Great title, got your attention. Right away I can hear my friends and family saying, “No, that’s not true, we love your writing.” I love my friends and family. They’re also not wrong. I hate to toot my own horn but when you’ve been told something enough times, you start to believe it, so, yes, I do wholeheartedly believe that writing is that one true talent of mine that I cannot deny. However, writing and blogging are two different animals.
Before I continue, I do want to clarify that I’m speaking about blogging in the sense of those that do it for profit. There are those that, like me, get a thought in their head that can only be assuaged by busting out the keyboard and banging the torture away. We also do take a small delight in having that supportive network read what we write and tell us that they enjoyed it or took something away from our “profound” epitomes. I’m good at that type of blogging, as in, writing something and getting it out into the blogosphere. Blogging for profit is something else, something that I attempt, poorly, because I just, for the life of me, can’t bombard those who I wish to read my content with endless pop-ups and break up my flow of thought with an advertisement to sign up to sell essential oils. I just CAN’T DO IT! It was my downfall when I worked retail. As a consumer, I know what I want, I go find it, and I buy it, done. I’ll occasionally peruse, but for the most part, I prefer to be left alone. Nothing makes me want to leave a store faster than a hovering sales associate ready to pounce when I try on a lotion. Yes, I know it’s buy three get one free, I can read, and I did read the GIANT signs as I walked in the door that announced the promotion. So when I was forced to ask, contact, and speak with every person that crossed the threshold into whatever store I happened to work in that year, I felt like apologizing beforehand and disclaim that I was being forced to bother them relentlessly. Even now, when I’m hunting for a recipe, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to read the entire story that led to your inspiration for wanting to make delicious pumpkin cheesecake. I’m going to scroll past the pics of your children in a pumpkin patch, apple picking, and corn mazing to get to the recipe you lovingly prepared in your giant, clean kitchen. I want the recipe. I don’t want to buy or download your self-published e-book on how to make such and such amount of money by being a blogger while you juggle the many tasks of being a granola, oily, whole foods, keto, all-natural, gluten free, stay-at-home mom-boss, entrepreneur. This is why I’ve relegated Pinterest for homeschooling curriculum and leave the recipes to the professionals, like Better Homes and Betty Crocker. Which brings me to my point, while I would LOVE to make money by writing, it’s probably not going to happen until I write that elusive book. My blog to date has never made me money and I do have affiliate links on there, but I’m quite certain that I am not using them in the way that would be suggested in How to Become a Millionaire Blogger Overnight. To do that would be practically unbiblical, when you look at it from the “do unto others” standpoint. I’ll place them strategically on the sides or at the end of a blog, or hide a link in the text when speaking of something specific, but I just can’t bring myself to have a box pop-up at you when you’re trying to read something and make it impossible to hit the tiny “X” if you just happen to be reading it on your phone. I cannot devote the time to marketing a website when it’s hard enough to find time to dedicate to the actual content. So I have the problem, what’s the solution? Accept defeat? Accept the fact that I may never be a billionaire blogging sensation? Sure, I could do that, and I’d be fine. I can also look at what I CAN do. I’ve found that Instagram is an awesome resource for advertising. I love trying to figure out what unique hashtag is going to snag me that organic follower. I’m also a HUGE believer in quality over quantity. My husband has done online media for various companies and he would explain to me that he would just copy and paste links of other blog posts in his company’s blog and as long as the original poster is credited, it was all completely legitimate and above board. This constant activity served to draw more people to the site and bring in more business (in theory). He explains this to me once after I triumphantly proclaim that I completed two blog posts in one week. I reply that he’s cheating. I still maintain that stance. I understand the marketing philosophy behind the entire scheme, but I’m not trying to sell roofs. I’m literally (that pun works two ways) trying to sell my talent. Thus why it may take me an entire month to be able to fully process an idea and get the time to write it down or type it into my computer, even if it means I have to steal away to the library for an hour and trade the distractions of kiddos for the distractions of the guy laughing and talking to himself in the corner. Typing an entire blog post inside my house is pretty much impossible. Trying to type with two toddlers climbing over my lap is a talent I’ve yet to accomplish. Finally, I am my BIGGEST critic. I will read, reread, and read this again before I even copy and paste it into my blog platform. Then I will read it again, publish it, check the link, read it from the website, and then the next morning, I will reread it AGAIN. I’ll try and catch all the spelling errors, concrete grammatical mistakes, and still there will be something that I find two weeks down the road when I read this post AGAIN. Editing and proofreading can be time consuming in and of itself. If you’re doing research on a specific topic, it can take even longer because the worst thing you can do is publish incorrect facts. Nothing is more embarrassing than having someone point out that kind of a mistake. Knowing that others may be critiquing my work as harshly as I am known to critique others makes me especially diligent. Admittedly, I’m a pretty harsh critic on other peoples’ sites when I see spelling errors, less so on grammatical because there can be an artistic slant when it comes to usage, but there are also rules that cannot be ignored. My respect for them as a writer goes down just a teensy-weensy bit, but one spelling error I can ignore, IT HAPPENS. I do have a limit that after about three or more errors, I can no longer take that person’s message seriously, whatever idea they’re trying to convey. For me, if it was important enough to get onto paper and publish, it should be equally important to make sure that whatever medium you’re using is flawless so that your true point can be made known. I’m going to be distracted by mistakes because if you can’t take the time to proofread and spell the correct version of a word, how much time did you take to think out and process your point? It could be argued that the point is less important than the details and the cleanliness in which it’s displayed, but I disagree with this stance, and you can disagree with mine. I’m going to wrap this up because as I type, I realize that the entire point of this blog post is blurry. What did I seek to communicate in these 1500 words? Well, to be honest, I’m equally puzzled. This could be further affirmation that I’m seeking to advance my writing career (anyone have any ties to a literary agent?). This could easily be considered a writing exercise; a way to hone my craft, practice scales, get out of my house for a bit (unrelated). Every great writer says that the more you write, the easier it becomes. Make purposeful time for writing and the dreaded “writer’s block” will be less of a problem. For whatever reason I chose to sit in this comfy chair, drink my Starbucks, and clack away at these keys, I hope that I was able to express something that you can relate to, laugh at, ponder, or pass on. Keep an eye out for more of my writing. Let me know what you honestly think.
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