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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?


Comments

  1. HAH, yes! I agree. I feel bad that when people leave a blog's follower arena, it makes the blogger feel bad... but it happens. I am now at the stage where I still kinda wonder why my followers number go down and I still grin broadly when I get a new follower... but mainly, my blog is for me. Thats the way I like it!

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  2. I loved this post the best out of all the posts I've read today...

    And I think I just decided something, I've been sitting on a post I've been afraid to post because it might offend...

    Anyway, thank you for this!

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  3. Haha!! I am trying not to be Cindy-Lou Blogger! Thanks for your insight. I will now go write my post for today, and try not to obsess over the whole no comments/followers thing!

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  4. Great post and I have been there.

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  5. I agree, and imagine the pressure if you are Pioneer Woman, great theory!

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  6. Oh good, I feel better now. I thought I was the only one who went through that.

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  7. Get out of my head :P

    Reading your theory was like dejavu.

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  8. Fun post! Although, when I registered my name, it came up as mine on the first try... I guess no one else wants to be IASoupMama :)

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  9. Hmmm...I think I am Cindy-Lou-Blogger! I love the writing and the blog...but I wish more people would visit. I guess it's nice to know that it's a process :) Great Blogging Analysis!

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  10. Very true! I took my counter off and I don't publish my followers on my blog. It's for me, about me, so who cares? (Well, obviously I secretly do, but I don't want to obsess about it. Hahaha)

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  11. Oh man...you hit the nail on the head. Yup. That would be me alright!

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  12. My 5 year old ends every insult with -head, too. What is up with that?

    I think this is pretty accurate. When someone says that they never look at numbers, I silently think "liar." Because even if you don't know exact, you probably have a good idea.

    Except for with statcounter. B/c my lazy butt has to go log in to look at that stuff. LOL

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  13. I think your little theory thar is DEAD ON! Good job, Mama M.

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  14. That was and is still my blogging story! Love it! :)

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  15. Thinking you nailed this one. I'm in stat pergatory right now.

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  16. Yes! I totally agree! I know I've gone through that cycle! I just moved my blog to a new location to get back to the roots of why I blog! :-)

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  17. did you write this for me. some days I get silly about it and then i remind myself why i blog. I wish someone could explain the followers to me. I mean it is fun but does it serve a purpose. Would I like my blog to be bigger, of course. I would love to have people donating things for me to give away but again why am I blogging.

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  18. Funny, I was just wondering today if the bloggers who have tons of readers feel daily pressure to "perform." Sometimes it's nice being a starter blogger. ;)

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  19. I gave you an award on my blog today. Hope you can check it out! Congratulations!

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  20. Your theory is love and I agree. Though you should add in there something about the ridiculous bloggers who want to be billionaires or the lead of very catty blog dramaz.

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  21. oh em gee. you're supposed to install a stats counter?

    crap. I never get anything right.

    Loved this post. I love to read anything about blogging.

    Thank you!

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  22. Brilliant lady!

    This is so accurate, it's scary!

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  23. So very true! Thanks for writing this:)

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  24. I totally agree with you! I got caught up with a blog party this week and have been visiting tons of great blogs. I feel bad that I can't follow all of them, but when I follow a blog I really do read it and I just don't have time to read a bazillion blogs. And if people follow my blog I want it to be because they are interested in me, and not just hoping for the reciprocal follow.

    I would love to be a big-time blogger, but that just isn't going to happen for me because well, I'm just not that interesting. So, just like Cindy Lou, I'm happy with my little place in the bloggy world.

    Thanks for this post. You really put some things in perspective for me.

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  25. haha love it. I started for fun and for a long time didn't even realize people could comment. Now I can't believe how many people read my blog and don't comment, but then I remind myself that if you aren't a "blogger" you don't even think about that sort of thing. It's funny how your view changes. If I watch numbers, it drives me crazy. I have to do it because I love it, or it becomes a job!
    Great post, and look, I was even motivated enough to comment!

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  26. Stop reading my mind, Mama M!!!

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