If a blog isn’t often making you want to write great comments, shifting your perspective, challenging your preconceptions, or entertaining you such that you want to thank the blogger, stop reading it. It’s not worth your time.
Why waste your time with another’s mediocrity when you could be creating something extraordinary?
here, here. or is it hear, hear? i should look that up in the OED. anyway…
i am totally with you on this, tara. there are people who hang on to clothes they don’t wear anymore and people who hang on to blogs they don’t find inspiring anymore. i can’t handle a full closet any more than i can handle 1000+ unread posts in my blog reader.
i actually decided about a year ago to only read blogs in person, not through a reader, and now i only visit my superfaves, and i enjoy them so much the more.
well, julie, then i appreciate your comment even that much more!
. . . and i think it’s “hear, hear” but please tell me if i’m wrong!
it seems the more outrageously fantastic blogs (btw, we’re all allowed to have off days/posts) i find, the less i can tolerate mediocrity. just felt the need to remind people that they should be moved by the things they’re reading!
Hi Tara,
I read you post the other day and it kicked me in the stomach!
My own blog is boring the pants off me, never mind my dwindling reader numbers. I am really struggling to find my voice there. Unsure of what to post about, personal or business, tayloring it for potential customers ect.
So last night I decided I would write a post. A different kind of post from the surface chat I usually share, a personal post. The response has been amazing! I have had comments already, and I think it is because I opened up a bit and showed a bit of the real me.
I don’t want my blog to be dull. I’m going to take a look at my favorite blogs and take a note of what it is about them that I respond to.
So thanks for the shake up kick in the guts!!!
Laura
hey laura!! that’s awesome! i think that’s how so many people view their blog: as something they have to do, not providing any value to themselves or their readers. how boring!
i’m glad you’ve found a way to use your blog for your own spirit and you will unwittingly help & encourage people at the same time. kudos!
Good point!
Yikes, I’m thinking to myself…does my blog apply?? But I’m sure I’m just not being found, don’t know. Anyway completely agree with you. The blogsphere is overwhelming and I have many that I would simply love to follow and can’t. So i really have to nail down where i’m at in my life and my current needs and what will be my information diet for that “season”. So I’ve actually come to organize my blog interests through a “need” type of choice architecture and not necessarily this is a design blog, this is a copy blog, etc.
keeps me focused on what i should be reading and not get distracted with what I’d like to be reading or feeding my blog addiction
-kanisha
http://www.biglifesmallspace.com
Yikes, I’m thinking to myself…does my blog apply?? But I’m sure I’m just not being found, don’t know. Anyway completely agree with you. The blogsphere is overwhelming and I have many that I would simply love to follow and can’t. So i really have to nail down where i’m at in my life and my current needs and what will be my information diet for that “season”. So I’ve actually come to organize my blog interests through a “need” type of choice architecture and not necessarily this is a design blog, this is a copy blog, etc.
keeps me focused on what i should be reading and not get distracted with what I’d like to be reading or feeding my blog addiction
Kanisha – yes, your blog is young! Give it time. It will take a while to truly understand who you are writing for, what they need to know, and how to move them to action.
And I LOVE your idea for how to organize your reader. That’s just brilliant. Seriously. If I had the time or inclination to actually open my reader, I would totally switch to that idea. I can’t wait to share that idea with Megan Auman from Craft MBA because she’s going to flip!
make sure you tell her where that brilliance came from;) I dig Craft MBA.
oh don’t worry! i always cite my sources
Funny thing….I was thinking the same about blogs period. They are so so addicting that you can’t wait until tomorrow to see what they post. But then you spend ALLL this time reading and reading when really you should be working. But I still keep reading. I love having scoutiegirl and tara gentile and CraftMBA in my inbox in the morning and get really sad when there isn’t something new yet. But comments…sometimes I feel like my comments are inadequate, not intellectual enough, inexperienced. Or sometimes I just want to say I really liked your post, but Kari Chapin of The Handmade Marketplace says to leave meaningful comments. So there is comment intimidation.
So here is my comment to show you I like your blog(s). HAHA!
Hi, Tara! –
This is my first time commenting on either of your blogs, but I’ve been reading them both for a few months now.
This is a great post — simply said, and something that runs through most of our minds probably almost every day {“Why am I reading this blog a-GAIN?”} but we so often put off making the decision to just *quit* reading. Currently, I subscribe to about a hundred blogs by email — maybe more — but if I had to name aloud the bloggers who truly teach me on a daily basis and whose posts feel “worth it” to me and my work, I could spit out about 10 names very quickly. One day, I may just go ahead and decide to pare waaaaay back. Would certainly make tackling the old Inbox a lot easier!
By the way, *your* blog would definitely remain one of the ones I continue to read. I genuinely feel perked up and intrigued every time I see your name pop up in my Inbox. Thanks for creating this space for us creative entrepreneurs.
– Abby
Dear Tara (beautiful name BTW-It’s my daughter’s name too!) -I just came across your blog and a lot of this info has been really useful. I am a recent blogger (7 months) and struggle with these questions/issues all the time. I am trying to find my voice…and then express it. Thank you!