I think we all want to be accepted - we all wish to be the best at what we do. We hope we find someone out there that is interested in what we have to say or what we do. In the blogging world...there are millions of people out there sharing their cooking, sewing, crafting and art abilities. Some people find their blogs by accident others seek out their blogs and some people promote their blogs. Which is the right way? Does anyone know for sure?
People say to take excellent photos - to keep the content simple and stream lined...well what if you only have a point and shoot camera - what if you blog at night when the kids go to bed...lighting will not be on your side. What if you have lots of interests and want to share them all - stream lined WILL not be easy. But how do you get people to your site...
Lets say you finally find the answer. Let's say that you have thousands of followers, tons of people linking to your blog, you spend lots of time on FACEBOOK, TWITTER and scouring the net looking for companies to sponsor your blog...you start making money and start devoting your free time (at night) and now some time during the day and you become consumed with keeping your followers happy. You get overloaded with stress - the stress of finding something interesting to write about. Oh and lets not forget about the photo editing...geez I hear that takes forever (if done right) so then becomes your life. You doing for others to keep up the prestige you built, to keep the companies happy, to keep things looking good according to Mrs Jones...(next blogger) your neighbor...And then we read about those blogger changing their tune. They want to blog for themselves, they need a break, they need to step back....Of course who is to judge - not me - not me the blog with only 80 followers, not me the blog who wants to have what they have...not me the blog that has no idea where to begin. I do not judge. I respect their time off and frankly move on. Out of sight out of mind. Sad but true.
With all that said, this blog has gone thru some craziness over the past 6 years...good bad and ugly. Because for the past 6 years I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get as good as those blogs. What do I have to offer, how can I get sponsors? Can I give up my life to seek a small following? Do I want to change my life? Do I want to share my life with the world. Do I really care what others think of me on my blog? DO I have the patience for the negativity that others often feel the right to leave as a comment.
So after some soul searching and some serious thought into what I want my blog to be I have decided NOT to shut it down. I have decided to make some changes...changes that I plan to keep and I hope to make it a place people want to visit and perhaps inspire them to make something pretty or at the very least make someone smile through my thoughts and shenanigans...
I have to admit that I do secretly wish for more followers but merely to know I am reaching people. I cant keep quiet about something I don't strongly believe in. And by all means, I will not promise a mistake free or grammatically correct post. I say it like it is and speak my mind and hope you can come to appreciate that.
I would like to incorporate some new agendas...like some weekly posts that hopefully I can offer a linky party with ( if I can figure that out) hopefully a blog hop so that everyone can get some new readers over to their blog and hopefully some great ideas on using some new and old products..
If you have read this far please take the time to come back by tomorrow and see how great this blog becomes...I'd love to meet you and visit your blog and for no other reason then to meet a new friend...no strings and no promises.
Thanks for visiting and here's wishing your blog is everything you hope it to be...
(this is ME - with my kids - so you can have a face with the name)
tina
3 comments:
I love your blog and I feel a lot of the same things. I've come to realize that I blog to share and whoever follows, with that I'm happy. yes, I'd love to have a lot more followers, but I don't want to lose that joy of doing something I love because I love it-not to please others. You know I'm a big fan of yours and all of your arts and will be there commenting along :-)
I think this is something (like you said) so many bloggers are going through over the last year or so. It's good to focus and figure out what you want - I did the same about a year ago and even still, slowly working out what the heck I'm doing.
Looking forward to how you progress & hope that most of all - it makes you happy.
Have you ever looked at BlogHer? I see that a lot of people with many followers are affiliated with it. Just throwing it out there, in case you are looking for that. Or maybe I just look at too many blogs - and I just see it a lot.
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