Tuesday, March 19, 2013

I don’t Know Why I Blog, I Just know I Need to


On my Twitter feed I see my virtual and real life friends hashtagging their excitement about the Blogging Conference they are attending and I feel a bit jealous. .
I have blogged for years. I don’t know why.

I see people blogging for profit or to educate others. I see people blogging their way through grief and post natal depression, through weight loss and renovation. Not me. I just blog.
I don’t think I would want to commercialise the blog to the point where I am no longer writing for myself. I don’t know if I would want to narrow my blogging scope.  I wonder at my audience. I know you are out there even though my Google analytics fell over because my coding is terrible, I still know there are around 500 views a month but my comments fields area like a ghost town, complete with tumbleweeds.
This may come across as needy but as a prolific commenter I wonder at those who look at my blog posts and have a peep into my life and then wander off without feeling the need to comment. I wonder if I am boring, or shocking or…I simply don’t know as I have no feedback from the silent audience!
I don’t know why I need to blog, I write about jam and children, about business and pets, about books and property, I am not a niche blogger but I am me.

Sometimes I read other people’s posts and I look at the number of followers they have and the number of comments and I think “I don’t get it, why are they so beloved, why does this spark so much commentary?”

I know that some is clever, ceaseless self promotion, I know that some people have talkative wannabe hangers on but it doesn't account for it all. Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one feeling this way… Perplexed, but not bitter, I don’t begrudge anyone success in their chosen endeavour.
I don’t like posts on Social media purely designed to get comments (which are rife at present, is it just me who feels they are a trick and dislikes them on this basis?) , but I always engage if someone has a genuine question I can answer or a topic I feel I have something to offer.
I don’t know why I blog, I just know that I need to and I will continue doing so.

To my silent audience, I am glad you are there for whatever reason, but I will continue even if you disappear further into the ether.

7 comments:

  1. I had just clicked publish on this when my son decided to turn the internet on and off again without telling me. Let's see if I can remember what I said.

    I blog because I like to talk. That's about it really. Cannot even be arsed with Google Adsense. I LOVE hearing from people. I get lots of emails and whatnot and it pleases me endlessly that people trouble themselves to interact with me in this way.

    I follow maybe 7 or 8 blogs. I was mostly unaware of the "blogsphere" until about 2-3 months and continue to be overall unimpressed by it. There are exceptions. I like your honesty. Five Frogs Blog is amazing. Tegan's Misguided Musings (telling the truth even when it hurts) has earned my deep and lasting respect. Veronica and Kim Foale are brave and beautiful women. Ness of Boganville is as sweet and funny a lady as I have ever come across. Rachel's Retrogoddess is just beautiful, it makes me feel classier just looking at it - no mean feat! There are a few others.

    Depcon interested me not even the slightest.
    I recognise that I will probably offend just about every fucking body in the "blogsphere" by this statement and that my declaration will do my two blog nominations absolutely NO good at all.

    I will leave you to guess how much I care :D

    I occasionally flick through a blog I have happened upon and wonder why anybody troubles to comment (or read) too - but then I find myself puzzled by a lot of what people do, as a general rule, so I realise I am probably in the minority again.

    I may or may not continue to blog, depending on how mental I get really. I blogged in 2011 for 2-3 months before deleting everything because - well, I can no longer remember why really except it was all just too much hassle :)

    I truly believe that once you start to worry about what other people are thinking or saying or start blogging to please others your blog is doomed to die a horrid, pallid, dull and dreary death - just as your life would be a horrible, boring pointless existence if you live it worrying about the opinions of others. So I thoroughly approve of writing, regarldess of feedback. Which is just MY opinion of course. And please, for god's sake, don't take advice from me. That almost never ends well :D

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    1. ...regardless of feedback...or of proof reading. Again! Lazy bastarditus, sorry.

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    2. You can be safe in the knowledge that your comment will be read by hardly anyone over here which isn't a snark, just a fact! I think you are right, there are other forums for writing according to other people's rule, a personal blog is just that. yours is great, I like Tegan's and The Foale ladies' writing and will have to read Ness and Rachel now based on your stirling recommendation! Thank you for the comment by the way!

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  2. Haha, I am sure that is not so! And hell mend people if they only want to read what they imagine is popular or to try to suck up to someone. They will get precisely what they deserve! And won't probably even be self aware enough to realise it :)

    Rachel's is all about design, it is just beautiful, a lovely place to be and to look at lovely things. I generally understand almost nothing about fashion/design etc, but I know that wandering through her blog pleases me - it is not my usual fare at all, which is probably why I find it a pleasant change:) Ness is just awesome with her Carpenters obsession and her quirky little ways, she cracks me up!

    I know I have read your blog before, but not for a while. I am kind of forgetful and have a lot of online stuff going on, but I eventually find my way back in the end :)

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  3. I saw your link in Alison's tweet and I really love this post. I've only been blogging for a short while but started to try and promote my blog with link ups and stuff and them just suddenly stopped it all because urghhhh it wasn't doing what I wanted. I don't know what I want out of the blog any more.

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  4. Alison' tweet led me here too. And I didn't even pay her to say those nice things about me and my blog.

    I feel a lot of the same things you are describing too. I don't get why some blogs are so popular and others aren't. I've been blogging for a about a year, and my blog hasn't gone anywhere. I'm not good at self promotion. Atm feeling a bit like Sarah commented above, started doing link ups and just not sure where I'm going with it.

    I think Alison is totally right though, you need to do it for yourself and to hell with what people think.

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  5. Wow Alison what did you do to my blog? thanks everyone, it's great to know I am not alone in Blogging on regardless and feeling perplexed sometimes (by blogging- I feel regularly perplexed by different things!). I will try to track down some more "real" feeling blogs and hopefully be less jaded, you have all given me a good starting place!

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