So I was sitting in the second session of the day at the recent Problogger conference, which was called How To Make Your Audience Fall In Love With Your Blog. It was being run by Geraldine DeRuiter, writer of The Everywhereist and she kicked things off with this little chestnut:
I’d just listened to 3 other speakers tell me everything from “Put your readers first” (Darren Rowse) to “Put some YOU into your blog” (Pat Flynn) to “You should either publish to help your audience or publish self indulgent posts” (Rand Fishkin)
My head was spinning and I was all, “FFs. I’m more confused than the time I was at a stocktake sale and had to decide if I should buy the white or the beige towels at 75% off!”
Don’t get me wrong, in the overall context of what each speaker was saying, their advice was excellent and my cute as could be Kikki K notebook was full of long, hastily scribbled notes that I took while nodding furiously in agreement with what each and every one of them was saying, but I was one confused blogger!
And then Geraldine told me things like:
“You can fall in love with anything. An activity. A place. A message.”
“Blogs you love don’t have to be useful.”
“Figure out what you love and write about it everyday.”
It was like a breathe of fresh air had hit me square in the face! I wrote and wrote and wrote during Geradline’s session. So much so, that if she ever looses a copy of her notes, she can probably just use mine for her next speaking event. I was pumped! Excited! Good blogging is all about love!
And then, 24 hours later, the conference was over. I came home. I read through all my notes and I got a severe case of the Blogging Mehs.
You see I’ve fallen in love with this thing called blogging and sometimes I worry that blogging hasn’t fallen in love with me.
I love to make people laugh. I love to bake and I love to shop. They’re not the only things in life that I love, but they’re the things that I love to write about. The things I like to share with you. Sure, they’re not all useful. I mean, let’s face it, reading about the time I had to get a tetanus shot and go shopping to recover from such a traumatic process isn’t going to change your life, but if the comments on that post are anything to go by, it made a few of you laugh, which has to be a good thing, right?
But as a ‘personal’ blogger, I’m not really blogging about things that people google. I mean, I’m sure there are plenty of people googling things like 101 Ways To Entertain A Toddler but are there that many people googling An Open Letter To The Guy At The Gym Who Thinks My Name Is Charmaine?! Somehow I doubt it….
Charmaine? Is that you?!
So I guess my point is, that building a huge audience when you blog about real, everyday, random stories is bloody hard work. It takes time and patience and a whole lot of (mostly) unpaid effort. But then you come across lovely readers who tell you they purchased a camera or threw some Garnier products into their shopping trolley because of a post you wrote, and, well, that’s kind of cool!
May or may not be an actual ad
On the last day of the conference I sat next to a fellow blogger who asked me what my blog stats were. It’s not a question you get asked a lot in the blogging world, mostly because it’s not really anyone’s business except the brands you’re trying to work with, but I answered her question honestly and followed it up with, “But what I do have is a highly engaged readership, full of the most wonderful people, some of whom have been with me since I began this blogging journey 3 years ago and I can’t tell you how proud I am of that.”
And that, right there, is what I love about blogging. It’s not about the stats. Well ok, maybe it is. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’d do some sort of weird happy dance if my stats were instantly larger. But at the end of the day, this crazy thing we called blogging is all about the love.
Anya from Clear Design Studio, Danielle from Miss Chardy and Michelle from That Summer Feeling. I’m still convinced they thought they were asking to get their photo taken with someone else!
So thank you, my lovely loyal readers, for showing this little blog so much love. It’s been such a fun journey with you so far and I’m going to do my very best to make sure it’s one that lasts for many years to come!
And if I’m not mistaken, I’m fairly sure I just belted out a blog post that almost put the readers first while also throwing a bit of myself into it AND being fairly self indulgent. Turns out Darren, Pat and Rand weren’t so confusing after all!
Do you agree that good blogging is all about love? Or something else? I’d love to know your blogging thoughts…
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