Things I've Learned about Blogging

I'm coming up on some anniversaries here--I've got a birthday around the corner, I just had a wedding anniversary and then I've been blogging for four years now which kind of puts me in the running for bloggers' social security.

So being all introspective and everything I'm compiling a few things I've picked up over the past four years. Because four years in blogging time is pretty much close to an eternity and what good is all that time if you can't share a bit of it?

1. Bloggers are usually very nice people. In fact, surprisingly so. They're usually willing to answer questions and help out others in the medium and considering that we're talking pretty much total strangers here it kind of puts your faith back in humanity. I mean, if you can get a cross section of the world online and the majority you run across are generally nice and polite then doesn't that say something about the world in total?

2. There are waves of bloggers. When blogging first started you had the Techie Pioneers who blazed the trails followed by the Creative Practical types who figured they'd better give it a try because it seemed fun and it might have a future. Then there were the Me Too's! who heard about blogging on every street corner and finally decided they should see what all the fuss was about followed by the Entrepreneurials who smelled money in the air (though ironically enough to really make that money you had to be at the first or second wave). As more people pick up blogging it changes to mold to the whim of the masses. It sure has been interesting to watch . . .

3. And likewise there are waves of audiences. Or maybe a better way to put it is that audiences rotate. Someone finds your blog and they follow it for a while--how long it is I'm not entirely sure, it's hard to say--then they get to the point where they've seen enough of a blog that they get bored. Then a new set of readers move in and the cycle starts again. You see this with other media as well--magazines, television shows, whatever. There might be a core of hard core fans but generally the majority are a shifting mass that rotate through the cycle of lurking, commenting, devouring, burning out, dropping out.

4. Frequency of posting is more important than you think. In the past I thought that however often you post really doesn't matter--you decide it for yourself and follow your own pace. But now I'm not so sure it's not one of the more critical choices a blogger can make. First, if you're in blogging to improve your writing your frequency of posting will make a huge difference in how quickly your skills improve. It's the difference between exercising once a week and exercising every day. Conventional wisdom in the blogging world has suggested that more is better--up to a certain point at least--and that keeping readers happy with a steady stream of material is the key to success (if "success" is what you're after).

However, as I mentioned in point #3, readers can be a fickle group. They come, they sample, they return for another snack but feed them too richly too often and they get lardy and complacent. If your content is the equivalent of three full buffets a day then your readers will begin to take it for granted and expect more and more to satiate their appetites. You always want them to come to you hungry, right?

So my point is, somewhere out there is a scale that says "on this side you're giving them too much, they're getting fat" and "on this side you're starving them" and you've got to figure out where that point is and balance it against your abilities to produce. I'm not sure I've made the right calls when it comes to this issue. In fact, I'm quite sure I've been very selfish and have considered only my own wants and needs and have probably paid the price because of it.

5. There are only three reasons people read blogs. Education, entertainment or friendship. If you want to be a good blogger then you have to provide at least one of these things but preferrably two or three. I have about 200 blogs in my feed list that I read and the ones on the list are there because of one of three reasons: They teach me something (whether it's about food, crafts, parenting or another culture), they entertain me (usually by making me laugh) or they've been able to create a bond with me where I'm interested in what they're going to say simply because I like them as a person and care about their life.

If a blog can't provide one of these things it won't draw readers.

6. There is a blogging life expectancy. I've watched other blogs pretty carefully over the years and it seems there are stages that all bloggers seem to go through. The first is childhood where you're completely unsure of what you're doing, you can hardly find your way around your template, you're making faux pas right and left but don't even realize it.

Then you get past that and you're into adolescence where blogging is completely addicting. You spend too much time on the computer (at least you have that suspicion), you start to realize how big the blogosphere is and how much there is to learn and you're desperate to jump in and find your place. You start telling everyone that you've got a blog and you're having lots of fun.

Then when you hit blogging adulthood you realize how much time it takes to maintain your new hobby. You wonder if there is more to life than just the blog thing and if you shouldn't be focusing on something else. The workload of keeping things up and commenting hits you and you get very tired.

Finally, of course, is senior citizen status where you've been around long enough to generate some respect simply because you haven't succumbed to death yet. You've set rules for yourself and stick to them out of a sense of self-preservation and reality. You wonder how much longer you have left . . .

My point is, a blog's death can occur at any time along this time line but I've seen it commonly hit at about the 1-year mark. Something about blogging a year tends to make people stop and wonder why they're doing it and if it's not time to move on because that's usually when their blog hits adulthood and is fully grown. So if you're coming up on one year and are feeling that burn out it's not just you . . . it's pretty common.

7. The beauty of the medium is immediacy. But the best posts are those that can sit a bit. Back to the feeding-your-audience metaphor: while I can appreciate the wonders of fast food and have spent more than my share of calories on the joys of onion rings and strawberry milk shakes I do get a better meal from restaurants that take their time to let things braise and simmer and roast. Likewise, while blogging is about "now" and "what next?" I consistently find that the best writing happens when posts are allowed to set, solidify and mellow in between edits.

I know it's hip to think that just slapping words on the page and serving them up in their natural, raw, gritty state is the "real" way to write and to show one's true emotions but it's really a bunch of bologne (okay, perhaps I've taken the food thing too far). It's as I've heard time and time again . . . anyone can write but real writers edit.

8. Having a goal is everything. Of course this is true with everything in life, if you want to be successful then you have to have a plan where you want to go. Even if your plan is just to enjoy yourself you won't fully realize this goal unless you first formulate it.

People get into blogging for all sorts of reasons, none of which are necessarily wrong, but if your goal is to make money you are so completely in the wrong line of work. Not only is it highly unrealistic to think that you'll be able to get into the upper echelon that can make a living in such a volatile field (it's too determined by luck and genius to provide even modest incomes to the majority) but if you're in it first for the money then everything you do will have that shadow of motive behind it which cannot be hidden from your audience. They will eventually figure it out and it will turn them off.

Making money from blogging is completely fine--I personally say "Woo hoo!" every time I see a check with my name on it--but you'd better have a goal and it better be something other than that check if you want to find satisfaction in the job.

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