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Friday, August 6, 2010

Why I'll Never Be Great




I started blogging about 6 years ago. Had I known then what I know now I so would have kept up with it. I remember creating my account, right here on Blogger and doing a few entries about being a newlywed. Then I forgot all about it. Or got disinterested. Fast forward to 2008.

I began blogging to chronicle our trying to get pregnant and then ultimately my pregnancy. I wanted to remember the nine months and all the changes that were taking place. I wanted our families to be able to keep up with us and my belly. I didn't have a clue about mom bloggers or how big blogging had actually come in the 5 years since I let my original blog gather dust and I assume get purged by Blogger.

One day as I looked for other blogs to read I stumbled upon SITS I don't think they were near 6000 members but their site was busy and it seemed like a great way to get introduced to cool blogs and bloggers. Every day they would feature a blogger or a contest and it was fun. I read about an actual conference called BlogHer and was excited about the prospect of one day attending.

My blog underwent a makeover and the new look made me feel like a real blogger. I felt cool and even though I didn't have several hundred readers, comments or followers, I was okay. Back then the blog was called And Baby Will Make 4. See, the dog was part of the family and counted as such. I continued blogging.

Then it began to not be so fun. I grew bored with trying to keep up and I really didn't understand bloggy etiquette. Did you follow everyone that followed you? Did you comment on your blog to comments left or back on the commenters' own blog? Everyone had a different opinion. I found a few VIB's, very important bloggers and many times they just seemed so full of themselves. It seemed cliquish and I didn't like the feeling of being on the outside. I plugged on, dropping the SITS button and not pressuring myself to write every day.


Baby arrived in February of 2009 and suddenly I was lucky if I could remember my name, much less post regularly and keep up with all the friends I had made. I wanted to enjoy it and at times it seemed I was racking my brains to find a blog topic. And at this point, no one but family was interested in baby pictures, talk of poop and how motherhood was kicking my ass.

After baby became toddler, I had more time to come back to the world of blogging. I once again underwent a name change and decided to up my game by getting a real live URL. I had stumbled upon several new blogs and bloggers and they motivated me with their writing. And these new digs was created. I wanted to write more about everything and less about the Boy. Not quite there yet but I'm working on it.


Can I be great at this blog business? Maybe. Will I be? Probably not. Blogging has become big business and now it's all about marketing yourself, keeping your audience entertained, writing almost every day. Every. Day. I am still struggling with motherhood and the few minutes here and there I do have? Well blogging isn't on the top of it. But I want to get better, I want to write better.

Something that may help all of us newbies and oldies looking for ways to improve our blog presence, head over to Adventuroo and see what she has just launched. Her first post was VERY informative. Read it here. Maybe with her posts I really can be great?

7 comments:

  1. I totally get it. I wish I had some insight for you but I'm in the same boat. Now with baby no. 2 just about to get borned I feel like I'll never keep up. Le sigh.

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  2. Girl, I feel your pain. Blogging is an addiction, but at the same time, it's a nuisance. I love to write, but hate feeling like I *need* to write. As you know, I've quit my blog once (or twice), and have always come back. It's bittersweet.

    I clicked on the links you posted, I liked that blogger, loved the first post suggestions for mom bloggers (agree with Everything. She. Said.), rofl, she's added to my Google Reader. =)~

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  3. Don't feel bad I feel the same way you do too! :)

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  4. You know... I got over all the "Mommy Blogging" (insert trademark symbol thingy here) thing. I agree - I did find a lot of women who were so full of themselves, and I found a lot of women who started out as blogging gangbusters, and then... life happened. I keep reminding myself that in the end I want my blog to be a way to keep a record of things in my life - funny things the Ladies say... things that happen with Mr. B... just life... so once old age hits I can read what happened in my life.

    I love your blog, and love reading it... keep up the goood work - whever you want.!

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  5. That's so sweet of you to mention me! I'm really glad you're finding my posts helpful too. I've learned SO much over 10 years in marketing communications and thought I should pass along what I've learned and what I've figured out along the way. :-)

    Hang in there, okay? I too get frustrated with the blogging world. I didn't realize how much work it would be to write, visit blogs, comment, etc. I'm doing the best I can but know that I can only put SO MUCH TIME into it. I mean with two kids, we can only do so much right?

    I'm just gonna do what I can and see where it takes me. And I'm going to get back into scrapbooking because that's a passion of mine that has gone to the wayside in recent months!

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  6. I feel ya girl and I haven't even been blogging long. I love Melissa's workshop too! Im now following you =)

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  7. totally appreciate this post. been blogging for just a bit and i think my vision is now going and have persistent headache from too much screen time. but as long as we have passion for what we're doing, we'll be okay. better than okay!

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