Shooting at Bubbles

There’s a lot of blogs out there giving all kinds of advise; some good, some not so good, and some just plain bullshit meant for pageviews. I know because I see their posts almost everyday and it never ceases to amaze me just how many time the same basic principals get re-worded, mashed up, or pointified.

If it could all be boiled down into a simple one sentence idea it would probably be something like this: write with passion in a niche area that you are really passionate about and make sure to link out to as many people as you can because that is the economy of the web.

So we end up with a proliferation of SEO enriched posts with lots of bold text that devalue the principals of the link economy even worse than it is now. Sure that might pull in the pageviews for a period of time and might even make you some money but just how long can you carry this on. At what point does it all begin like you are on auto-pilot.

At what point does your writing see your carefully crafted sarcasm devolve into irritating snarkiness for snarkiness sake. When do you suddenly find yourself just hitting the post button in order to make sure you get something posted.How about when you read yous own post only to find it empty of any real value having turned into something that just is taking up space.

When do you arrive at the point when you have to look in the mirror ans ask how comfortable are you with yourself and what you are doing?

I say this because this is something that I have been grappling with for a little while now. Sure I might be known as the cranky old fart who’s not afraid to put on the gloves and take on anyone but at what point did it become only that. When did I unknowingly slip over that intangible line?

I love to write and usually never have a problem finding something each day to wrap my keyboard keys around and post it to the web. However when it the reading become all about the finding and posting instead of the learning and reflecting so that I understood what it was that was driving me to write?

There came a point when I realized that I had fallen hook line and sinker for the blogger’s advice for success crap and I had lost the real key as to why I wanted to do this blogging thing in the first place. I had, in short become uncomfortable with myself.

I forgotten that it is okay to not always link out. I had forgotten that not everything that was happening needed to have an opinion written about it. I had forgotten that it’s okay not to always be cranky or take on everyone – both those things have their place at the right time and place.

I had become so pre-occupied with the formula that I had forgotten that there is no formula for writing about what you think and feel – that is just a natural function. I had become so concerned with wanting to write things that everyone would like that I had forgotten that it’s okay for people not to like, or even read, what I have written.

As a result I have slowly been changing the way I write here. It’s no longer about riffing off of others. It is no longer about rubbing my hands in glee when stupid things get said. It’s no longer about depending on others to provide the spark. It can be those things and maybe some days it will be but that is not what it will all be about because I am tire of being uncomfortable with it being just about that.

There are a lot of tips and suggestions out there for how to write yourself a successful blog but as I have learned after all this time there is one simple rule that supersedes them all.

Always be comfortable with who you are. If you do that then at the end of the day whatever you have written will have value – even if just to you, which in the end really is the most important thing.