Blogging Insights

Blogging Insights — Reaching Out

Fandango15 Comments

It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from Jorge Luis Borges, who was an Argentine short-story writer, and essayist. Here’s his quote:

“What I’m really concerned about is reaching one person.”

Before I started blogging on WordPress, I blogged on Blogger for a few years and then on Typepad for a few more years. Neither Blogger nor Typepad had a LIKE button and I rarely got any comments from any readers (if I had any readers) on either blog hosting site. It reminded me of that old saying about a tree falling in the woods and wondering if it made a sound if no one was around to hear it. Was it the same with my blog? Did it make a difference to me if nobody was around to read my posts?

As much as I would tell myself that I was blogging only for myself, I was secretly disappointed that no one was reading my brilliant, engaging, compelling, fascinating, witty, entertaining, and interesting posts. I rationalized that these non-readers were the ones who were missing out on something special and that was their loss, not mine.

Then I decided to see what WordPress was all about and started posting on the WordPress hosting site. I figured that, if the same thing happened on WordPress as had happened on Blogger and Typepad, the cosmos was sending me a three-strikes and you’re out message and that it was time to hang up my blogging spurs. (Sorry about these mixed metaphors.)

But guess what happened? I started getting notifications that people had “liked” my post. And some people even took the time to post a comment, and to start to follow my blog. And those likes and comments grew exponentially. In the 5 1/2 years I’ve been on WordPress, I’ve gotten approximately 785,000 views, 254,000 likes, and 116,000 comments (excluding my own).

So back to today’s quote. As a blogger, I would agree. Being able to reach out to people and to have them read and respond to my writing makes blogging so much more fulfilling and rewarding than writing in a vacuum. And so much better than writing like that proverbial falling tree in the woods, where no one is around to hear you make a sound.

Blogging Insights — Intuition

Fandango23 Comments

It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from Kelly Thoreson, a self-proclaimed “Killer Content Queen” and creator of Blogfiti, a place for bloggers to learn to write unicorn content that ranks high on Google and moves their businesses forward. Here’s her quote:

“Here’s the only blogging tip you really need: always follow your intuition.”

Let’s see. The quote Tanya gave us last week told us that the only two attributes that make someone a good writer/blogger are talent and the ability to avoid being distracted by the internet, and 97% of that is the latter. This week’s quote is that the only thing a good blogger needs is to follow their intuition. Forget about talent or the ability to avoid being distracted by the internet. That’s so last week This week it’s only intuition!

Come on, Kelly. All you need is intuition? How about commutations skills? Or language skills? Or the ability to tell a story — one that is engaging, interesting, informative, and/or imaginative? Nah, those things are not necessary. All you need to do is follow your gut…and hope it doesn’t give your readers indigestion in their guts.

Blogging Insights — Distractions

Fandango12 Comments

It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is unattributed, but given the quote, it’s a little ironic because I’m sure it’s something Tanya got on the internet. Here’s the quote:

“Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet.”

It’s no wonder this quote is unattributed. It’s an awful quote. I hate it when people quote percentages for qualitative factors that are impossible to measure quantitatively. Where did the 3% number come from? Are there only two attributes that make someone a good writer: talent and the ability to avoid being distracted by the internet? Must be, according to this quote, because 3% plus 97% adds up to 100%, leaving no room for any other attributes for making a good writer.

Im not a professional or even a “serious” writer. Im a retiree who enjoys writing, and blogging gives me that opportunity to exercise my mind, express myself in writing, and have fun. It also enables me to interact with people around the world. And what enables this? The internet!

I rely on the internet. It’s where I can find interesting, timely subject matter for my blog, as well as photos, music videos, quotes. It provides a wealth of information so I can research my topics that I post about. And WordPress.com is accessible through the internet.

I do agree that being a good writer (and a good blogger) does take talent, but it takes a lot of other attributes, including leveraging the internet as needed.

Blogging Insights — For Melanie

Fandango17 Comments

It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She usually provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote. But this week, her Blogging Insights post is a wonderful remembrance of Melanie, who passed away this past weekend.

So, in honor of Melanie, I’m going to cut and paste Tanya’s heartfelt tribute to Melanie, as Tanya speaks for all of us here on WordPress who knew Melanie.

Today’s Blogging Insights post departs from its usual format. I am dedicating this space to the memory of our dear friend Melanie B. Cee, who passed away yesterday. 

A good friend 

Melanie was a very supportive and warm hearted friend. She always had something positive to say about my posts. More than once, I thought of ending this Blogging Insights prompt but Melanie would say how much she liked it and I would keep at it.

A great blogger.

With her straight forward and humorous style of writing, Melanie’s posts were fun to read. She ran more than one prompt. Her Share Your World prompt was always a lot of fun.

Voracious reader and book lover

Melanie loved to read and would reccomend her favourite authors to others. I have never liked the horror genre but Melanie kept telling me to try Stephen King. Now I will do so in her memory.

Something she was strongly against was the banning of books that were written many years ago but were now deemed ‘politically incorrect’. Like me, she was of the opinion that books should be read in the context of their times.

Despite having firm opinions, Melanie was never judgemental or unduly critical. She believed in good manners and did not like noisy or thoughtless people. 

With Melanie in Utah and me in Lahore, we were across the world from each other. Yet we had similar views and ideas about many things.

I will miss her a lot.

Thank you, Tanya. We will all miss her a lot.

Blogging Insights — Success

Fandango20 Comments

It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from Jeremy Schoemaker, a web entrepreneur.

“I think I am about 5 for 500 when it comes to successful ideas versus flops.”

I’m not sure if this quote has much to do with writing or blogging. I suppose when you’re talking about money-making schemes, if 495 out of 500 ideas end up hitting being flops, that might be okay if 5 out of 500 are hugely successful. But if I thought only 1% of my ideas for blog posts were successful, I’d find some other way to spend my time.

To me, successful ideas, when it comes to blogging, are those ideas that result in posts that I’m proud of, that readers seem to enjoy, and which engage readers enough for them to like and/or comment on them. Using that criteria as a guideline, I would hope that my idea success rate is better than 1%.