Why I blog.

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I read a very interesting article today called Pimping for Likes (thanks again to Opinionated Man, I found another great new blog to follow).  The post addresses the all too common frustrations we bloggers experience when our Likes, views or followers aren’t growing as fast as we’d all like them to and asks the question, would you give up blogging if no one read your blog?  

If you’re only blogging to be popular or attain a web presence, I think people can tell.  Your heart won’t be in it.  It won’t be honest and it won’t be engaging.   People are smart.  They will pick up on your lack of passion for your chosen topics and go elsewhere if all you care about is gaining a web presence without actually caring about what you blog about.

There are lots of wonderful bloggers who don’t have many followers or views.   That’s not because their blogs are bad.  It’s because either they haven’t been blogging long enough to attain a web presence, or because the blogger is mostly writing for themselves and isn’t actively trying to promote their blog.  Some people don’t care about popularity.   And there’s nothing wrong with that.  They’re blogging for the best of reasons–because they love to write and blogging gives them a voice and a way to express themselves. .

It’s the reason I blog.   I really can’t think of anything I love doing more.   It’s also been very healing for me.  I’d keep writing and blogging even if I was the only person in the world reading my posts.  But I’m only human and it can be very discouraging when you feel like your online voice is falling on deaf ears.  At first, it was frustrating when I’d spend a couple of hours perfecting a post, choosing the perfect picture for it, editing it and re-editing it, and then post it, only to get no likes and only a few views.

Here is a post I wrote when this blog was less than two weeks old, when I had a whopping 12 followers and hardly any views. It makes me laugh to read this now, but I’m sure most new bloggers can relate to these feelings of frustation:

I’m frustrated.

It was the first time Opinionated Man reblogged a post of mine.  With his 50K plus followers (at the time; now he has nearly 60K), he seemed like a blogging God to me. Because of his generous nature and willingness to help new bloggers succeed, this post (which sounds very whiny to me now) wound up getting a ton of views, Likes, and comments, and I got my first sizeable batch of new followers.  What a great way to start your blogging career!

Although being popular isn’t my primary reason for blogging, I have to admit I’ve come to care about this blog’s growth too.    There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as it doesn’t become your main reason for blogging.  I’ve been blogging for a year and a half now.    During that time, my stats have grown steadily, to the point where I’m averaging 50K views a month.  A year ago I never would have believed it.

http://luckyottershaven.com.webstatsdomain.org/

Source: http://luckyottershaven.com.webstatsdomain.org/

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a little help along the way,  thanks to other, more popular and established bloggers reblogging or linking to my posts.   I learned about sharing to social media (something I was reluctant to do at first) and linking to other blogs.   I’ve made a lot of friends among other bloggers and we’re like a big community who help each other get seen.  Yes, of course there is envy among bloggers, but fortunately I haven’t seen too much of it and for the most part, there’s more of a desire to see your fellow bloggers do well than to see them fail.

There are blogs far more popular and successful than mine.   This blog is really pretty small potatoes, but watching it grow is still incredibly encouraging and exciting, like watching your baby grow up.    It’s a heady feeling when you type a few words into Google and see your own blog come up at or near the top.    Although I would still blog even if I only had 10 views a month, these incremental rewards have a way of motivating you to keep writing even more.  It’s also very cool being in a position now where I can begin to help other bloggers the way I was helped when I was new.   It’s wonderful to be able to pay it forward and help others get more of a web presence.

I’ve been accused of caring too much about my stats.    Maybe it’s true.  Watching my stats has become one of my favorite hobbies, but maybe that’s because I’ve always been a numbers junkie.   The growth of this blog didn’t just happen on its own though. I had to work hard at it, and the hardest part for me was getting over my fear of sharing posts to social media.  I don’t have enough of a Google presence to just sit back and let things take off on their own.   I have to keep working at it, keep sharing, keep connecting.   It’s almost a full time job.   Even so, while watching my views  and web presence increase is a nice side benefit of blogging, it’s not the reason I blog.

If you only blog to see your stats grow, and care nothing about what you write, not only will people be able to tell your heart isn’t in it, but chances are you’ll get discouraged and give up the minute your stats take a downturn.  I’ve had slow months and a few with no growth at all. It hasn’t all been a smooth ride uphill.    Some of my posts that are personal favorites just don’t seem to resonate with others that well, while other posts that I could care less about, seem to take on a life of their own. It’s always a surprise seeing what others like and what they don’t.  You can certainly try to concentrate on writing more of the types of posts that seem to resonate more with others, if being popular is your thing.

My other blog, which documents my journey in therapy, is nowhere near as popular as this one. It hasn’t really grown at all since I started it in August, and that’s okay.     I don’t share most of the posts on that blog to my social media and I don’t promote it at all.  I only write about 1 – 2 posts a week for it, while I write every day on this blog.    It also has a much narrower topic focus, while this one covers a much wider range of topics.  I figure, if people want to read the posts on my other blog, they will find them, but I don’t worry about it too much or try to call attention to it.   I mostly write it for myself.

In summary, I blog for four reasons, in the following order.

  1.  Enjoyment, love of writing/blogging
  2.  Self-therapy and healing; giving myself a voice.
  3.  Community with my readers and other bloggers; helping others
  4.  The thrill of increasing web presence.

So.  Why do you blog?

25 thoughts on “Why I blog.”

  1. The reasons I started blogging might sound odd to most people. I’d had a serious health crises, I had to quit my job because of it and I had needed some structure to my day besides focusing entirely on how bad I felt. In one of those moments in life where prayer seems to have an almost audible answer, I heard “write” when I asked God tearfully “what now”

    Of course I felt completely inadequate, and doubted it and wondered “how.” Not long after this I was in a gas station pumping my gas when a young woman approached me apologetically and said “I hope you don’t mind me speaking to you but I’m a Christian and just felt really impressed that I am supposed to tell you “God wants you to write, you are supposed to be writing”. I generally don’t put any stock in people’s opinions and less in those claiming to speak for God, but I was pretty amazed given the fact I’d been praying again that morning for God to make it clear what I should do next.

    Blog about what I wondered, and I heard this “to comfort those that mourn” I think that people chewed up and spit out by narcissists mourn. I think they are comforted when they find out God has a better life for them then abuse. It is all a journey to freedom and that is what I blog about. I don’t love writing like most people. Its painful for me, I do it because I kind of have too. I don’t have a lot of followers because I keep taking down blogs and starting over again, But I believe the readership is in the hands of God and if it is 2 people or 1 person or God alone and I say something that gives hope, that is more meaning than my life would have if I was not writing at all.

    Liked by 1 person

      • Yes, but its just sitting there waiting for me to show up. A second one is a professional site for when I was trying to make a small business go. Its not going, I don’t put anything about my past or history on that one because it has my real name and my NARC relatives can and will use anything against me they can find. So I keep it impersonal. I’m going through a kind of writers block at the moment. I think the more you write the more comes to you to write though.

        Liked by 2 people

        • Lol.. writer’s block… if it weren’t 3:30 in the morning where I am, I would have a lot to say on that subject. But right now I have sleeper’s block. Hmmm… zzzzZzzzZzzz…. good night/morning.

          Liked by 2 people

        • I hope you get over your writer’s block soon. I can definitely relate to not wanting to be too open on your blog, due to narc relatives reading it and using the information against you. Knowing this blog has been read by certain family members Id rather have not found it, held me back for a long time. Now I no longer care. No real names are being used, what are they going to do? Reject me? HAHAHA!

          Liked by 1 person

  2. I blog primarily because I really need to keep a journal, but often the words come too fast for a pen to keep up with. It’s about speed. When I started getting comments and likes and followers I was very surprised. But what I have done now is built a beautiful little group therapy session. I can come here whenever the urge strikes me and get out whatever I need to get out. Then, at their leisure, others will come by to share their thoughts and opinions. It’s been extremely therapeutic for me.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. I started blogging because I was dragged into an insane court case by a man I have never met (still in litigation…2 years now). I was also defamed by the media (who repeatedly referred to me as old and ugly) as a result of this court case. I went for therapy and was turned down by two therapists (they didn’t want to get dragged into my court case). I continued blogging because it helps me not only work out my problems and issues, it helps me get to the core of who I am and what I stand for.

    Love A Opinionated Man! My readership expanded greatly because of him and I met some great bloggers.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Reblogged this on A Good Blog is Hard to Find and commented:
    I wonder how many people will miss the part about “hard work” and will instead focus on the part about “getting help.” lol 😉
    I appreciate the kind mention. Your blog is great and growing because of you and that hard work. I simply helped push you down the stream a little bit. -OM
    Note: Comments disabled here. Please visit their blog.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. What a great post, thanks for sharing your insights. I started blogging initially for me, a way to record my travels but it quickly grew from there and now I love not only sharing our travel adventures but wanting to reach out and inspire others through simple words and images. I absolutely love connecting with other bloggers and because of that my blog has started to take off and my stats have picked up, which thrills me to bits! I’m still not great on social media and sharing but I love the connections and the community, to me that’s what it’s all about now.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Hi Miriam! I’m glad you enjoyed my post. The social media thing, that will come with time, but if you don’t feel comfortable with it, that’s ok too. There’s other ways to connect. I love the WP community–everyone is so friendly and supportive!

      Liked by 1 person

      • I agree, WP is awesome. It’s not that I don’t feel comfortable with FB, maybe I’m just not social media savy, I don’t have a huge FB following so I mainly stick to wordpress.

        Liked by 1 person

        • I don’t have a huge FB following either. I do better on Twitter, which I prefer anyway. I do have a FB page for this blog though, if you’d like to follow it. I just started it. I’m not sure how active it’s going to be.

          Liked by 1 person

          • Do you know, I haven’t even thought about a FB page for my blog, I’ve only got my personal one. I must be behind the times!

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  8. I blog to encourage other blind/vision impaired women to embrace themselves and to walk in confidence. We’ve done such a poor job in educating the public on what blindness really is and because of this those of us who live with it come across all sort of situations from stares and rudeness to outright anger. Going through a life altering event is difficult on its own however when throwing in people who don’t, won’t or can’t understand and it increases the likelihood of the person just giving up versus choosing to move through it.

    Thank you for this excellent post with great advice!!

    Liked by 2 people

    • That sounds like a great cause! I agree with you there’s not much education about blindness or how to live with someone who is blind. Good for you for blogging about it, and I’m glad you liked my post.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Pretty simple: I blog because I needed an outlet, a way to better understand my wife’s mental health issues and how I fit into the scheme of things.

    Liked by 1 person

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