Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Why Do You Follow Certain Blogs?

September 15, 2009

Blog experts say that you should find a niche for a blog. Mine was supposed to be about quilting and ranting. So what happened?

I realized that I could only write so much about quilts. It takes a bunch of time to make a quilt, so I realized that if I was going to write about just quilts, there would be a lot of dead air (no postings).

I decided to introduce pool, so I have been writing a few things about pool.

Then I realized that I don’t play pool that much, so there would still be dead air.

So I have started to just rant. Following OMGWTF’s post, I have posted questions to readers to entice them to join the conversation, and that has worked.

As you can see on “My Blog List”, my interest varies. I have a few quilting blogs, a few blogs about pool, and a few blogs about people’s lives. I follow these people because it interests me in what is happening in their lives. I sometime get ideas about quilting or quilting methods, other times I enjoy the author’s writing. It is a form of entertainment for me.

My question is, do you follow a blog because of a specific topic they are talking about, or do you follow a blog because you enjoy reading with is happening in their lives?

Quilt & Bitch

10 comments:

Bethany said...

Both. I have too many blogs/sites that I read that I just have them listed in "my favorites" tab on my computer. I really like blu-ray movies but no one is going to care about that on a quilting blog and most women could care less. I did put a couple of entries on and my sister complained and said it was a quilting blog..why are you doing this?

I haven't touched my sewing machine in a couple of months hence little posting. However; I've watched about 10 movies.

Apprenticeoflife said...

Both, I follow those that are either educational or intriquing, in either cases I feel I can learn something.

Quilt+Bitch said...

Hi Bethany,

That's funny how you enjoy blu-ray movies. As for your sister complaining, it's your blog, you're the author, you should feel that you can write about anything that you want. :)

Quilt+Bitch said...

Hi Apprenticeoflife,

Educational and intriguing - that just sums up what I wanted to say. Always learning something or just peaking into somebody's life. :)

p00lriah said...

Blog experts say that you should find a niche for a blog.

i suppose . . . but if you have a blog solely to post what's on your mind, then it wouldn't matter what niche you have. i think the niche part comes in when you want to attract an audience or have social interactions. ditto with questions/polls for readers. in that case the blog functions as a social interaction tool on top of a forum for your thoughts.

kinda comes down to "do it for me" or "do it for them". i think about this every time i write a post: am i writing for me or for others? personally it's a strange struggle i have internally.

as far as following a blog i read them mainly for the authors. i want to hear what the person has to say, be it b/c i respect the author's opinion or i find the thoughts contrary (but interesting) to my own.

Quilt+Bitch said...

p00lriah,

Good point on "do it for me" or "do it for them". If you are able to incorporate these two concepts then you have succeded.

A week and a half ago, I was stuggling with whether to continue to blog or not. No one seemed to be interested in what I was talking about because there were no comments.

With people commenting on posts, as selfish as it sounds, it fulfills my "ego". It's like, "Oooo I have readers!" Admit it, you probably feel the same way.

It's fun to interact and see how the "interweb" works. How people stumble and end up on your blog.

Speaking of blogging, you haven't blogged for the past five weeks. Get blogging now!

Q&B

p00lriah said...

this is gonna be a long reply so i hope u bear with me.

With people commenting on posts, as selfish as it sounds, it fulfills my "ego". It's like, "Oooo I have readers!" Admit it, you probably feel the same way.

well, yes and no.

when i started my blog a mere 2 months ago (yep, it's brand-new) i had to ask myself why would i begin posting, this being a time-consuming process. on one hand i thought about readership. on the other i thought about having a place to voice my opinion regardless of outcome. in the end i decided that i would not worry about readership & just post honestly about what i think, and offer some sort of evidence to back up my say. i've also decided not to use aggressive marketing tactics to advertise my blog. so far i've a few readers and it's been fun, but i've adopted the "throw it out in the wind" approach and see what happens. this is also the reason why i picked the name "p00lriah" for my blog: a variant of pariah. taking the position of a pariah, i can't worry about audience or criticism, since i'm already the outcast. but taking this position also allows me to speak my mind without fear. comments are fun, sure, but i mostly want to share my opinion on pool, and little else. hence the "do it for me or them" statement.

Speaking of blogging, you haven't blogged for the past five weeks. Get blogging now!

i have been blogging. i think the feed system in blogspot is a little wonky, & it's not showing my postings from wordpress. go directly to my blog & see the latest entries.

Quilt+Bitch said...

p00lriah,

Damn my blog list is screwy. I tried to redo it but it still shows old stuff. Silly me, I even posted on your blog a few days ago. ;)

In regards to not caring about readership, that was also my attitude when I started the blog. I was not going to advertise, and I was not going to push it down people's throat. I wanted people to stumble upon it.

I must admit, I have "advertised" it to a few people, but just a few whom don't really read it anyway. The more I advertise to friends and family, the less bitching I can probably blog about, thus resulting in, not speaking my mind because of worrying about who'll end up reading this.

You say, "...I mostly want to share my opinion on pool, and little else", so kinda do have a niche.

p00lriah said...

You say, "...I mostly want to share my opinion on pool, and little else", so kinda do have a niche.

well, true, but i wasn't thinking about a niche when i started. (honest!) i blog about pool b/c i want to write about something i love. also, i wanted to have a focus when i blog. if i blog about everything then i'd sound like a mad man, rambling about every little detail to all and sundry. not my cup of tea (at least not what my English prof taught me). same reason why i don't twitter.

In regards to not caring about readership, that was also my attitude when I started the blog.

hehe, i hope i didn't give off the impression that i don't care about the people that read my blog, like i'm just some curmudgeon who waves his cane at small children. i care about my readers as people, i just don't care about the SIZE of my readership.

speaking of audience, you may have heard this study that examined school kids who're internally driven vs. externally driven. i'm sincerely hoping my blog will be internally driven, though i can't really predict the future. hope i don't become discouraged down the road.

omgwtf said...

I like reading about whatever the writer writes about. I guess blogs are very much like online diaries, so it's cool to read about what someone else's life is like. Vicarious living, I suppose. :-)