Home about Archives Contact
    Amber Page Writes

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Why Do I Do This? Because I Can.

There seems to be a lot of bitching and moaning going on in the blogosphere right now. The question on everyone's lips seems to be, "Why? Why do I bother blogging? What does my blogging mean to the world?

I'm  not going to lie. I'm one of the people doing the bitching and moaning.

You know why? This blogging stuff takes up a lot of time. It requires the utilization of a great many brain cells that would otherwise be napping or drinking beer or something equally mindless in my off hours. It also requires me to put myself out there, day after day after day, baring my soul to the world (or at least the 150 or so people who follow me).

And sometimes? I spend a great deal of time on a post, an article I'm proud of, and get like two comments. Other times, I dash off something in five minutes and get massive amounts of page views. It's enough to make an attention craving ad whore like myself a little crazy.

So I think it's natural to have an existential crisis every once in a while.

Last week, I briefly considered giving this up all together. Would anyone notice, I wondered? Would anyone care? Or would my disappearance be as inconsequential as Tiger's latest lay?

I think I know the answer to that (and it's not particularly good for the ego). But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. As my friend E reminded me, I started doing this for fun. I wanted to write something, somewhere, that I wasn't getting paid to create (although if you want to pay me or send free goodies my way, I'm all ears. Momma needs a vacation, yo).

I started writing this blog because I can write (not everyone who blogs can, by the way).

I continue writing this blog because I enjoy it.

And I'm not going to quit because then I'd be a quitter. Plus, I'd have to fill the void blogging would leave with laundry or cooking or something equally domestic (shudders).

But I am going to start taking myself a little less seriously. No one's going to die if I don't post every day. The world won't end if my follower count doesn't grow every week. It doesn't even matter if  google analytics shows me an angry red arrow instead of the happy green one every month.

This is supposed to be fun. And dag nam it, fun it will be. Right? Right.

22 comments:

  1. Blogging can be hard and IS A chore.
    But it helps keep me sane through the dishes, vaccuming and laundry.
    Blogging helps me hone my creativeness.
    Don't leave the blogosphere.
    If you can't find your muse, pull from the archives until you find it again.
    You are a wonderful writer and I cannot WAIT until your book comes out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I mean, I know you have to be writing a book, right? You are a writer after all. Every Good writer has a book inside of them just waiting to come out.
    I'm tweeting this one to the masses for sure. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Agreed. I blog for me. I LOVE it when people talk, agree, hell even disagree, but ultimately, my blog is my outlet. And it is nice it have something posted and 'out there for the world to see' exactly the way I intended it. Not what the CD or AE thinks it should be. Just me. And that makes me happy.
    So should you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This has been a HUGE topic lately and I just don't get it. I write because if I didn't I would go crazy, paint everything green and get locked up someplace.

    If no one ever commented again, I would still do it.
    More people need to adopt the "who cares" attitude. So many people are blogging to make money now, it's hard to see the forest from the trees.
    The women/bloggers who host a million giveaways and stuff don't have readers who want to know what they're saying, but instead readers who want free stuff.
    I want my blog to drive traffic in an honest way, and if I'm just not that interesting... Meh. So be it!
    This was a great post. :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been there too! I think I'm starting to find a happy medium. When the blogging starts to cause me stress I'm going to skim down my reader - open anything important mark all the rest as read and go play with my kid........sit back down at the computer when it isn't stressful and blog some more. I'm already happier and I've enjoyed my blogging a lot more too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I basically just had this same conversation with myself last week. I was putting in too much time, taking it way to seriously. So I backed off a little and I feel great. Having guest bloggers takes some of the pressure off too. I'm having a week of guest posts, and I'm so looking forward to it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. If you stopped blogging, I would miss you. Maybe even have-to-go-to-therapy miss you. I'm just reeeeaallllly bad about commenting. I read. Browse. And then never comment. . . . until now. . . .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yep, I think all (or most) bloggers have to go through this same cycle, or at least from what I've seen/heard. I know I have. Now? I do what feels good to me. Do the same!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would miss you too! BUT I do think you should only do it when you want to, and when i makes you happy! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, I hear you, I hear you. I've only been blogging for two months and have suffered all the angst of a long-termer. But dagnabit, I love to blog and I love to read others blogs. So I guess I'm in this for the long haul

    ReplyDelete
  11. LOL @ then having to go do laundry or something. Wouldn't want to do that! I can't really figure it out, either. I can feel like I spend a lot of time on a post and be proud of it and get very few comments and then I write something goofy in five minutes and get tons of comments. Can't figure it out. But, as long as I am enjoying what I'm doing, I'll keep doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Keep on doing what you're doing and you love. :)

    Sometimes people don't comment. Sometimes they don't know what to say. But that doesn't mean they aren't affected by the post in some way.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I blog, therefore I am. Is that too much?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I've only been blogging for a couple months and I've already given up worrying about followers, analytics and the like. I used to log on every morning (first thing no doubt) to see what changes there had been over night (and over course cumpulsively checking 15 times through the day). Then life happened. Now I don't worry about that stupid red arrow, which by the way, if I DID care about is telling me I am down like 50% from 30 days ago - and the world hasn't even come to an end. Shocking!

    For the record, when I log into google reader, yours is one of the few blogs I read everyday.

    I blog for fun, not necessarily because I can write well but because I enjoy it and hope a few people out there reading enjoy what I have to say.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I would notice!
    I blog for fun and for myself and don't care about money but I DO love it when people comment and subscribe.
    Of course, my whole entire life I've wanted to write a book so that hope is always out there...
    But the more research I do about blogging, the more stressful it becomes with the google page rank and ways to get more traffic and ways to improve your site...it gets slightly overwhelming at times.
    I actually thought when I got my column at the newspaper (totally unrelated to my blog) that I would care less and write less but I've found that now that I HAVE to sit down and write certain days, it's helped with the blog as well. It's kindof like, well, I'm already here...
    I enjoy your blog and hope you keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh, I enjoy your blog so much I added it to my people I read page!

    ReplyDelete
  17. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for all your kind words. This. This is why I do this. Because of all of you.

    ReplyDelete
  18. You know, I read blogs for about a year, before I got the guts up to comment. I was intimidated by how clever everyone else's comments were. I knew mine would never be. SO I never commented. Then, one day, I just did. And the blogger replied to me, and I thought, Wow...this is nice.

    Then I began commenting more. And I was never clever, but, so what.

    So, many are reading, few are commenting. Just so you know.

    And I feel you are a good writer. Never boring.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Personally, I blog for myself (and, I suppose, my family). I don't write witty things. I wish I could, but I can't. Or don't. Whatever. But I use my blog to record the life of my growing baby boy. My husband calls it "scrapbooking for lazy people". :o) I have found websites that let you turn your blog into a memory book.

    Mine is not widely read, nor do I want it to be. Yours, however, IS more widely read. If your goal is to be read by the masses, there are ways to accomplish that, and I think you're on your way. I love your writing!

    As for the comments, since pretty much only my family reads my blog and only my SIL (God bless her) comments on my posts, I don't blog for the comments (although we all know how much I love them!). I read many blogs without commenting. *hangs head in shame* Bad, I know, but sometimes I can't think of anything to say, or I don't have time, or I'm afraid of seeming like a stalker... :o)

    Anyway, I would miss you if you stopped. And we all know that it's all about me. So don't stop blogging. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  20. i consider quitting just about every other day. then i remember that i'm paying for the url and hosting and decide otherwise.

    i'm so glad that you say 'i can write' and 'because not everyone who blogs can'. it's so very true. i blog because i can write and i want more practice--somehow, it's become a numbers game and i hate that. i've taken the followers thing off and that helps me not stress it. because i too put a lot of time into most posts. and, like you, i get the most views on the day that i said ricky martin being gay was no surprise. really??!

    i could go on and on, but this comment is already too long-- :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I just had a relocation break - not the end of the world! :)
    It's better not to post every day. I know I don't have time to comment a blogger every day because I follow so many people.
    I have still over 1.000+ posts to read in reader. No. I'm not going to read all of them. But I check most of them and comment if I have something to say.
    Here I am.......

    Sunny greetings from Casablanca!

    BLOGitse

    ReplyDelete
  22. I am horribly late with this comment, but I just wanted to say that I love your blog (it's in my blog roll). You've got great talent and I enjoy reading what you've got to say.

    I am also struggling trying to find the time to maintain my own blog while working and getting the hang of this whole mom thing (you'd think after a year I'd have a clue about the mom part, but alas...) Anyway, I think you've got the right talent and the right attitude to make it work. Keep at it! :)

    ReplyDelete

Feed my blogging habit and leave me a comment! Oh, and if you do me a favor and make sure your email isn't blocked, we can keep this conversation from being one-sided!