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Why Bother Writing At All

Oct 27
Posted by DaveOlson in Personal

dave.pngSomewhere in that moment between awake and not, I had a moment of synaptic brilliance.

Thinking about the whole blogging thing I wondered why it was so difficult to put a post together. When did it become so much work? Why did I lose the passion of the chase?

Simply put blogging just wasn’t fun any more it was work and that is my fault.

Somehow from an initial desire to better my writing skills, I got caught up in the business of blogging. You know the gotta build links, build a brand, how can I make money, grow my reader base, increase my subscriptions, network, create pillar content, find my niche….. yada yada yada…

RAT RACE…

Wanna hear my epiphany? Do ya?

I blog because I enjoy it!

It’s not my job. I don’t get paid for it. I get to meet all sorts of cool people and I like writing. I might even write a book sometime, but not today. :smile:

I like it when something I’ve written benefits another human being. I enjoy it when someone stops by and leaves a comment, but I don’t get bugged out when there are no comments. The sky is not falling and my world is not ending.

If taking the time to write ends up bringing enjoyment to me and encouragement to someone else, then I’ve done what I set out to do. It’s the only way to avoid the progressive blogging decline.

If this all sounds like a rant because I don’t have a high enough subscription count then you’ve missed the point. I’ve finally found my niche…. it’s ME. :grin:

What do you think? Let’s talk!

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  • http://lenski.com Tammy Lenski

    Being true to yourself and what you really care about sounds like the most powerful choice you could make, Dave…and perhaps it’ll be the best marketing strategy in the long run, too, because you’ll be living the life you desire by being authentic here on your blog.

    If blogging because you love it and the business of blogging intersect here and there, so be it. But I’m with you…the business of blogging for blogging’s sake starts to feel a bit soul-less after a while.

    Here’s to you and your clarity, Dave!

  • http://www.freetraffictip.com MorganLighter

    Dave, Right On!
    I know exactly where you’re at and how you’re feeling.
    What a relief it is to blog because you want to and to blog about things that YOU find interesting or that YOU think is topical or that YOU whatever and NOT having to make sure you dot your ‘i’s and cross your ‘t’s – so to speak.
    How cool does it feel to be able to forget all the stuff you’re ‘told’ that you have to do become successful in the blogging world – link building, branding, subscription base, etc??
    Rock on, man.

  • DaveOlson

    Tammy, you’re always such an inspirational person… you should go into mediation! :smile:

    Now if I can only keep my clarity longer than my thoughts as I fall asleep.

  • http://www.moritherapy.org isabella mori

    dave, you are so right. this is the only way to approach this. google and other search engines go bonkers on a regular basis. readers find other blogs to read (and why not, there’s so much out there). link love goes up and down. do we really want to be dependent on all this? i think not. that doesn’t mean that we should get all self-involved and disregard our readers. but we need to remember that in the end, that’s all we have: our own passions and interests.

  • DaveOlson

    isabella, definitely don’t want to disregard the people who faithfully visit. That would be like inviting someone over then ignoring them. Dreadful! I like what Liz Strauss says “letting me be..”

  • DaveOlson

    MorganLighter, I just retrieved your comment from Akismet purgatory. Sorry I didn’t catch it before.

    I’m all for writing for the audience. It’s just that somehow the passion can be gone if you’re not in it!

  • http://www.versacreations.net Vivienne Quek

    Well … so I stopped checking at Technorati, Alexa, PageRank, Link-in … and I write when I have something to say and not because I haven’t post for x number of days …

  • DaveOlson

    Vivienne… I think it’s really important to post when you’ve got something to say. Nobody benefits from writing something that is really just fluff. Way to go!

  • http://www.thinkofprosperity.com Stephanie

    Dave, I got to feeling guilty about not writing and worried that I was not getting “the job” done. I was constantly checking how many hits I was getting and then fretting when the numbers went down. (not that they were over the moon by any means!) Then I went – wait a moment here. Why am I doing this, what do I expect to gain?
    When I began to relax, the enjoyment came and people started to visit and I in turn started to visit others. I now gain inspiration from many people and I hope that people will continue to find something that I have talked about and will continue to talk about helpful along their journey.
    One simple word can change a person’s life. That is what is so amazing and wonderful.

  • DaveOlson

    Stephanie… you are sooo right. One word can change a person’s world. And doesn’t it feel great when you get the one word right?