A Blog on Blogging
A few questions for my fellow bloggers:
Why do you blog? For whom do you write? If you craft a particularly well-written entry and it doesn’t get any comments, does that mean it was of little value? If a blog entry is written about some frivolous topic and it gets a lot of comments, does that make it a “good” entry?
My friend John at J’s Theater wrote a piece in reaction to another blogger, Nubian. and her frustrations about the lack of responses to her more socially conscious pieces and an inability to break out and make a name for herself in the vast blogosphere.
Their comments are not unlike those I’ve heard from other blogger friends trying hard to find their niche and carve out a place in a community that is growing by the thousands every day of the week.
I posed the rhetorical questions above because I think they are at the heart of this discussion and weigh on the minds of anyone who has been at this for any length of time.
I think there is a natural evolution to blogging. You start off with great enthusiasm and excitement, typically blogging a lot at the outset, maybe even every day. You start to get noticed because people leave comments and that feels good. You’re now part of a community. Then the burden of posting regularly starts to set in as well as the awareness that what you write is being read by lots of people you don’t even know. Maybe you even get a few negative comments in reaction to what you write. That’s a bit jarring because now you realize not everybody thinks you’re a genius. It’s starting to seem like work now. You may even find that all your offline activities are geared around finding something interesting to write about. You may start to feel self-conscious and even start taking yourself a little too seriously, feeling as though you “have to write” or you’ll “let my readers down.” Man, what a stinky diaper that is!
It will evolve further to the point where you consider quitting, if the comments stop coming regularly. Now you’re putting in all this work and those damn readers don’t even appreciate it. “Why do I even bother” you might ask yourself.
Does any of this sound familiar?
I think it’s important to step back and gain perspective. I think some bloggers take themselves and what they do a little too seriously. It may be helpful to know there are an estimated 80,000 new blogs started every day, possibly as many as 50 million worldwide. They are as diverse and varied as the number of people who own them.
I find the concept of a “famous blogger” to be downright laughable. More likely it’s a shameless self-promoter who spends more time trying to get the attention of the mainstream media as he does blogging. The idea that anyone would want to try to keep up with these people is even more asinine.
I think a preoccupation with who or how many people are reading or commenting is also unhealthy. With so many blogs and only so many hours in a day, we should all probably be thankful that anyone takes time to read. And how many non-bloggers bother to read them? Are we a community of writer/readers unto ourselves? My gut tells me yes.
I say all this to say, does it really matter who’s “famous” or not, who gets comments and who doesn’t, who else is writing about the same things we are? Are we really “competing” with one another, or is that your imagination?
In answer to my own questions, I blog because I have thoughts in my head I want to get out. Writing them down helps me make sense of them. Consequently I write primarily for myself, although I recognize other people do read this. And because this blog is a reflection of my varied interests and thoughts at any given moment in time, some will be serious, some frivolous, but as long as I can finish it and post it, that’s good enough for me.
If you stopped by and took the time to read this, thanks. If you care to comment, feel free. If not, that’s cool too.
Posted by bernie at April 28, 2006 12:02 AMFeedback is good. Anything I don't want people to respond to doesn't go online for public consumption. This is my logic.
Sometimes, when I write something that I'm extremely proud of, I make people aware of it. I've gotten good results from that.
Also, just being seen is sometimes enough. I have high profile posts with zero comments but major traffic.
I think I'm at a point where I'm confident enough to acknowledge that just because someone isn't commenting, it doesn't mean they aren't reading. Additionally, I don't get mad over it. Feedback and validation is good, I never turn that away. But I don't get upset when I'm not getting it.
Posted by: nOva at April 28, 2006 12:32 AMjust to clarify--
my goal in blogging is to not become famous. what i was getting at was that a number of people were taking my words, and a number of other women of color's thoughts and ideas as their own, without giving credit where it was due. we felt as if it was yet another example of white privilege to "steal" the words of women of color. this happens all of the time and we got sick of it.
in any case, i enjoyed this posting. you are right about the stages of blogging. stay sane
Nubian, thanks for the clarification.
Posted by: Bernie at April 28, 2006 12:49 AMI had to look back and re-examine why I started blogging recently. I just came off an ex-manfriend induced hiatus and had stopped blogging altogether. When I started, I was doing it just for me and didn't really care what I said or how it came out.
Then that whole "getting fired for blogging on the clock" thing happened.
Now I'm a bit more metered in what I say, but I try not to be restrictive to myself. I know people are reading, and I've lost many friends due to my blog, but I'm still doing it. I try not to even look at comments and/or trackbacks as a measure of how well I'm blogging; for me, it's just about being satisfied with what I create enough to slap my pseudonym on it.
Posted by: karsh at April 28, 2006 9:18 AMI guess that's the thing for me--I've been "known" on the net for 10+ years and remembering posting stuff on newsgroups and e-mail lists as a "blog" when blogs didn't exist and the WWW was on some weird thing called Mosaic that people didn't know what to do with.
I became "famous" when I really had no intention of doing so--I responded to posts written by people that I liked, and I assumed that it was only those people who actually read them, not realizing that for every one person who read or posted, there were 100s or 1000s of people who simply lurked. In that respect, it made me uncomfortable, but I still did it anyway because at that time, it was the only way for me to meet any open minded LGBT POC anywhere and kept me sane.
I went through a period, as you stated, when I blogged to get a response, and found it completely unsatisfying. I'm now blogging simply to post shit up because it's stuff I want to write about and not because I want people to know the minutiae of my life or my thoughts. Recognizing that my blog is essentially an open diary is something that I'm completely comfortable with and something that I think works for me at this moment. It may not work later on, but for now, I'm happier with my blog now than I've ever been because it's really now just for me.
Posted by: Efren at April 29, 2006 2:15 AMWe blog because we can? I like getting comments. It is rather disappointing to write what one thinks is a very interesting or time consuming to craft post and then have zero comments attached to it. :(
Good question, Bernie!
Posted by: Mad Professah at April 29, 2006 2:43 AMI'm brand new to your site and relatively new to blogging. Came across your site and am digging your posts.
To answer your question: I blog to release, to document, to stay honest and to heal.
Posted by: Darbs at April 29, 2006 9:55 AMBlogging started because I had an immense amount of time on my hands and needed an outlet due to health issues.
When I went back to work, I had much less time to blog due to my intense schedule. The first notice that it became popular was when my site (and other blogs) were blocked at work. That was fine, since it was a warning to blog-at-home and keep my life on track.
When I started concentrating more on my love of music, needless to say my readership started to grow VERY unexpectedly. Last year it tripled from 2004, and as it stands now, the traffic will probably double from last years, from estimates on the current growth pattern I'm seeing. Nice? Yes. Frightening? Definitely.
Intense scrutiny followed and any sense of privacy went away. The site veered away from the intense aspects of my life and instead went more into entertainment. It also takes an immense amount of my free time, which I'm learning how to balance. It's taken me almost a year to start injecting my life back into it. It's been immensly gratifying, and I've gotten more positive comments and encouragement to keep with the flow and inject more of my life into the mix.
I can honestly say I've gained dozens of friends and acquaintences and only lost one. The increase of traffic tells the tale. The lesson I've learned is that if I can go back and read what I wrote and not have the slightest inclination to delete the post, then I'm happy. If I had to do it over again, I'd do the same exact thing.
I started blogging because from a distance it seemed fun. I thought a blog would be a great tool to use to keep in contact with my friends. I've gotten to that stage in life where I really only speak to 2 or 3 of my friends multiple times a week. The rest I catch up with whenever the mood hits or a need arises. I had planned for the blog to be like a bulletin about the happenings in my life - that way I wouldn't have to recount recect issues/situations to those friends that i'm in contact with less often.
That idea was a bust. I sent a mass email out to everyone with a link to my blog and an explanation for its purpose and the only people that bothered to drop by were the friends I was already in contact with multiple times a week. Go figure!
I blog now moreso out of habit. I feel like i've missed out on someting if I haven't written or haven't visited my normal blogs on any given day. I also enjoy the comradery that has developed between me and my regular readers.
Bernie, are you sure you're not a therapist? You hit some of my thoughts and experiences with blogging right on the head! I suppose I can still be considered a relatively new blogger, given that I have only been doing it for less than 6 months now. I take a lot of time, effort and sometimes do a little bit of research (reading articles to get a better understanding of the topic) on things that I write about. My blog I suppose is more on the socially conscious side, though I have gotten a little more comfortable over time putting more personal things on there, like pictures of me, my partner and friends, talking about what is going on in my life etc.
I have to admit that I sometimes get a little bent out of shape that I don't get more comments on my posts. I sometimes wonder if people find the content interesting. I write mostly in response to current events that make me angry or that inspire me. Several months ago I put a counter on my blog, so that I could tell how many people were visiting. Once I did that, I noticed that I was getting quite a few hits, though people weren't neccessarily leaving comments.
I suppose I should be content that folks are viewing my blog and I have gotten emails from a couple of folks saying that they like it and they view it regularly and I do have a few folks who post comments fairly regularly. I intially started blogging because I wanted to share my thoughts on current events and also write things that may be helpful to others, given my knowledge on certain topics. I think these are things I have stayed true to on my posts and I will continue ot blog, because it is still therapeutic to me.
Thanks 4 this post B, it helped me to put some things back into perspective.
Posted by: Absolutelee at April 30, 2006 9:18 PMGreat posts! I started blogging when I was living in Japan. It was a great way for me to keep in touch with my friends & family and through photos show them aspects of my life. Now I'm back in the U.S. and I'm not sure if I want to blog about my current slacker lifestyle ;)
Sir Bernie- please note that I check in and read your weblog a lot but half the time I don't leave a message. Peace!
Posted by: MS. World at May 8, 2006 1:15 PMBernie, I think we talked about this a bit when we had dinner. This is a great topic.
Why I started blogging?
I started blogging because I wanted to write about the music I enjoy. I was not liking the music reviews that I was reading, so in summer 2002, I wrote eight small music reviews for a publication. The reviews were well received but never published. In the fall, I attended the Monterey Jazz Festival for my first time. I came back on fire and ready to write. Me and EJ decided on a domain name for my pursuits and three weeks later, j-notes.com was born.
Why do I still blog?
My blogging has definitely been a journey for me. I look at my blogs as a placeholder for all the different things in my life. I definitely want to write more this year and I am hoping that getting organized and my wireless laptop will help me do that. It is only natural that we all want to be recognized but I never would have thought that blogging would have allowed me to meet so many wonderful people (including you, Bernie!) and go so many wonderful places. There will always be peaks and valleys in your blogging. There will also be times where you have the ideas but just cannot convey them in the way that you would like. Sometimes you will need to just step back for a minute and regroup but keep bloggin'!
Posted by: James at May 10, 2006 5:58 PM