The other week, I had a Guest post on how to promote your blog. Today, I'd like to talk about the purpose behind your blog. Or the "Why do you blog?" question.
We all start out for some reason or another. We all want to be successful at it too. We want others to find our blog, visit, leave comments, appreciate the work we invest in our site and so on. But the reason you started blogging in the first place... what was it?
For some folks, it's just a way to share what they work on, others are showcasing their work (commission artists and such) and some have come to blogging as a way to keep in touch. There are a number of reasons out there.
But why do you continue to blog about the game you love so much? Is it for the visitors or the number of Followers or the page views you get each day? Or are you still doing it for the same reasons as when you started?
Starting off on the right foot
Do you remember why it was you started? If you've been blogging for some time, think back to those days when you were just starting out and what it was about blogging that kept you going. Are you still doing the same thing? Are you just as focused today as you were way back when?
I'm sure you've picked up a number of things and learned a few lessons along the way, but are you still on track? If it's changed, why has it?
Perhaps one of the single best things you can do for your blog is to decide what it is that you want to do with your blog. Is it rumors... is it latest news... is it posting pics of stuff you find on other sites? What is it that you want to do? Once you find that "thing," blogging about it will become so much easier and enjoyable.
I remember why I started. I wanted to see what was out there (keep track of those folks I found interesting) and show people my work in hopes of getting some more. The hardest thing since then has been keeping focused on why I started all this.
Things change over time
It's natural, we go through changes in our life, in our hobby, our skills and abilities. All of that. And your blog is going to change too. I wish I'd kept a snapshot of every time I changed my blog layout. I could probably fill a book by now. And that's just one aspect of a blog.
But it's ok to change. It means you're learning new things... the trick is keeping focused on why you started blogging in the first place.
FTW has gone through some huge changes over time. But through all of that, there have been some things that have remained the same. If you look at your blog, is it what you want it to be or has it become something else? Has it strayed from the reason you started blogging? Has your blog improved at doing what you set out to do?
Don't kid yourself, blogging is a lot of work
Nobody who runs a blog can sit there and tell me it's not much work. I run one too and I know it's tremendous amount of work. And to top it off, you're putting yourself out there to be judged once you start posting pics of your own stuff.
Just don't let the work overtake you. Balance is the key. Balance between everything you have going on from the hobby to your real life. So many things compete for our time these days. Don't forget to give time to the important things first like family. Believe me.
What is success to you?
This is perhaps the toughest one. It's where we can be so hard on ourselves. It goes back to why you started. If you're doing what you set out to do (share pics, share links, news, rumors), then you are a success.
If you find yourself constantly checking your stats for pageviews, visitors, trends and all that stuff, you may want to be careful. While some of that can be important, don't let it rule your blog. I can tell you that I don't care how many page views or visits a blog has when I visit. I come for content and to hear what that Author has to say.
Don't let your voice be ruled by some numbers that ultimately don't mean much in the end to your visitors. It's not as if readers stop by your blog, look at your "numbers" and then think to themselves, "Who would read this stuff, they only have 30,000 followers... nobody has that few any more," and keep going on their way.
Remember, people come to see what you post.
If you keep on track (which is very hard to do sometimes), you will build a great site. And that has nothing to do with numbers. It's taken me a few years and a lot of hard lessons to figure that one out. Hopefully it doesn't take you as long and you don't make the mistakes I did.
Make sure to check out these posts as they might help:
But I don't know what I should post about.
