This morning a reader, “urbanruralwitness,” left the saddest comment on my post My Cup Runneth Over.
“At least more than 1 person looks at your blog,” he or she wrote. “Unlike me. Let me ask: Was it tough to start this blog? How did other people notice you? My blog is now a bud. A dead rotting bud.
“A dead rotting bud!”! Poetic! And, like so much great poetry, it makes you want to kill yourself.
My response to urbanrural was:
“Yes, sometimes up to THREE people a day read my blog.
“Blogging is the most brutal thing since … flogging. My Actual Honest Opinion is that if you’re blogging in the hopes of attracting a readership beyond your family and friends (and even then), forget it. There are 120 million blogs out there. How in the world is any one blogger—who isn’t a corporate blog, who isn’t already famous, who isn’t a freak expert in some tiny little informational niche—supposed to rise above that solid wall of noise?”
I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot lately, because I’ve been e-chatting with the president of the San Diego Christian Writer’s Guild about maybe teaching a class at this year’s SDWG conference (which I attended last year and wrote about in Humbled by Beginning Writers, doncha know) on the how’s and why’s of blogging.
The “How” part I can do: Wake up. Caffeinate. Write blog post. Hit “Publish” button. Try not to obsess over your viewer stats. Fail at that. Don’t know what I’d talk about for the rest of the forty-five minutes, but that would do the job.
It’s the “Why” part of blogging where I get a little lost.
Because you love to write? Meaning you appreciate and even relish the craft of writing? Then why start a blog, where you have to produce so much writing you can’t possibly properly attend to each piece?
Because you want to be famous? Please. Talk about your one needle in 120 million haystacks.
Because … you love to type?
If you keep a blog, tell us why. Love writing? Hope to become famous—or to at least gather some folk around your soapbox? What gets you writing and publishing the content on your blog? What inspires you to blog? Do tell! At the very least it’ll help me with that class. Thanks!
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
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For me, I typically blog in order to become extra-double-super famous and make millions of dollars just from the Google ad hits as I accumulate hundreds of millions of hits per hour on my uber-cool blog.
And maybe, just maybe, if I lightened up a little bit in some of my posts like in the above paragraph, I too might experience somewhat higher traffic volume.
But it's always great to see believers out there who CAN show a sense of humor far better than I seem to be able to.
I blog for a number of reasons. I started out trying to 'practice' my voice because I want to write a book. The blog is anonymous due to the nature of what I write- and the kind of job I hold, so step cautiously.. I write honestly about sex and menopause and all the the other things we as women and as men ( well… not the menopause) experience in life. I write about parenting, caregiving, mistake-making and on and on. Most of my family and many of my friends are unaware of my blog. The blogging satisfies me in many ways. When I can express something well it gives me a huge high.. when I have a day with lots of 'hits' I'm pleased.. And, when one person comments to indicate that they don't feel so alone or that they can agree with what I feel.. then I feel that I'm accomplishing a part of what I set out to do…
As to the Monkey Typing punch… I'd add either coconut milk or pureed bananas to your concoction.. if you want to attract monkeys… in my humble opinion.
did i mention not to show off???
I see.
ruralurbanwitnesss.wordpress.com
12 years old,
and, no.
It just sounds like it is.
(best in english)
Rural: Clicking on your name does nothing.
Two questions: How old are you, and is English your first language?
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