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I have decided to take a challenge from K, on his post ‘Does Blogging Sucks’, some of the things that he said made me look at my blog a bit more and we do share similar views on many areas of blogging, but also many different views on the topics of blogging. This was from part of K’s post:
“I remember the times when I said that I blog because I want to practice my writing and not because I care too much with my sidebars, so who cares what my template looks like? Perhaps you’ve heard that “content is a king”. I believe so, yes. I categorized this blog as too personal – and it isn’t easy to write personal stuff after all. Even if you leave the personal stuff out, do you ever ask yourself if you have focused on a topic? It seems easy to point a blue ink and start writing, say things we want, but did we ever ask what our blog really all about? Lack of focus sometimes confuses readers. Even yourself.”
One of the things that I share with K is the reason as to why I started blogging and that is to improve my English, which it still holds true. I like simplicity, so there is no hidden gadget on my blog, and one of the features that K has which I absolute love is the ‘Live traffic feed’ that tells the country and city of his readers. I thought about getting one for my blog but I recall the first time I saw that thing, I didn’t know what it was and was so intimidated by it that I avoided visiting many blogs with that feature or something similar to it, and I don’t want my readers to feel the same way, sort of the feeling of invasion of privacy when I first saw it, but I am okay with it now because it is being used by many bloggers. I also learned that it is not always an accurate indicator as to the location of the readers because some might surf by using a proxy server that assigns a location or IP address that would not show the actual location of the readers. As for me, I can live with not knowing who my readers are or which country they are from, sometimes I think it is better not knowing, ignorance in this case for me is bliss, also less gadgets for me to keep up with, and more freedom to write as far as topic of interest.
I do get some fan e-mails, and most e-mails fall into the category of love or hate type of situations, and seems extreme of one way or the other, I finally had to remove my e-mail address from the Author section of my blog because I feel that my readers can communicate with me via comment. I like it when I get one that would tell me what they think of my blog, like this one, ‘I just visited your site again and realized that you site is a lifestyle theme Blog (IMO).’ I never thought of my blog as having any theme but I think his opinion is not far from it. I have had many people telling me of what I should blog about, and it was mostly the topics of their interest but I had never dismissed the ideas entirely, I often tried to work with it the best that I knew how, but might not come out as how they intended for me to write, but I could only write to the extend that I can live with or feel comfortable; I don’t like to promote or praise someone or certain organization to the grave and that might be another reason as to why some are not very happy with me. One thing that I learned is that once they have no need for me, then they show their true colors.
From K’s post:
“I realized that blogging is about being passionate too. Picking a topic that you’re not passionate about is a mistake for two reasons. First, you cheat your readers. Second, you cheat yourself. Don’t deny yourself a topic you enjoy. If nothing comes to mind, think through it again. Or maybe you shouldn’t be blogging. Passion for a topic motivates you to give your best, and leads to successful blogs.”
I view this slightly different from K, I don’t see blogging as my passion, more like one of the learning tools for me. I do blog about the topics that I am passionate about, but I cannot say that it is very successful, as most readers do not seem to like reading it, and that is Investment or Business. As for me, I often blog about the topics that I have very little knowledge of which means lots of research or just reading up on it to have a better understanding and that is why it is so great to get feedback from my readers, we all have different views on things and just because I have different point of view from you, doesn’t mean that I’m a bigot, this is a blog, a place where people express their opinions. I take it as a challenge to write about topics that I’m not familiar with, but I realized through my experience of blogging that certain topics are too sensitive to blog about, and should not be touched, because it could mean stepping on someone’s toes, interfering with their personal business or way of making a living, this I realized and will try to avoid blogging about these sensitive topics. As for me, I am learning as I am blogging, not just about the topics but also about the people as well.
The question of, Do I cheat my readers or myself if I blog about something that I’m not passionate about? I personally do not think that I cheat my readers or myself, if anything, it is more of a reward for both parties. I like my blog to have diverse topics, sometimes blogging about too narrow with few topics can leave little room for growth in my way of thinking, as I mentioned earlier, I learn as I blog, and take for instance, I recently blogged about fashion, since I’m not a fashionistas, it was somewhat of a challenge for me to cover ELLE Fashion Week, but as you can see that I can do as good of a job as any fashionistas, blogging about a topic without having a passion is not cheating yourself because I do get something back, the knowledge about fashion that I would not have otherwise gotten because it is unlike me to look at a fashion magazine, and also, now I won’t look like a dork.
I do agree with K that ‘content is a king’ and my blogging style is to sum things up and that might be because I started out as a translator and this is the style for most magazine articles, and that later on became my writing style as well. I don’t do well with large audience and sometimes get overwhelmed especially during the ELLE Fashion Week, which my traffic nearly triples of what it normally is, but I am not complaining. As for me, it is not so much of what I want to blog about today, but more like what I want to talk about or to learn today and certain topics I might have some knowledge but blogging about them put things into prospective for me.
I realized that blogging to everyone is different, to some it might be a personal journal, it might be a way to keep up with our friends, it might be a way for us to share our views with the world, it might be a way for us to promote our business or ourselves, it might be a way for us to share ourselves, our families and our passions, it might be a way for us to improve ourselves and our way of thinking, it might be a way for us to improve our English…as practice makes perfect, and the list goes on, but one thing that we all cannot deny is that it is a median of communication. What ever the reasons as to why you are blogging, keep on going because I love to read.
K last challenge, but only do it if you feel comfortable, and here it is…so here is the thing, I have two challenges for you.
1. Tell me what you think this blog is about
2. Ask your audience what they think your blog is about
4 comments
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October 29, 2007 at 8:54 am
K
A good blogging is about twisting it up. A good journal needs a good blogging too. We should write with styles, and it doesn’t need what’s the latest, yet we need to write like a great reporter (aren’t we already?) like use specific examples, tell stories, source, links etc in order to be compelling. If that’s what you really want.
When we blog and post it to the web, always remember that every can read it. We simply write for a global audience. Sometimes I have come across some blogs that I completely don’t understand. My writing is not that good I know that, but it’s never a good idea to use sophisticated words (that you write better?) not everyone may know. As for me, English is my second language so I blog to learn new words (like procrastination, widgetized, me-mes) but when we write, it shouldn’t come at the price of missing our post’s point.
I believe that good blogging should include, writing and telling the truth, be passionate (tell the world you care or nobody will be reading), Voice (it should say something about you as the author) and always tell a story (we can because we already know what to write and your readers don’t).
Thanks for the mention. Somebody from the Stumbleupon page rated that post, 100% but the bad part was, “my english sucks”.
October 29, 2007 at 9:07 am
K
And oh, I think your posts are thought provoking. I enjoy the part where you posts about Ghost stories because you experienced it and it happens.
As for the architecture of the blog, you should change it once in a while, people who comes here would say, “wow it looks fresh” but never overdo it.
I guess that’s what I think of your blog.
October 29, 2007 at 10:37 am
Sim
As a suggestion, it would be best if everyone would write at a sixth grade level and (at least) write with some bit of passion on any topic. This will engage the audience and will help the reader follow our ideas.
Because I can relate with people who are living with dyslexia, I tend limit my writings and include lots of visual aids. Often, people with dyslexia can only read a sentence or two per page before confusion starts to happen. It is a learning disorder which they don’t have the ability to understand or focus on written words.
Is Blogging a Passion or a Median of Communication?
How about this answer. Blogging is a medium to passionately communicate our ideas.
October 30, 2007 at 12:32 am
Ginger
>>>And oh, I think your posts are thought provoking. I enjoy the part where you posts about Ghost stories because you experienced it and it happens.
Thanks K for such a great feedback, as my Tagline read: The Thoughts That Make You Itch…, I guess it has somewhat thought provoking. In a way, I think it is good that I am able to write like this but sometimes it is not a good thing for me because I think I have provoked many people and it has not been in a good way, some might want to reach out and touch me just like the TV commercial but more like twist-off my neck, and it seems worse at the other site that I write for, I might have to tune down a bit as I do like to get a long with other people.
I realized that I write for a global audience and I try to think of all the people that I know who are reading this, such as my oldest sister, co-workers, and you guys, but once I start to write, I sort of forget and get carried away sometimes and that is how some of the story came out like that, sometimes it is my bad, I just like to write things that I knew would provoke other people.
>>As a suggestion, it would be best if everyone would write at a sixth grade level and (at least) write with some bit of passion on any topic. This will engage the audience and will help the reader follow our ideas.
I hope that I have lived up to this expectation Sim, as I try my best to write so that people would understand me, but I think they do understand my writing, as they get provoked with some of the things that I wrote, and I think I have heard plenty feedbacks in this but not in a good way. One thing that I realized is that I always have a story in my head, a rough draft before it gets written down on a piece of paper or my blog and by the time I am ready to write the final draft and if I loose interest in the story, then I normally won’t publish that story, I guess you can say that there is no passion in it.
I do have to agree in what you and K said that we do have to have passion in what we are writing, otherwise it would be so dry and boring, and passion is one thing that I do have, maybe too much. Thanks for such great feedback Sim; I do love your idea that “Blogging is a medium to passionately communicate our ideas.”