effective blogging
darren at ProBlogger is inviting bloggers to reflect on the habits that make them highly effective. am not sure if i am one, but it’s something i definitely want to be. i’m not exactly sure how one measures effectivity in blogging– is it getting the message across? number of posts? traffic? revenues? all of the above?– but reflecting on the blogging habits i’ve formed during the past several months, here are some points i’ve realized:
1. i am more than just a blogger. i am a mother, a wife, a friend, and many others before being a blogger. i may be trying to eke out some income from blogging, but there are a lot of things that comes in precedence to it.
2. i am not a blogging machine. i am a warm-blooded, living human being, prone to moods, infection, hormonal cyles, and bad hair days. there are days i churn out a dozen of blog entries a day, and it’s great. but on those days i am not as productive, i take a break, reward myself with some time off, and try not to feel guilty.
3. i pay attention to occupational hazards. google “ergonomics” and “carpal tunnel syndrome” and you’ll know what i mean. afterall, there are so many other things i can do with my hands aside from tapping on the keyboard and clicking the mouse–washing dishes, building with lego, and giving my partner a massage, to name a few. when the urge to write persists, there’s the reliable ol’ pen-and-paper.
4. in general, i do not blog on weekends. consider it my corporate principles, if you may. but this is related to #1 above.
5. i need time alone. hail those who can whip up several entries on snippets of time. i just can’t. i need peace and quiet, which i only have when my son is in kindergarten, or late at night. i wish i can train myself to blog early in the morning when the household is still asleep, but i’ve long ago accepted that i’m simply not a morning person.
6. i read and link to other people’s blogs. while i am proud of every single blog of mine (i have a total of four, including this one), i recognize that mine are not the only ones worth a reader’s time. i don’t have any objection to spreading some link-lovin’ and drawing my readers’ attention to other blogs that may also be of interest to them.
re-reading the above, it seems that except for the last one, my collection have been rather blogger-centric. there’s a lot of science involved in the making of a successful blog, technical details you can read in blogs about blogging. i’ll have to admit i’m still a novice when it comes to that, but one thing i am convinced of: for the blog to be successful, the blogger has to be a person first, a blogger next.
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2 Responses to “effective blogging”
May 27th, 2006 at
I love that you’re a person first. I find that, in business, I have to hide who I am much of the time. Once I became a mother, I found that I had to hide that with clients…although motherhood’s given me an opportunity to connect with people who are also more than their jobs. It’s refreshing to see a post from someone like you who is a person first!
June 6th, 2006 at
Great list, great philosophy Ruth.:)