to help new bloggers learn the ropes. There us a real generosity of spirit that is a really pleasant change of pace from the real world.
4. Comments - a double edged sword. I love getting comments on my blog and I love leaving them on other people's blogs that I have enjoyed. My problem is twofold. I am never sure how to respond to the comments left on my blog and I sometimes get overwhelmed sharing the love on all the blogs I read. I always respond if someone asks me a question but I am never sure if I should be individually responding to all the kind messages. I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this as it is something I really struggle with. I am currently following over 100 blogs and I struggle to leave comments even when I really enjoy a post just with the sheer volume of posts I read.
5. Moving from blogging for love to blogging for profit is a minefield. I am totally not at the point where this could be a consideration but I have seen blogs I love go from creative and interesting places to very commercially driven spaces and it makes me a little sad. I know how much time and effort goes into something as small as mine so I totally understand the need to make the time financially productive but I really wonder if there is a good middle ground. I have seen a couple of bloggers pull right back from their commercial endeavours lately as they just do not feel right about the way their blog has changed. I think it may just be an extension of the work life balance conundrum. Is there ever a happy middle ground?
Great post Claire. I love seeing what people are up to. It can be so inspiring.
ReplyDeletei admire people like you who can keep up with a blog, mine is very neglected and I find it takes so much time, so well done for keeping it up!
ReplyDeleteLook up the blog Crafterminds. She does a great job of giving advice on making your blog successful (if that's what you want!) and offering etiquette tips, etc. Plus if you're on twitter she hosts a tweet chat every monday. Just look for the hashtag crafterminds.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Whitney for this tip. There is so much of interest on that blog! I am not entirely sure I want a successful blog but I do want to make sure I credit other's work correctly and not inadvertently alienate my readers by committing some dreadful blogging faux pas!
DeleteReally interesting post! As far as comments, I tend to comment back on blogs of folks that comment on mine... and rarely directly answer their questions on mine.
ReplyDeleteYou're totally right, the pressure free feeling of writting whatever you want on your blog is great, I feel the same way. I still can't get over the fact that in spite of us all being so different and so physically far away we can share our thoughts and a little of our lives this way.
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