ralphcarlsonblog.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tillwe/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

It is maybe three years since I began blogging and over that time my vision has evolved. Originally, I was focused on politics and expressing my feelings about various events in the political world. It was all about me. I finally got so incensed and frankly burned out that I withdrew completely for a time. It was clear that I had no insights of a unique nature and was not adding to the general level of discourse. My following was among others with the same perspective. We were reinforcing out own points of view but not changing minds or adding to the dialogue. It was mildly satisfying but ultimately more work than I could justify and, of course, I didn’t build a big following.

       My next level of blogging activity converted my blog to a report of what was going on with my garden. I discovered some fantastic garden bloggers who did everything wonderfully. They have beautiful gardens. They take fantastic pictures and they write interesting posts about their gardens and related topics. My efforts were clearly marginal against this competition and gradually I stopped my regular weekly updates.

        It was about this time that I discovered the world of Web 2.0 and the idea of developing a web presence. The introduction was from people that I had discovered in my quest to build income streams using web marketing. So I started a new blog, this time using my name. I didn’t have a clear vision of what my blog should be when I started, except that that it would avoid politics and be as relatable as possible.

       Posts were random in content to begin. I looked for things that I thought interesting, unusual or clever interspersed with personal commentary, mini book reviews and even garden updates. I quickly discovered that it requires a lot of time to assemble content even if you you are reporting content from someone else. I also learned that just because I thought the format and content interesting did not mean that others would – or more important- that they would discover it and me in the vastness of the World Wide Web 

It is maybe three years since I began blogging and over that time my vision has evolved. Originally, I was focused on politics and expressing my feelings about various events in the political world. It was all about me. I finally got so incensed and frankly burned out that I withdrew completely for a time. It was clear that I had no insights of a unique nature and was not adding to the general level of discourse. My following was among others with the same perspective. We were reinforcing out own points of view but not changing minds or adding to the dialogue. It was mildly satisfying but ultimately more work than I could justify and, of course, I didn’t build a big following.

       My next level of blogging activity converted my blog to a report of what was going on with my garden. I discovered some fantastic garden bloggers who did everything wonderfully. They have beautiful gardens. They take fantastic pictures and they write interesting posts about their gardens and related topics. My efforts were clearly marginal against this competition and gradually I stopped my regular weekly updates.

        It was about this time that I discovered the world of Web 2.0 and the idea of developing a web presence. The introduction was from people that I had discovered in my quest to build income streams using web marketing. So I started a new blog, this time using my name. I didn’t have a clear vision of what my blog should be when I started, except that that it would avoid politics and be as relatable as possible.

       Posts were random in content to begin. I looked for things that I thought interesting, unusual or clever interspersed with personal commentary, mini book reviews and even garden updates. I quickly discovered that it requires a lot of time to assemble content even if you you are reporting content from someone else. I also learned that just because I thought the format and content interesting did not mean that others would – or more important- that they would discover it and me in the vastness of the World Wide Web

Popularity: 3% [?]

Technorati Tags: Blogging, relatable

• The Blogging Saga - Gurus and Mentors My      Training My fi   My first  real instruction in blogging was from Darren Rowse when I discovered his 31 Day blogging course. I joined late...
• Will you be my.....neighbor? Walter at LionSlinger posted a comment on my blog this week.  I had been reliving some of my blogging experience trying to put the experience...

• 10 Steps to Start a Blog Is this your first time starting a blog? Here is a ten step checklist for starting your own blog. 1 - Choose a subject -...
• Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more...