Try this: Go to Google and search "blog". Go ahead, do it, we will wait.... What did you get? I got this: "About 5,230,000,000 results (0.12 seconds)" under my search bar. That's more than 5 billion results from the word blog. Now, I realize that these probably aren't all blogs but even if half are blogs... WOW! And 2 of them are mine!
If someone would have told me to do this exercise before I began my blogs I don't think I would have them right now. It's kind of discouraging. But why? Why would this cause someone to be reluctant to start a blog? As far as I know the internet isn't running out of room yet. I think it's because we see blogging as a way to get our little piece of the famous pie. We think, "Hey if I get enough readers I can be like that chick from 'Julia and Juliet'" (or whatever it was). And I really think that's the problem with blogging. We have expectations. If we don't have X amount of readers subscribed by blank date then it's not going well. And no one has had bigger expectations than me. Shoot, Blogger still tells me I have 5 blogs. And I was sure that each one was going to be HUGE!
But, if it's not to become famous, why should you blog?
I'm sure there are tons of reasons why you should blog. For me, it's because I enjoy it. I like writing. I like researching things that interest me. I also like reading other peoples blogs to get an insight into their minds. And at least blogging actually produces something, unlike gaming for 4 hours at a time....
Here are the only rules I have placed upon myself for blogging:
1. Make it fun. If you don't enjoy it then you can't expect anyone else to.
2. Blog about things that interest you, not things that interest others.
3. Don't worry about your readership. It will come with time.
4. A blog is not for complaining about work, family, or anything that is too personal.
So, start a blog. Write what you want, and have a blast. I know I do.
good attitude. I need to stop expecting the world to love my blog over night. I have had some interesting successes though. The most interesting was when I started funnymormons.com I set out to just post as often as possible. I kept it up for a few months then started to slow down but sure enough a few posts got ranked for popular searches. I now get 200-300 visits a day mostly for two posts. I have 126 posts on that blog and 2 of those get over 50% of the pageviews!
ReplyDeleteJust keep going. I do funnymormons just for fun. As I find funny things by or for mormons I just post them there. I'm sure if I were more consistent it would be doing that much better.