Addicted to Blogging?
13/05/08 19:56 Filed in: Blogs and Blogging
Addicted to blogging? Are you really? It was a question I asked myself this morning as I launched Google Analytics before breakfast!
I’m new to life as an independent Blogger. About nine months ago I joined MySpace and caught the blog bug. I enjoy writing. I loved the dialogue with others and sharing common interests with like minds. In no time at all I had a four-figure blog readership and some sparky debate going on. So I decided to declare independence and go it alone here.
I read all I could and joined the odd e-mailing list of seasoned blog practitioners claiming knowledge of how to do this blog thing right. Daily I receive exhortations on how to analyse, publicise, optimise and monetise my writing…sometimes written moneytize and usually spelt in dollars. I had to:
• Find a niche - Drat! Psychology is not a niche…better consider something like providing cognitive behavioural therapy to agoraphobic rabbits in distress! Poetry is not a niche either…neither is literature nor writing! Move on…
• Build credibility. As what, a human being?
• Boost my Google page rank
• Establish a web presence
• Not duplicate content (Wise words in hindsight!)
• Cover my pages with advertisements based on Google AdWords
• Make friends with zillions of other bloggers
• Publish something every day even if I had nothing to say
• Join every social network site and proselytise my words.
And then the world would be mine! I too could have over one thousand visitors in my first month. I too could earn a fortune as a rampant blogster on amphetamines!
The blog social networks are rife with people who have consumed and digested all this stuff. One can check out their pages with thousands of so-called “friends” images arranged like a gigantic stamp collection. How can anyone maintain friendships with three thousand people? But that’s not the point is it? It’s not about friendship at all. It’s not about dialogue, communication, community, sharing or exchanging thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences or desires or any laudable motive like that. It’s simply a feeble attempt to capture a small market when it comes to the stage of moneytization. So what?
If one looks at a blog social network, like BlogCatalog, that I like, enjoy and where I have met some very interesting people, one can see the casualties of the catechism of the golden idol everywhere. There you can find twelve year olds from Diddly Squat, Ohio advocating the “seven steps to realising your full potential” when diddly squat is exactly what they know! There are people who have taken the “write something every day” rule to heart and write mindless twoddle every day. There are others who write frequently and write very well but they are the notable exception rather than the rule. I have met some of them. There are people who copy high-profile content mindlessly from all over the internet in order to gain a high Google page rank. But they all miss the point. (And this is all tongue-in-cheek by the way! Or is it really?).
I have this fundamental belief that has served me very well in my life and work and it goes like this: Success and money are essentially by-products of doing something well. If one really believes in something, one’s passion and enthusiasm will infect others and act as a catalyst in success. If one declares money-making to be one’s sole purpose, then occasionally if one is obsessed one might succeed in making money, but that is all. But in the accomplishment of the single goal of making money, one rarely finds true friendship or happiness. That’s what I believe.
So why do you do it and why do I? For me, some of the reasons appear on the home page of my website which says, “My real pleasure comes from sharing and exchanging thoughts, experiences, ideas, feelings and desires with others who have similar interests. Eventually I want to make this web-site a stimulating and thriving medium of communication…” There are other reasons too. I love writing and blogging can be enormous fun. I live in France where most people do not share the same language. But overall I enjoy the community, communications and dialogue with others and it’s great fun! I have no plans for immediate moneyfication (As Gee Dubbyah might say). Occasionally I make some small gain from my writing but that’s a by-product of something I enjoy doing. I love writing!
But what about you? Why do you do it? What do you want from it? Break the mould and leave me a comment! It’s a slow process out here alone on the world-wide-web. I’m not yet enjoying the success that I gained quickly at MySpace (where I have since deleted my blog content because of the issues around duplicate content!) Whatever you think or feel, I would love to hear from you. Have fun blogging!
I’m new to life as an independent Blogger. About nine months ago I joined MySpace and caught the blog bug. I enjoy writing. I loved the dialogue with others and sharing common interests with like minds. In no time at all I had a four-figure blog readership and some sparky debate going on. So I decided to declare independence and go it alone here.
I read all I could and joined the odd e-mailing list of seasoned blog practitioners claiming knowledge of how to do this blog thing right. Daily I receive exhortations on how to analyse, publicise, optimise and monetise my writing…sometimes written moneytize and usually spelt in dollars. I had to:
• Find a niche - Drat! Psychology is not a niche…better consider something like providing cognitive behavioural therapy to agoraphobic rabbits in distress! Poetry is not a niche either…neither is literature nor writing! Move on…
• Build credibility. As what, a human being?
• Boost my Google page rank
• Establish a web presence
• Not duplicate content (Wise words in hindsight!)
• Cover my pages with advertisements based on Google AdWords
• Make friends with zillions of other bloggers
• Publish something every day even if I had nothing to say
• Join every social network site and proselytise my words.
And then the world would be mine! I too could have over one thousand visitors in my first month. I too could earn a fortune as a rampant blogster on amphetamines!
The blog social networks are rife with people who have consumed and digested all this stuff. One can check out their pages with thousands of so-called “friends” images arranged like a gigantic stamp collection. How can anyone maintain friendships with three thousand people? But that’s not the point is it? It’s not about friendship at all. It’s not about dialogue, communication, community, sharing or exchanging thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences or desires or any laudable motive like that. It’s simply a feeble attempt to capture a small market when it comes to the stage of moneytization. So what?
I have this fundamental belief that has served me very well in my life and work and it goes like this: Success and money are essentially by-products of doing something well. If one really believes in something, one’s passion and enthusiasm will infect others and act as a catalyst in success. If one declares money-making to be one’s sole purpose, then occasionally if one is obsessed one might succeed in making money, but that is all. But in the accomplishment of the single goal of making money, one rarely finds true friendship or happiness. That’s what I believe.
So why do you do it and why do I? For me, some of the reasons appear on the home page of my website which says, “My real pleasure comes from sharing and exchanging thoughts, experiences, ideas, feelings and desires with others who have similar interests. Eventually I want to make this web-site a stimulating and thriving medium of communication…” There are other reasons too. I love writing and blogging can be enormous fun. I live in France where most people do not share the same language. But overall I enjoy the community, communications and dialogue with others and it’s great fun! I have no plans for immediate moneyfication (As Gee Dubbyah might say). Occasionally I make some small gain from my writing but that’s a by-product of something I enjoy doing. I love writing!
But what about you? Why do you do it? What do you want from it? Break the mould and leave me a comment! It’s a slow process out here alone on the world-wide-web. I’m not yet enjoying the success that I gained quickly at MySpace (where I have since deleted my blog content because of the issues around duplicate content!) Whatever you think or feel, I would love to hear from you. Have fun blogging!
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