I'm a Blogging Wallflower
OK, I admit it: I watch the "popular bloggers," the ones who draw gazillions of readers to their site daily, and I wish I could somehow be like them. If I get 35 readers per day, I'm satisfied; 40, and I'm bordering on ecstatic. Granted, I write about nothing of substance -- but geeze, neither do they!
I've decided that the difference is in the branding. Maybe my blog isn't "branded correctly." Maybe I'm not marketing myself effectively. After all, I don't have ads running up and down the edges and I haven't registered my blog on all the blog searching sites out there.
Which prompts the question -- do I really care? I mean, who do I write my blog for? Ultimately, I write it for myself, simply because I want to write, simply because I (think I) have something to say. Actually -- the fact that more than a few people find my blog of any interest at all, and the fact that I have readers from more than a few countries, is pretty mind-boggling.
I'm a middle-aged (oh my god, I just saw that sentence on the screen... scary!) career woman and mother of grown kids. That's pretty much it! I don't write about my most profound feelings or my deep dark secrets; I just write about my day. So 28 readers is about right, and I am so grateful for the faithful friends -- and I do consider you friends -- among that small, select (ha ha!) group: Vailain, Blackcrag, DixiePeach, Lilly, Christina, Peter, and Jen, and others too numerous to mention. (Note sarcasm.)
I've thought about going the route of registering on every blogging site in existence and doing the whole GoogleAds thing... but WHY?! So more people can read about my Tupperware, or my management philosophy or about the day when I finally used chopsticks all the way through a meal? How stupid is that?!
I'll ponder that question while I do a gazillian loads of laundry and clean the house on my one free day between an emotionally exhausting week at work (which I better not write about) and a week-long business trip that will begin tomorrow.
(*Crowd painting -- isn't it cool?! -- courtesy of Gordon.)
5 comments:
When I started blogging and added a sitemeter I found that I was checking it kind of obsessively. I started to spend a little too much time trying to post interesting content not for me but for my slightly growing readership.
When I realized I wasn't blogging for myself any more but rather to keep my reader count up, I quit blogging for a while. When I came back I decided to blog only when I have something I want to share and not because I feel I need to. I don't check the sitemeter any more.
I was stunned to find out how many readers and commenters some sites get! I've noticed that some of the most popular sites have shut off comments. Just too much noise from the blogosphere I think. I think that if you want to be a really successful blogger you have to register all over and make intriguing comments on lots of other sites and then build your readership and that becomes pretty time consuming.
I like to visit the blogs of a few people that I enjoy (you're one of them) and if they want to come by my place every once in a while to check in that's fine with me. I think otherwise the blog starts wagging the blogger.
I enjoy reading your blog daily (or close to it).
Personally, I blog to inform my family and friends that are on another continent... the other people reading were picked up along the way and welcome too, but I try to remember that my "boring" daily life is of interest to my family 4000 miles away-- many of whom have never seen The Boy!
It is a hard call, and really, does it matter how many readers you get unless you are in it for the money? I don't look at my stats (don't know how to, and don't want to know how to).
I like reading your stuff, and don't want my comments to affect your life.
Oh I'll admit it. I'm not as worried about how many readers I get - I stay between 80 and 90 on average - but I get a little pouty if I don't get some comments. Not seriously pouty but when I get comments it lets me know that I'm writing in a way that's interesting to my readers.
As long as my regulars show up I'm happy because I do think of them as friends and of course I really love it when a new reader shows up.
Awww, thanks, I consider you a friend too, Carol. :-) And I love reading your blog. Just keep at it, comment a lot on other blogs and the readers will come.
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