Success.
It is a tricky word.
And as in most professions it is a moving target.
Blogging is no exception….
When I began to blog I remember thinking “if I can get 100 readers a day I will be able to relax and I will feel like I am a success”. I even wrote it down on a post-it note and pinned it to my bulletin board. I leave it there to remind me- how far I have come. Now with tons more page views daily, that goal of ‘just 100’ seems silly. In the early days I would read other more established bloggers and marveled at their readerships…I yearned to be ‘popular’. It felt strangely familiar. You have heard the comparison before- that the blogosphere is tantamount to a virtual high school with the cliques, drama and yes, popularity contests. And yup..it is true.
Hey bloggers? Any of this sound familiar?
Start blog.
Immediately place value of each post in # of comments. And the ones from your mom don’t count you decide.
Discover Sitemeter or Google Analytics and start to monitor # of readers every waking moment and even once or twice in the middle of the night.
Now you start to calculate the # of comments to the # of readers ratio
Discover Feedburner now obsess over # of subscribers
Now you start to calculate # of readers to # of subscribers ratio.
Sent first request for a review post on a product
Do your first give-away and realize it feels really good to give stuff to people, but it is scary to be in charge of picking the winner.
Discover Random.org and smile.
First request for a paid post for a gambling or porn site. While you are flattered, you turn them down because they are not the ‘right fit’.
You are invited to first brand sponsored event.
You go and write a post about it. Not sure if that was all they wanted from you. Seems strange.
Have blog cards printed at Uprinting.com, start to give out to anyone and everyone.
Husband calls you a Blog Pimp.
Pay money you don’t have to get a redesign for your site.
Decide a successful blog makes money. So you…
Put Google Ads on the blog ……Take Google Ads off since they bug you and you never get any money from them anyway
Put Blogher Ad up.
Take down as soon as they say you can’t do giveaways with their ad up.
Join Twitter. Immediately worry about your low number of followers.
First request for paid advertising comes in.
Thrilled. Until you discover the brand only wants to pay you $20 a month. You take it anyway.
Husband asks what you want for your birthday and you answer with “redesign and move to Wordpress”. He looks confused but agrees.
Hire blog designer to move blog. Use custom domain.
LOOSE more than half of your readers and subscribers.
CRY.
CRY A LOT.
Attend BlogHer conference.
Come home feeling very small and unpopular and troubled by being called a ‘content generator’ and not a writer.
Discover Webgrader.
Discover Google Page Rank.
Discover you are no where near the ‘big guys’.
Consider giving up the blog. Question why you do this in the first place.
Participate in brand webinars, tweet-ups and conference calls.
Get free stuff.
Get huge validation from FREE STUFF. Decide that since you do not get paid for your work FREE STUFF is your ‘pay’.
Seek out give-aways and brand promotions like crazy.
Free Stuff becomes your SUCCESS meter.
Create Facebook Fan Page and immediately begin to obsess about your number of fans.
Eventually, you come to the conclusion it has become too commercial and too much like ‘work’ so you blog about ending the blog.
You decide the best thing to do is to just close up shop.
You do.
Suddenly you have more free time than you know what to do with.
And then one day you have something to say- and no one to say it to.
So you…
START BLOG.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Its like you are in my mind… hello, what am I thinking right now?
Only I just barely have 100 readers on most days. And I’m just past the giveaway part. Now I have to go off and read about all those other discoveries… only its like you tampered with the natural progression of things and you’ve sent me off onto a different course. Will time freeze if I discover webgrader and start a facebook page out of order?!
I still don’t even have a business card.
I want free things darn it!!
What do you MEAN comments from your mother don’t count????
This is tooo funny!
It’s so right on!
As I read, I had this mental check list going. I’ve checked everything off except for two things. I haven’t removed the blogher ads cause they pay more than free product, and while I definitely see the cliques in the blogging world, I really don’t care if I’m part of one, so long as MY blog continues to grow! lol
This was a fantastic read. Thanks for the much needed comic relief. I think we tend to forget that writing a blog is not life or death.
So true! I am zigzagging along that path – characteristically, I am not overly concerned about making money (much to my husband’s chagrin) and I have signed up for services that I have no time to analyze. Love your wit and for revealing what’s in the future for us newbies.
There are so many links you posted about to help manage your blog, I feel so childlike and unexperienced. I only use google analytics. Guess I should check some others out and obsess. Obsessing sounds like a fun way to spend my Friday.
This is hilarious. I’m only a lay-blogger (just for fam and long-distance friends), but I know some bloggers and can’t attest to the validity of your post vicariously for them! I read your blog sometimes just through the RSS feed… sorry if that messes up your numbers :)
I would be happy with 10 readers a day!! LOL Marcy, you made me feel small and insignificant, but then I realized that I blog for my friends and family really, so I definitely appreciate every single person who visits! hee hee
I want to clarify to everyone that I said “small and insignificant” with a great deal of humor and fun. Marcy is awesome!
I started my blog just to get my thoughts down and they were very random. Now I obsess that I haven’t written the right blog for my audience or that I haven’t written at all that day. I don’t even think about numbers of readers, should I?? Maybe I should obsess that I don’t have that many and how to get more and quit obsessing about blog quality and content. Nah, I think I’ll just go back to blogging my thoughts of the day, that is when I have them.
Lately I’ve been obsessing about not obsessing.
Very funny, Marcy, and probably all true — for you powerful blogger types!
Hey Marcy –
Sorry it has taken so long to get over here to officially comment on this post that I asked for. :-) You’ve written like ten posts since this one and I’m pretty sure you just told me about this post two days ago at most!
I totally appreciate this rundown you’ve given me because getting inside the thought process of another blogger’s head is always enlightening. I have gone through some of this stuff but somewhere along the way I decided to only care about the community I was creating and the creative expression that happened within that community. And that is success to me. When I went to BlogHer I got a dose of reality on the elusive carrot that seems to be dangling in front of most bloggers about the “success” they can achieve. I think many moms in the blogosphere would love to make some money blogging or get sent on free trips and that is success to them. Getting a free trip somewhere is not success to me. But creating content that connects us as women and mothers is success to me. I was interested in what you had to say about this topic because I know you work very hard at your blog business and I wondered what your ideas of success were. Success is subjective after all so if you feel successful at this blogging thing, you are, right? Anyway – I could dialogue on this topic for a while so maybe sometime we will….
Thanks for this post though…..
Lee
We are singing from the same hymnal, sister!
Soooooo True!
This was a great post! I’m still at the very beginning stages of the process, but after reading this, think I might just stay here and that won’t be a problem.
Awesome post. Nice to know we are all going through the same thing. :) I joke that I blog cause I have too much to say about things and my husband got tired of listening to it. LOL.
*snort*
I LOVE this list … you are SO right on point. We have gone through every single one of those feelings/items :D.
I read this and was like…. halleluia, someone else is going thru the same struggles I am with my blog. You said it so perfectly here.
Would it be okay if I republish this post, with full credit to you of course, on my personal blog? http://www.javacupcake.com then goto the “Tales of a Firedancer” blog.
Thank you!
Betsy
betsy @ javacupcake . com
Love this! So true. So painfully true!!!