Blog Wars
There have been rumblings of discontent in the blog world recently. There seem to be different factions pitted against each other and what is starting as just the occasional jab, could turn into a full on fight. The issue is Old vs New: more popular bloggers vs the new ones. The newbies seem a little pissed off that the popular ones get attention. Aren’t we all meant to be on the same team here?
What newer bloggers seem to forget is that more popular bloggers were new once themselves. With the gazillions of blogs out there, it takes a long time to stand out from the crowd and make your voice heard. Once you do manage it, yes, certain benefits do start to come your way, but I would’ve thought that would be something to aspire to, rather than get pissed off about.
I can fully appreciate how frustrating it is when you start up a blog. When I started, no one read it for about a year and a half. I’m not joking, it was like, my parents and a few people who stumbled across it by accident. I desperately wanted it to be getting more attention than it was, but I still blogged every day even though no one was reading. Why? Because I loved it. Because I needed to. Because I’m a creative person and I was trying to build something. And because I understood that without good content, no one would ever want to read it anyway.
I never knew that PR people read blogs, that people would send me things, that I would get the kind of offers I do. That’s not why I got into this. I just wanted to write. For a year and a half, nobody read it. Then slowly, some people started to read it and it’s really only been within the last year that it’s taken off. I’ve been blogging going on four years now and did plenty of other things in the years before that prepared me for this. My blog has been far from an overnight ‘success’. I have worked my ass off. To then see new bloggers who’ve been blogging for three months, getting pissy because they’re not getting free things, is mindboggling to me.
It takes time. You can either get frustrated or you can get your head down and work. As they say, don’t get bitter, get better. Newbies starting out are in a much better position than I was when I started. Twitter wasn’t big, there weren’t many successful bloggers, no one to retweet me, help me or advise me – I did it myself. I fought tooth and nail for every reader, every page view. It certainly hasn’t been handed to me.
You can’t expect to start blogging and overnight have an audience, be getting press, be invited to everything and become a legend. It just doesn’t work like that. It takes time.
Are you willing to blog for a year and a half even if no one’s reading? Ask yourself why you’re doing this. There are certain blog sectors that are completely over-saturated – what are you really bringing to the table? How will you stand out? If it’s just about free things, you’re doing it all wrong.
In short, be patient young grasshopper. Your time will come.
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Tags: blogging, blogging advice, how to blog
