I bought my first laptop in late 2007 and started this blog
in early 2008. I had read a few blogs earlier and had always wanted to write –
and so I started off. Only a handful of my friends knew about my blog and a few
of them used to read and comment. I was thrilled with every comment and eagerly
awaited them after I wrote every new blog post.
Fast forward to the present, my blog has gained a few new
readers – some of whom I’ve never met – and I am now a part of a few blogging
communities and groups as well. However, as much as I enjoy the actual writing
of posts I lag far behind in the other areas that has come to be associated
with blogging today.
There are a few blogs out there that attract a large number
of readers solely due to the interesting and consistent quality of content.
On the other hand, I have increasingly noticed that a number of “popular” blogs are
actually popular simply because the blogger networks extensively. This was also one of the things we learnt at work - I work in digital publishing - that good content alone is not enough, marketing is as, if not, even more important. In fact, this
is also something which we’ve been noticing with authors nowadays. No longer is
it enough to write your book and be done with it. Today, you need to attend
book launches, signings, meets, give talks, market on social media, give
interviews, attend shows… phew!
The funny thing is, blogging is actually an activity that is
especially suited for introverts like me, who are nervous about meeting new
people and find themselves tongue-tied in large gatherings. The internet
provides us with just the right amount of distance and it is the perfect medium
through which we can convey our thoughts without succumbing to the inherent
fears and worries of an introvert. Blogging
was once considered to be only for geeky loners – and then suddenly it became
cool to have a blog and now with the advent of social media, blogging has
almost become passé!
So that brings us to the point – whom do we blog for? Is it
for ourselves or is it for our readers? Sure, a blog’s readers are important. I
mean who doesn’t like comments and visitors who not only read but actually
agree with what you have to say? So at one point of time, I too jumped into the fray
and started socialising, albeit virtually. The number of visitors to my blog
increased, the interaction increased and my blog’s stats picked up and it was
all very exciting indeed. Perhaps because I also work for a commercial
magazine, I soon started thinking about what to blog about – from the readers’
angle. Gradually I stopped blogging for
myself. I was constantly worried about improving my blogs stats. While
this is definitely necessary for a commercial magazine, I think that one of the
charms of maintaining your own blog is that it offers you an opportunity to
write for yourself. You don’t have to adhere to word length constraints, or
worry about editorial guidelines or if what you write will be accepted by an editor and liked by readers. At your blog, you are the boss. You can give free
reign to your writing and write about whatever the heck you want – and I’ve
found it to be so liberating that sometimes I have to consciously remind myself
that my writing needn’t be constrained by any rules when I am blogging! If
people find it interesting enough to read, that’s great. If not, so what? I’ve
written something for the pure joy of crafting words. I’ve written something
for the unadulterated love of writing. I’ve written something simply for the
sake of writing itself. What could be
more fulfilling for someone who thinks words are her best friend?
