My friend at http://www.librariantellsall.com/ has much goodness to offer in terms of blogging advice and generally being a delightful, stylish and charming human being. Often after reading her posts, I am arrested with the desire to join the conversation and create an elaborate online identity. I am not very cool or interesting in real life, but I do aspire to both, an uphill challenge for a single mom. The internet is all about having a shocking amount of control over one's persona and.. yeah, blog more.
My main problem with blogging is that I have no desire to take or edit picture in an organized fashion. Sure I Instagram my lunch, brunch and pedicures like any self aggrandizing denizen of the 21st Century, but the pictures never... make any sense.
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| Faux Fur Blanket |
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| Exquisite Corpse |
I have no idea.
I am doing my very best to be clear and present for life's adventures and challenges and at this moment that does not include the task of meaningful photography. Something to aspire to?
(How's this blog post going so far? Yea, I know.)
Another barrier to blogging is: Why would anyone read this? My mom and aunt are like legally obligated to care, but you? Who are you? What would you like to see? Facebook is a huge time suck, but it does offer instant gratification and feedback on what is and isn't of interest. The sense I have about blogging is:
If I just commit to sending out personal marketing messages every day/week for 6 mo/year then finally, finally I'll be able to have analytics data that let me know I've taken my (tiny) seat as a content creator.
I am very attached to the idea of creating content over consuming it. (Yummy content, noms) That is generally what I do for a living. Learning new and better ways to do this, does seem helpful. (Taking suggestions).
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| Maurice |
Fin.
PS: I'm committing here to write about Wattpad sometime in the future.
Aw, shucks! Thank you for your kind words. I felt so shy and grateful when I read them. Your questions are ones I've considered, a lot.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging for similar reasons: I was inspired by bloggers, and I wanted a way to get to know them and take part in the conversation. Back when I first started blogging, shockthebourgeois.blogspot.com was a particular favorite of mine. Also, I wanted to collect all my projects, ideas, and inspirational images in one place. Mostly, though, I just had the itch to write.
I did (and DO) ask myself whether blogging is self-indulgent. Why would anyone care about what I post? In my earliest posts, I struggled to find my voice and be relevant. It shows.
It's all about determining what you know or do that might be interesting to others. For me, that could be a decorating color scheme, a recipe, a book review, a craft tutorial, etc. For you, that might be cooking, restaurant reviews, book reviews, humor, diy, or something else.
I pepper all my posts with personal tidbits, because people reading blogs generally WANT a personal touch and a less formal tone. But I try not to be all LOOK AT ME.
Photography is a vital part of blogging, and it's NOT my passion. Blogging forced me to learn to take better pictures. When I reframed it in my mind (Learning new things is cool!), it wasn't so bad. It's a new way of doing things, and I still feel like a bad blogger because I neglect to whip out the camera at key moments, but whatevs.
Building an audience is the most complicated part, and we can talk more about that in person. Submitting each post to Google, considering SEO and all that jazz as you create the post, submitting your posts to bigger sites to be reblogged, and NETWORKING and supporting other bloggers are all things I've done, with varying degrees of success.