Blog Much?

Sometimes, This and That, Writing and Blogging

Often accused of “over-thinking” issues of varying degrees of general importance, I admit to being a worry-wart.    I always want to follow J. Paul Getty’s advice to “Always know what to do when [my] first plan fails.”    I know that is poor sentence structure, but there isn’t time to fret about that right now.

Since I made Writing my top priority in life…meaning to write first and do other stuff later, instead of following my previous other-way-around system…I spend a lot of time on my blog.  I write about it, enter all sorts of “content” to it, interact with all of my relatively new blogging-buddies.   (How chummy!)

I write stuff that is silly, ridiculous, superfulous and more or less scrupulous.   I admit that I take due care to not unfairly or unnecessarily offend anyone’s beliefs or opinions, and really strive diligently to maintain relativity, credibility, honesty, and to avoid any mean or snarky “cheap shots.”

Getting to the point is another matter, and sometimes it takes me awhile to get around to what I want to discuss.  If it’s a poem that usually is a bit of whimsey or deep philosophical insight.  🙂   Photographs…excuses and ineptness aside…can be anything–mostly cats, or shots of my unclassified homestead (aka yard.)

My point in this essay is simply to fret and whimper about Blogging in general, specifically the sheer effort of trying to keep relative and to pursue some kind of organized involvement in other blogs and with other bloggers.    Every day I discover wonderful new and exciting Blogs that interest me.  This is fine, except that there is a struggle to keep up with them all.

Some other blogs are simply arrival points on a general surfing journey…reached  through someone I follow, or that follows me…usually both.   What happens is that I read one of my dozen or so “frequent commenters,” with whom I maintain an on-going interaction.  Then there is a comment on that post, which can be “liked” but often needs a real comment.

The exponential effect here is obvious…it boggles the mind.   It’s like looking over a geneological chart…if I have two parents, each had two, each of them had two parents…on and on back into the dim reaches of time–or a hundred years ago, whichever is further back.    How many people is that?  It only includes MY own ancestors, not my progeny…that is an entire other discussion.   Talk about worrisome!   Most of my own ancestors originated in England…but my children can’t say that…and the grandchildren came from all over the world…and the great-grandchildren…   YIKES.

OK, this is getting out of hand.  I’m starting to worry about losing my audience.  So I’ll cut to the chase.

How does one control a blogging community?  I mean relate to the vast implications of blogging every day.  How long would it take to make interaction contact with ALL WordPress bloggers alone?

Figuring THAT out should be better than counting sheep.

32 thoughts on “Blog Much?”

  1. I’ll be redundant in my saying that while a blogger may have lots of followers, less than 10% are active at any given time. For example, I have a little more than 800 followers, yet the most visitors I’ll get is 50-70 on any given post. Now, some may like, some may comment. The commenters are your most supportive, and there the relationship should be reciprocal. Not all bloggers post each day, so the response to those whom you wish to establish a following with will be less than the sum of all followers. Just my two cents, adjusted for inflation. 😀

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    1. viva the regulars! “like” is such a subjective thing, maybe they could have gradations like “sort of like,” “selective liking,” “like the writing,” “stupid but in a good way” that kind of thing. “Like” is too black and white for me…I need some grey.

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      2. an infinite scale ranging from love it to hate it. Fabulous/stupid. Cute/Bad …. like the hospitals and their “1-10 pain scale…” I always get in trouble with that one. HINT: 9… usually over the top but it gets attention faster than say a 2.5

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      7. I think we might be able to make up a widget for gauge. Some blogs have a thumbs up/down . I don’t think I’d like it though…if I got a thumbs down, or say a 7 out of 10, I would torture myself about where I went wrong. 🙂

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  2. You don’t control it. It controls you. While “blogging” was/is precursor to social media, it is still just that; social media.

    The key here is social.

    You choose to make your blog public, but you can also choose your level of participation, or lack thereof, with other public posters.

    Remember social media is about interaction, but mostly about the “speed” of interaction. It drives the rapid response, not the thoughtful rejoinder. It feeds on the obligatory, and dines on dumbing down.

    It’s been the media menu since Gutenberg cooked up moveable type.

    And in it’s current incarnation it’s important to remember, “Speed Kills.” So chill and let the game come to you. You’ve got the writing chops, and you can hop hither and yon, but finding one’s pace in this rat race to report and reply is the art in running with all this bit and byte

    Bye Bye For Now,
    Doug

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    1. gotcha…I’m just yakking for the heck of it anyway. You’re right, it controls itself. I don’t do social media…Facebook makes me feel like I’m spying on my grandkids. 🙂

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  3. For now, I simply keep writing and presume that folk are out there (because they are) with whom to engage. I appreciate response. For now, I think that’s as much as I can suss and manage without considering statistical realities (that I don’t want to know). As I was going to Saint Ives . . .

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  4. I’m yet to figure out the right answer to this. I visit most blogs on my reader daily…but make sure I also visit all who recently visited and liked/commented on my pieces to keep up with them as they keep up with me. I visit somw new blogs too. Hoping to figure it all out asap.

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  5. I don’t think I’ll lose much sleep…..sorting out the entanglements…..Let’s just ‘blog/comment’ as and when we find the time or inclination. Great fun…and a ‘Time-passer’. 😉 Hugs!

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  6. It’s definitely a challenge. I think the crux of it is connecting and that means comments, not just hitting the like button. But it takes time so you need to find that balance where it doesn’t take over. For me I’ll keep writing and hopefully connecting with other like minded bloggers.

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    1. good comments. I agree its not a numbers game or popularity contest. Sometimes there will be a single comment from a reader, others become regulars and friends to a degree. thanks again for commenting

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    1. I think the way to go is just let it evolve as it will, its likely that an actual interacting community type thing would regulate itself. Not everyone comments regularly in a back and forth…I just always see the BIG picture–that’s what I meant by making a big deal. 🙂

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