My Cup Runneth Over…
Yea verily, my dear friends, I am overwhelmed with the outpouring of good vibes and encouraging comments in my previous post Just Wondering…, in which I quite sincerely questioned whether anyone really reads my gutteral utterances here. At press time there were 16 comments, a record for one my postings. To all I am grateful! Thank you!
Though several of you interpreted my questioning as thinking of quitting, that was never really a part of my agenda. Like all who blog, I have on occasion wondered if it is worth the time and effort. But I quickly get over that when I remind myself that first of all, I do this for me. As stated on my about page (I called it “Who? Why?” just to be a bit different), I started blogging out of a need for “a creative outlet … a dumping ground for my collective thoughts, fears, desires, complaints, delights, rants, and musings … A cathartic cerebral disgorgement.” For me it has been all that … and much more.
Hit counters, visit logs, stat vats have never interested me, so I have no numeric measures to analyze. For some bloggers, that is the name of the game … and that is fine. But not for me. Too much room for error, too many ways the turnstyle clickers can be skewed or fooled, and too much time and effort required to collect, analyze and react to all of that. And in the end analysis … so what? Becoming a major bandwidth wastage station was never an objective.
Early on, one respected and seasoned veteran advised me that traffic was what it was all about … the holy grail of the blogosphere, and that comments should not be used to judge the level of readership or the level of success of the blog. Others have advised that they rarely surf the blogs themselves, but depend on the various RSS feeds, etc. If the objective is getting updates from as many sites as possible fed to you automatically as they happen, then using an aggregator or feed is perhaps the way to go. For me, there is far more pleasure and fulfillment in manually browsing and reading. Doing it with a ‘gator may allow covering more territory in a shorter period of time, but you miss a lot that way — the little nuances, the threads, the changes in scenery. I for one do not wish to give that up.
The advice of those who preceded me and who I truly respect and in some ways emulate, is greatly appreciated. I have learned much of value from them. I have also learned that even they do not know it all. The landscape, the technology, the very social fabric of the blogosphere is changing rapidly. So rapidly in fact, that it has become almost impossible for any one person, especially one with other responsibilities like job, family, etc. (that’s most of us, folks) to keep up.
Those blogaratti gurus have achieved their well deserved status because in addition to having something to say that people wanted to hear, they paid attention to the stats and pulled that string, twisted that knob, toted that bale, to achieve their objectives. But … and this is important … their objective of traffic generation is not my objective. Au contraire. My prime objective remains as stated above and in my “Who? Why?” page. My secondary objective has evolved over time, and that is to fully engage whatever small community of friends I develop here, to support them by reading and commenting on their posts as often as possible, and yes, to accept their comments, pro or con, as a kind of validation that our activity and participation here is somehow good and meaningful.
If I had presented a clear and cogent message in the original question, it would have read as a call for critique. What can I change in approach, appearance, content, or functionality that would make nobodyasked a more interesting and compelling destination for reading and exchange of ideas? If anyone has stayed the course through this long and rambling post and wishes to contribute any ideas, either in the form of comments or email, I am eager to learn your opinions. If you prefer email, it is winstonrand AT bellsouth DOT net.
Now you have been warned! You will not get rid of me that easily…
8 Comments so far
Winston, THIS was a great post! And, I for one, feel exactly as you do about blogging…for the same reasons. It’s all about the community to me..the give and take….the sharing of honest emotions and connections. I’m glad to know that you will continue to share your wit, wisdom and warmth…and, that’s why I come to visit you. -Joy
Winston, the stats counter stuff is boring to me. In the beginning it was fun to see how readers came to my site. But that doesn’t interest me so much any more. Writing down my thoughts and feelings in a public way has done wonders for my writing skills and certainly for self-exploration. And then, there is what Joy calls community. That has been extremely important for me in so many ways.
I do think I write my blog for me … but also for others. And there’s the tension and the balance and it makes it so exciting. It is strange though how some posts of mine receive hardly any comments and some (mostly those I don’t expect) receive a whole lot.
I am definitely not a “blogaratti guru” and I think our activity and communication is valid and meaningful.
Let’s, do keep on keeping on, being ourselves and sharing who we are in our blogging community!
Counters don’t matter so much to me…I have one, but I forget to pay attention to it since it’s buried on the very bottom of the page (where I rarely venture).
I use my blogroll AND bloglines feed~when I am reading with bloglines I’m less apt to make a comment.
Since I do love getting comments~pretty much the only ‘conversation’ I have with adults outside of work~I try to get around & leave a comment once in awhile. But I’m reading, whether I’m commenting or not.
Here’s my critique: Don’t change a damn thing.
Winston, I’m with you. I write because I have to and I can (although sometimes I wonder that it is because I live alone, that I blog). Non of my non-virtual friends read my blog, or very few on occassion. It has become a wonderful little coffee shop (as the late Harry use to describe it), the bar where everyone knows your name for the modern world.
An eloquent manifesto. You sound like you’re very much at ease in this space, and that’s really all that matters. Those of us who know about your site are the beneficiaries of your ease, your lack of pretense.
I think you have all the right reasons for blogging. I started blogging as a way to keep in touch with my adult children. It failed miserably. They are all busy with their own lives and yes, they call on the phone dutifully, but as they say, “We are in front of computers all day at work. We seldom turn on the one at home.” (Frankly, a pox on them…..just a little one though. They really are good kids.)
I now blog for myself because I have always liked to write and although it shouldn’t be important, I do love getting comments and visitors. I really don’t pay much attention to how many visitors I have to the site etc. I do try to answer each comment and I do that in the comment section of the same post. I frequently wonder if people go back and look for my responses.
I am a terrible person at critique so I am just going to say that I come back and back to your site so it must be a good one just as it is. You don’t need to change a thing….just sit back, write, and enjoy.
I only ventured into reading blogs in the past few months. I try new ones when I have time, but for the most frequent visits, I keep coming back to Nobody Asked, probably because I feel that you aren’t worried about any particular agenda or audience, aren’t marketing to anyone special, and because you write well. That’s good enough! Don’t be like my favorite supermarket where they discontinue the things to which I’ve become addicted.
Winston, this is the first time I’ve visited your blog and I am delighted to make your aquaintance. Get rid of you? Never!!!! I will be linking you from my site at next update! As a new blogger, I understand your wondering if anyone reads what we post her. I feel the same way and it does make one feel a bit insecure. You’re a witty articulate fellow and I shall keep returning to visit despite your support of the dreaded Steelers! (And that should earn me a swat with a Terrible Towel! lol) Goooooooooooooooo Browns!!!!
Kay