The Evolution of a Blogger.

I've been thinking a lot, lately. Scary, I know...just ask those around me.

Anyway, I've been thinking about blogging and how it seems that most bloggers follow a typical "pattern" of bloggy evolution.

You know...going from knuckle dragging stone tablet carving:

To high fashion, globe trotting, book deal snagging hot shots.

Or not.

I mean, for most of us.

Some of us, yes...have become high fashion, globe trotting, book deal snagging, movie procuring booger heads.

Kidding.

About the booger heads.

I spent a lot of time with my kids this weekend and every mean name I can think up ends with "head"...movie head, wii head, booger head, etc.

It's a horrible affliction.

Anyway...sorry 'bout the digression...

Tell me if you disagree with my theory. (I know I've mentioned it before...but oh, Lordy! does this wee lil brain of mine have a whole buncha theories in it! Scary...really.)

Here's my theory...one day, little Cindy Lou-Blogger-Who wakes up and decides she wants to start "one of those blog things" (ps...I don't mean to pick on Cindy...she's just the first that popped into my head. And...um...I wasn't calling anyone a bad name there...you know, with "my head" and all...). So, Cindy...all bright eyed, logs onto Blogger ('cuz that's where all of us suckers start...) and chooses a URL for her new blog.

The first bazillion and one URL's that she comes up with, are taken...so, she ends up with her bazillion and 2 choice. She brushes the hair from her eyes...takes a deep breath...and starts tapping out her first blog post.

She hits publish, so proud of her first blog post.

She installs stat counter (and, I don't mean to gender discriminate...just using "she" for ease, you know...), and watches...and watches and waits and watches...and finds that she is the only one visiting her blog.

She writes a few more blog posts...and one day, *gasp* a comment!! "There is a God!!" she proclaims...and smiles to herself as she finds she has one follower.

She enjoys months of writing...watching her followers grow and the comments rise and hits add up...but...suddenly...she finds that there is some pressure with this whole blogging stuff! I mean, there is a actual audience that is reading her stuff!

She feels the pressure build...she gets tense. Then she realizes..."heck! I started this blog for me, and I'm gonna write for me." And the pressure is off.

But...she still keeps a close eye on those followers and those hits.

Followers go up...and then they go down. The "down" days make her feel crummy...make her wonder what she's doing wrong, why people don't like her. Then...she realizes, again...that the "followers" are just a "bonus".

That followers don't make a person feel worthy or fabulous. Fabulousness comes from inside!

So, Cindy Lou, she takes her focus off her "followers"...glances at it now and then...and smiles when she sees her numbers, but knows that those numbers don't make her good or, even, great.

Now that she's over the follower stress...she still is ever so closely (read: obsessively) watching her hits. If she has a good day...the world is GREAT! Yay!! Lot's of people read her blog today and woo hoo!! Isn't life grand?!

Then...a slow day, and life is all "boo hoo"! "I suck!" and "What am I doing wrong?" She frets and worries and agonizes over her hits...until one day...she realizes she isn't checking her statcounter quite so frequently.

A couple of days go by, and "huh"...she hasn't checked her stat counter at all!

It's liberating! And, blogging is so much more fun without stress and worry and pressure and fretting and "I suckiness"!

She realizes...the world is only big enough for so many Dooce's or Pioneer Women...and she's happy with her little place in the bloggy world.

The evolution of a blogger: naive first time poster, to pressure posting novice, to follower hungry amateur, to hit hoarding apprentice, to "back to the roots" blogging lover.

And that thar is my theory.

Gripping, isn't it?