If no one ever read your blog or knew that it existed, would you continue to write? Ran across this somewhere in a list of things to blog about. It interested me only in that I've had this thought before.
I started blogging so long ago I can't even remember the year. If you want to know you can go back to the first posts. Oh, never mind. It was 2005. I looked.
I called it something else back then. The name isn't the only thing that changed. I did, too. I'm not sure who I was back then but certainly I'm very different now.
I don't really know why I originally started blogging. I think I had some notion I'd become famous. Laughable now but there it is. We all crave fame at some point. Then we grow up. Actually, we watch the news and see what happens to the famous and realize it isn't all it's cracked up to be.
For the most part, it is a silly blog filled of things I was experiencing and thinking. Probably not a good format for a blog if you're wanting to be famous... and read. I considered revamping and restructuring. I've change the layout a few times, added things, removed things, and changed the name once. Still, it is pretty much the same kind of blog - a recitation of all that I go through. And honestly, that's got to be useless to everyone. I doubt anyone knows I'm here. Or if they do, they quickly forget.
More recently I studied the "branding", "marketing", platform stuff and found those are fancy names for work. Decided I wasn't interested.
I actually enjoy blogging, even if no one reads it. So why would I stop? If it hurt me, say like dropping a hammer on my foot, I might not be so eager but it doesn't hurt. It is actually a kind of nice feeling when I get a post done and sometimes, when it is actually a good post, it is a great feeling. And if someone comments... well, that's euphoria. And if it cost me something I might stop but it's one of the few things in life that is actually free. That's so rare that I have no intention of giving it up. Unless they start charging.
I suppose the answer is that yes, I'd continue blogging. I have done for over 10 years and two attempts on Yahoo 360 & Multiply - both of which sunk. My Blogger site has endured. So, until something changes to make it a negative experience, I'll continue. Even if you or anyone else never reads it.
I am still reading but rarely have time to comment. It is easier to send you an email. I haven't blogged in an age. I started the year with such good intentions but sadly the year so far is not going to my plans. I do intend to get back in to it... soon, hopefully.
ReplyDeleteMine started out as a kind of online diary for myself. I never had any aspirations with regard to readers so I have never worried about it all. I do it primatily for myself so will continue regardless of anyone knowing I am here ..or not.
I know you do! I keep up with you as much as I can. I miss your blogs but I know you're very busy.
DeleteI read them all!!
ReplyDeleteI am of the same boat as you on a number of levels, I was a refugee from both Yahoo 360 and Multiply who ended up on Blogger and rarely do I find myself blogging for anyone but me. For me it is an outlet of sorts, some people go to the gym, some people drink, I blog. It is a way of getting out all of the pent up energy I have built up through the course of the day.
ReplyDeleteLikewise my blog has changed over the years, in part because my life has changed over that time as well. When I first started blogging I don't know if I was looking for fame, but I was working in talk radio and many of my posts were more along the lines of what was topical that day. But one of the things I learned through the years is that the internet, for all of its vast potential, really isn't much of an educating experience, most people do not look for truth on the internet, they look for affirmations, so they glom onto whatever preconceived notions and beliefs they had prior to logging on. The adage "I read it on the internet, so it must be true" comes to mind. So the idea of blogging on current events and dong a blog on why I think about things the way I do, with reputable sources for my arguments, became a Don Quixote like task. I had no desire to take on the mantle of the dealer of common sense, while the Alex Jones's of the world were making a cottage industry of internet conspiracy theories. Instead I tended to make my page more about me, knowing full well that the audience of people who would actually be even remotely interested in what I wrote would be small.
I do blog every day, in part because I want to see if I can make it through a year doing so. There are days where I wonder why, I finish my entry and think "well, that sucked", but every once in a while I hit it, I turn a right phrase or have a well formulated thought in my head that makes it from cerebral synapses into a honest to goodness blog entry and I can walk away from the computer better for having sat down in front of it to begin with.
As for comments, I like them but I do not hold my breath expecting them. I tend to read most of the updates that pop up on my blog roll, even if I do not comment on the majority of them. If I don't comment it is simply because I have little or nothing to add to the entry in question. Many of my friends write about their political or religious beliefs and they are beliefs that I might not share, I just don't find it my place to use their page and their work to promote ideas counter to theirs unless they specifically ask for that input ahead of time. So I just read quietly and keep to myself in such instances, It is not much of a win if you win an argument but lose a friend.
Okay, I have prattled on enough, pretty soon this comment will be as long as the entry itself. Suffice it to say, whether I comment or not, I usually read most everything you write.
Awww, Matt! Thank you! And I do read your stuff. I just wish I was a dedicated to reading as you! I've discovered that I've got so many blogs I like that now I can't keep up. I've got to weed them out but I don't want to!!
DeleteAnyway, thank you, as always.
It is funny how the Multiply crowd seems so dedicated to one another. And most of us have outlasted even that site. They're completely out of business.
Well I luck out in that most of the blogs on my reading list are people that do not blog much anymore, so my news feed is slow in updating. And some of the ones that do update, like Thug Kitchen and A Year of Slow Cooking for instance, are not really all that conducive to me adding much in the way of commenting, they are more about me learning cool stuff than anything else
ReplyDeleteBlogger is so different than y360 and Multiply. It is taking some getting used to. I miss being so connected with people.
ReplyDeleteI journal blog. I get it out there and if no one comments, I really don't care at this point.
Well, I do sometimes, Chris. And I read you more than you think. You're a bit like me, there. The blog is your vent and as such, doesn't always need comment.
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