I haven't been blogging for all that long (about 5 months), but I'm glad to finally feel like I'm getting the hang of a lot of things. I've received all sorts of good advice from friends along the way, as well as learning from posts I've read. I started blogging just to keep up with family and possibly friends, and blogging has turned into a really important part of my life. This post is meant to be an audience participation thing, because I really want to hear what you guys think.
First I'll start with how I came to feel the way I do about blogging. I'd like to quote some friends in purple (hope they don't mind! about the quoting or the purple.) As I was reading through this again I realized that these guys are both professors of history, teaching me about blogging!:
" Until I tried it, I always thought blogging was a little self-indulgent. Now, I'm glad to indulge!" I hadn't even thought of this!! It has explained to me why some people shy away from blogging, including reading blogs. I think it also partially explains why I feel so apologetic about what I write. But it stopped me from being bothered with all the "this blog is about ME" everywhere. I realized people were making fun of themselves (I really did think that people were serious and were just vain like that. Weird. Especially for someone as sarcastic as I am...)
"I've. . . heard about something called "blog guilt" and "blog anxiety," where people spend tons of time on their blogs, or people who don't spent a lot of time feel guilty, or people who obsess over the comments. I just think, we already have enough to worry about, why worry about such a trivial thing? " This might not sound very profound, but it came early on when I was still very excited about getting comments. It's totally impacted how I see things.
I've also read a large number of posts about blogging (the heavily plagiarized one by Sue comes immediately to mind) or at least people mentioning here and there on their blogs about blogging/comments, that have had me picking and choosing what I want my blogging experience to be. AND what I don't want it to be.
POSTING:
Soon after I started blogging, I learned that I loved it when people posted regularly. I decided that I would try to post thrice a week. I shoot for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sometimes, when we're gone on a weekend, I might schedule the post so that it is published while I'm out. Sometimes this might cause almost an entire post to be in microscopic type because blogger is weird and it wasn't showing up like that on the preview before we left (sorry about that one, y'all).
I still post thrice a week, although I'm beginning to think that this is more than is necessary. I do it because I want to keep myself disciplined and doing something regularly. I realize this a little wrong, since you should just post when you have something to say. I do that too, though, I just wait to publish until the right day!
I have also spent a great deal of time apologizing for how long or boring/pointless my posts are and that I'm not trying to make things interesting around here. I am trying not to do this as much, but I am still constantly surprised that people are reading this blog. I also realize that hopefully, people just won't read if they think it's boring so apologizing for it is almost as pointless as some of my posts are.
COMMENTS:
It used to be that when I visited a new blog I would sometimes take note of how many comments they had on their posts, and kind of determine their popularity based on that. I would rarely leave a comment if there were already 15+ comments on that post, as I assumed that that person probably wouldn't even notice if I did or not.
I'm not going to lie and say I don't care about comments. It would be like saying I hate getting email from people I like. I don't. I love it. I just try not to let the number concern me too much. I will say that I was shocked the first time I saw that I had 17 comments. I was thinking, wait!! Am I one of them!?! But I know I'm not. I don't have 60 people subscribed to my blog. In reality I think at least half of the people that read my blog also comment! Sometimes more. Why are people so nice like that to me? Not sure, but I love it. I'll gush a bit about you guys in my
next post.
So now I realize that I think you can probably get a LOT of comments before you stop caring to read them all. I still don't comment on blogs like The Pioneer Woman though. I mean really. Do people think she reads the 300th comment about how their kid also goes streaking through the house naked, or how Wow! I LOVE chocolate chip cookies, too!!? (okay, I sorta made this up. I rarely visit her site, although I love it. Especially Cooking and I just peeked on there and saw TEN THOUSAND comments left on a giveaway post). I mean I'm glad people DO leave comments and they should. I just don't. Even on giveaways.
Since we're talking about avoiding things today, let me say that I try not to have pet peeves in blogging, because I want to like everyone and have us all be different and beautiful in our own ways. There is ONE thing that I don't quite get, though. I remember one time I was reading a blog I'd never read before and the post was a very intense, heart-wrenching one about her son's behavior disorder and how it affected their family. It really affected me as I read it and I was overflowing with a desire to know how to help her (she was asking for advice). There was just one comment before me and it was something like, "How funny that we bumped into each other at the store! Love your new purse." or something completely off topic like that. I was like, "Huh!?!" So I don't like comments that are completely off topic. Especially when the subject matter of the post is very personal or at least interesting (that hasn't really happened here, but I see it a lot on other blogs). I know that not everyone has the email address to contact their friend, but at least comment on the post first, then say your other thing. Just my opinion.
BLOG ROLLS:
This is such a hard one for me. Before I really got into blogging, my blog lists, famiLee (maiden name there) and friends, were all the bloggers I knew. As I started reading more and more blogs, I started thinking about a "friends I've never met" list. Still, I find I want to have 7 different categories for people I met in different ways or people who are huge (blog huge, not physically huge, that would be a really rude way to classify blogs! People who weigh under 130 lbs., 130-150, 150-170 etc.), people who found me and now we're friends, people who I found and now we're friends etc. etc. I just feel like there's a story behind each blog and I hate just lumping everyone into a huge blog roll.
My solution? You've probably already noticed. I just don't have a blog roll of people I've never met. I think I'll let my "followers" (which unfortunately feels slightly like a popularity contest I don't want to be in, but I love to see all your faces-or other scenic pictures, or blue, shadowy, faceless silhouettes, in my side bar) kind of be like my blog roll. Also, on my profile I have a list of the blogs I'm following, including those that aren't on blogger and therefore cannot be in my followers list. I think that will be my blog roll for now. I feel totally honored to be on some of your blog rolls. Really. Thanks a lot, guys.
Now! would you please tell me about some things you don't love about the world of blogs? Something that bugs you (even if I or my readers do it (like when someone doesn't reciprocate putting you on their blog list or something). We all know we love each other and we're OPEN, right?) or something that you are trying to steer clear of? I'll have an upcoming post on embracing blogging stereotypes and you can share what you love there, but for now, lets keep it negative.
*Oh, and will you also vote on my poll? Thanks, man!
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