Becoming a Better Blogger: Your Role in the Blogosphere
Today on Pens With Cojones, we are going to veer off the beaten path. We’re going to cross to the other side of the literary street (almost as if we saw Lindsey Lohan approaching us in equally, recently uncool BP branded Ugg boots) to indulge in some rough navel gazing (sounds worse than it is).
Blogging – The Wide Angle View
You’re doing it, I’m doing it and if BlogPulse is right, there are 145, 466, 214 other people doing it. Yesterday, 71, 767 bloggers joined the blogosphere and there were 1, o44, 408 blog posts published. What these staggering numbers mean for you and I, is that our ideas mean diddly squat in the big scheme of things. Our ideas are single atoms of a grain of sand in the Sahara desert, infinitely inconsequential.
I am a lonely voice, hoarsely yelling my truth into the void. And you probably are too.
So we decide to focus instead on the writing, book reviewing, publishing industry observing corner of the industry, we find our niche. But how big is our niche? How about a paltry 0.5% of the total blogosphere, say 727, 000 blogs give or take. We are no more heard in this little corner than in the wider world of blogs. In the big scheme of things, we are nulls, nada and nothing. Unless…
Hope in Self Knowledge
No one gets heard in a mob, everyone is shouting, pushing and shoving. The pickpockets make a killing, the instigators of the mob get the chaos they want, the targets of the mob mostly get away unscathed because the mob assault is unfocused and sloppy. Sometimes one cunning bastard says or does something the mob hasn’t heard or seen before. They listen and the bastard becomes a leader.
Everyone who benefits from the mob (the pickpocket the instigators, the targets, the new leader) all do so because they have self-knowledge and purpose. They know their roles and they execute accordingly. The mob itself gains nothing and expends useful energy.
So it is with blogging folks. There are many of us saying and doing variations of derivations of the same things. Only those who know their roles and execute accordingly will gain significant readership.
What is Your Role in the Blogosphere?
Do you know what role you’re playing in the blogosphere? Do you know what role you want to play? Do you know what steps get you from your current role to your desired role? Can you find three other bloggers who write posts just like yours or have blog designs just like yours or write in a voice just like yours? What separates you from every other book blogger? Or from every other writer bonding with readers and building a platform?
My desired role is that of the dissident and militant advocate. A dissident against all the writing, blogging and publishing conventions that hold us captive, an aggressive advocate for fellow writers, fellow readers and books in general. I want my posts to make you think and reevaluate. I want my posts to be deathly honest, even if it means upsetting you. I want my posts to educate you, encourage you and get you fired up to make changes.
I’m the guy wading through the mob, walloping everyone (including myself) with a truncheon until our rabid chaos is an efficient and deadly phalanx. And together we march, in perfect step towards better books, better writers, better readers, better literary culture and a better publishing industry.
I have a long way to go but that is where I’m headed. Where are you headed?
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[BONUS]: Nick Cardot’s excellent (and less annoying) post on blogging perspective over at Site Sketch 101 got me thinking about today’s post. It’s worth the jump.
[BONUS]: If this post got you thinking, pissed you off, encouraged or entertained you at all, use the sharing thingamajig below to share it with someone else.
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It’s amazing how sometimes similar subjects often pop up when you’re sitting on the fence, waiting, when you already know what you want to do.
JA Konrath made a similar post like this one the other day. And although I’ve been making quiet moves, learning and gathering more information on self-publishing, I think it’s time I made a less quiet move.
No, I’m not ready to self-publish just yet; but I am going to begin starting a community for self-published authors to gather and share knowledge and resources, to find and give motivation, inspiration, and support to one another — so that all of us can stop sitting on the fence, and jump off and be productive.
I love it. The fence can get very very comfortable because we being on the cusp of something is a good feeling. Let us know how the community building goes and we’ll be sure to support in any way we can (we bloggers are great at that).
Thank you for stopping by!
Thanks, I’ll do that :)
This is interesting and something about which I’ve been thinking. I am certainly not entirely sure. It started out as a simple way of keep track of my reading journey, but then it started going all willy-nilly. I need to find my own focus and determine what I want my role to be in the blogosphere. Thanks for the inspiration this morning.
Anytime, Trina.
This whole spiel doesn’t mean that you have to narrow down even more if you don’t want to. Maybe you want to cover a variety of subjects and thats what your readers come back for, to see what new and strange wonders Trina is talking about today.
Thanks for stopping by!
My latest post on Pilgrim Soul is about my journey with blogging over the last year. When I started, it was strictly with the intention of creating “platform.” In response to requests and also in response to my own interests, I have moved away from that more limited earlier intention. My blog now is about all the same issues I deal with in my writing: eg culture, religion, writing craft, and self-identity. But it is not only, anymore, about my already completed fiction. If that’s more interesting to my readers, ironically, in the end, my blog may still serve its original purpose of creating platform.
Judith,
I was so struck by how much your blog reflects the things you listed (culture, religion, self identity, writing craft). Those are very high on my list of reasons for reading your blog and I don’t get that combination in the other blogs I read.
Well done.
I started blogging with no plan whatsoever. I haven’t put too much thought into it, just be myself. I know it’s not really a great platform–my blog readers are fellow writers, not the teen crowd (I write YA) but for now, it makes me happy so I’m not changing anything!
Yeup, it’s funny how a lot of writers who blog end up with other writers as their audience. I know it’s that way for me too.
Being yourself is AOK. I can’t get features like Medical Mondays on the other blogs I read and the more unique features you can bring to it, the better.
Thanks for stopping by.
Lindsey Lohan line is priceless….LOL!!!
Glad ye liked it, T :)
In caring for the appearance of Latent Lucia, I started taking away my own posts instead of putting up new ones, and I want to continue doing that, cleaning up the mess I created….well, point is what bad can this do? The bad thing would instead be the posts I put up, not the ones I don’t put up. So I wait…This blogger responsibility ultimately affects ourselves and not the readers, who can easily click next to the other blog. My motto: I will be the best blogger in the whole history of all creatures on all the planets in the whole solarsystem of all the universes… ! I guess the important thing is that I need to keep my engaged involvment, if it doesn’t exist then I keep silent, and this my friend is the definition of my freedom! =) (Hmm, should I send this and take the consequences? Yes, I take the risk of being launched by the mob, after all it is my blog and I am allowed to express whatever thought pops up in my mind. Or am I allowed to think whatever I want? I don’t think so actually… )
You should want to be the best blogger on all solar systems, I know I do lol. It is only that I want to be the best writer on all solar systems more :)
I like what you say about being silent when you have nothing to say. I need to work on that myself and not worry about having a schedule so much.
Thanks for stopping by