I think I'm doin' a bit of soul searching...
Let me start at Sunday morning. I went downstairs, made some tea, served up some bacon and eggs, and sat down to read the paper. (Yes, I am a dinosaur who actually reads the paper every morning...Chicago Sun Times and New York Times to be exact.)
I get to The New York Times Magazine, which I always thumb through just to look at the insane real estate that's listed in the back...thumb...thumb...thumb...and then
I don't know why my first reaction was to toss the magazine on the sideboard behind me and dive into my eggs...but that's what I did.
Then...two minutes later...I'm like..."This is my business. I am a blogger, and blog designer. I should totally be reading that article."
I pick it up and start reading. At first it's all...blah...blah...blah. Dooce is the mega social media queen who brought Maytag to their knees...rehash I already know, without really following. Then...BAM!
"Her site brings in an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 a month or more - and that's not counting revenue from books, speaking fees, and Verizon and HGTV gigs." Ummmmm....what!?!
I mean...I knew sites like Dooce and Pioneer Woman made money, but shut the shmuck up!!!:O
I found myself being bitter the rest of the morning:/ Why was I so bitter?
It's not like I'm even in that game. I had the realization long ago, that my money came blog design, and not my personal blog. My personal blog was for me to enjoy.
I. Enjoy. Doing. It.
I genuinely enjoy torturing my cat by practicing my photography on him, chronicling the escapades of Miss Peach and The Little Man, and whatever else I choose to blog about...so why was I so bitter?
I've given this a lot of thought...was I jealous? I mean...that was my first assumption...It must be jealousy:/
Truth is...I'm not jealous. I think Dooce and Pioneer Woman are very talented bloggers. I'm. Not. Jealous. Of. Them.
Now...I'm a serious hard working person...and I think my problem is...I'm wrestling with the notion that perhaps I don't take my blog seriously. I'm not sure that's what it is...but it's how I feel. I hear about other folks having blogging success and I think..."perhaps I was hasty in writing off my blog as just enjoyment for me..." That being said...I'm not sure I'm right on this...
I think it's just the hard working results girl that is saying to myself..."You shouldn't choose between your personal blog and blog design...You should be successful at both." (Yeah...I'll get right on that with all the spare time I have:/)
I'm not sure where to leave this other than to say..."I don't think you measure a successful blog by how much traffic it gets, or how much money it makes." My problem isn't with other blogs, it seems to be with how I treat my personal blog...Hmmmm...I think that's my issue...
Does any of this make sense??? Should you be charging me as a therapist? Perhaps;P
I think you are right. It is like this mental dialoge that you constantly have with yourself. If I really applied myself could I be insanely successful like that too. Do I want to be insanely successful like that I though I was just doing this for fun???
ReplyDeleteBut I think what you have to think about is the marketing part. That is how these people became so successful. Yes they have great blogs. But I read a lot of great blogs, some better than those famous ones. You have to invest the time in marketing yourself if you want to be crazy famous. I don't think that is the direction that I want to invest my time in.
I'm with Making It Work Mom. I think about the whole successful blogger thing a lot. It was something that used to nag at me a lot more than it does now. I think success is part hard work and part luck. There are plenty of really great blogs that get like ten readers a day and there are also plenty of average blogs that get thousands. I don't know that I would even have a chance at internet stardom, but the truth is that I honestly just don't have the time to even give it a go. I love my internet friends, and there were many times where they were the fragile link between me and my sanity, but I would rather keep my obscurity than spread myself so thin.
ReplyDeletePS - Saw that you're proposing to speak at Blogher. Now I'm even sadder that I'm not going! Waaaa!
You are crazy, but not that crazy...I'm THAT crazy, but I have that thing called a j-o-b..
ReplyDeleteAnd are you not freaked out about how much my hair and "The Mommy Blogger's" hair are so similar?
You like how I turned this comment into stuff about me?
I'll be the first to admit that I don't take my blog seriously. Really, if I wanted a job, I'd get out of my jammies and go fill out some applications before I came back home to read more blogs. :)
ReplyDeleteDude. Those days are over. Who else can jump into the game at this point and make that kind of bank? No one sister.
ReplyDeleteLet's chat. I'm off work this week.
Lee
Oh, I hope this doesn't make you feel worse: I red in Time that Pdub makes , at a modest estimate, on the low end: 850k a year from her blog.
ReplyDeletesorry
I LOVE VodkaMom's new look!!
yikes. that would be "read."
ReplyDeletesorry.
The price that comes with success is mighty high. Too high for me, for sure. I mean, I'm that person who intentionally sabotages her blog by breaking high-ranking google searches, confusing Alexa so the stats aren't accurate, and making sure Feedburner is never right. I started doing all of those things because of the drama that came with a perception of success. It was tooooooo much.
ReplyDeleteI'll go ahead and keep it real and say...
ReplyDeleteI. AM. JEALOUS.
:)
Not overly so, but it would be cool to be "the influential mom blogger" and be all "ha ha, i started it all...nanny nanny boo boo!" Just kidding. Kind of ;)