It’s time to ‘get something off your chest’ about blogging.
I listen to a sports radio station here in Melbourne and every Wednesday morning while I’m dropping my son off to his Grandma’s house for the day a segment comes on called ‘get something off your chest’. In the segment listeners are asked to call in to share something that they’re frustrated about, something that they dislike etc. They get about 30 seconds each to say their piece.
It’s a great segment for a number of reasons.
- Firstly it’s fun to listen to people rant.
- Secondly it causes some interesting debate.
- Thirdly it leads to solutions to problems (quite often questions are asked, confusion is clarified or problems are solved).
Every time I hear this segment I wonder how it would go to do it here at ProBlogger on the topic of Blogging.
So lets give it a go.
Here are the ‘rules’:
- Tell us something that you’ve been wanting to get off your chest about blogging.
- It could be a frustration, a problem you have, a concern you’ve been keeping to yourself – really anything that you want – just try to keep it to the theme of blogging.
- Attempt to keep it to 150 words of so maximum (I’m not going to police this – but it’d help us all to digest everyone’s comments if they were shorter than longer).
- No personal attacks please – while I don’t mind if you critique things or even others – try to keep things civil and don’t get too personal in bringing others down.
Hopefully this won’t be too negative (crossing my fingers) but can actually be a constructive experience and lead to us learning something about the medium of blogging.
PS: in a sense this is similar to my previous What’s Wrong with Blogging? posts from last year and the year before which led to some interesting discussions.
What I don’t like about blogging or bloggers is:
1. Being told that one blogging platform is better than another. The best one is the one you like to use and not one that someone tells you is the best.
2. Being told that I need a dedicated hosting service instead of using a free service to be a “real blogger.” Personally, I think those that push the dedicated hosting must have ties to those services and are making money doing so.
3. Digg – There is more to life than Technology, News and Gaming. Also, way too much emphasis on getitng your posts “dugged.”
4. Alexa, Page Ranks, etc. Way too much emphasis on stats instead of keeping with your blogs goals
Other than those four things, blogging is fun and enjoyable.
My complaints? I’m not sure where to start, but I know all of them start with me :) If I blog about what I’m passionate about, I feel inadequate because there are already a gazillion blogs about this stuff out there — people more popular, more established, etc. Why bother cluttering the net with my ramblings? And I’m absolutely torn with writing for the passion vs. writing for the money.
I just want to write and throw it out there. I’ve got too much to do to be worried about a lot of this other stuff — like making a few cents off ads — who do I link to — who links to me — how much traffic, etc. If I’ve helped one person, then it was all worth it.
Digg bait.
I’m REALLY sick of seeing the headline (number)+(plural noun)+(stuff)
12 Reasons Your Mother Doesn’t Love You
15 Ways To Stop Writing Digg Bait
I hate writing about photography some days, because it keeps me from taking photos.
Blogging feels like trying to fill a bottomless pit. No content is good enough. Everything is forgotten a day later. The short attention span of the blogosphere is almost as frustrating as my inability to captivate their minds.
I get incredibly depressed when I encounter someone who’s done something more meaningful with their life or is more successful in my chosen field, especially when they’re younger then me.
Having an audience who cares about me and enjoys my content is one of the biggest highs I’ve experienced, but it feels so insignificant when I come across the website of a successful international photographer… who’s barely seventeen.
That’s what’s on my chest.
No easy way to keep track of comment-section conversations.
I got spoiled with message boards and LiveJournal. “Notify me of future comments” shouldn’t be a plugin; it should be a standard feature on all blogging platforms!
I hate that I have been blogging for 10 months and still don’t have 100 uniques a day, I know movie reviews is a huge niche, it’s not even a niche, but it is kinda hard, I did break 50 feed readers though and that really made me feel good, I also hate that the people that run the screenings in Austin told me that no I can’t be on the critics list, when the critics row is never full, they said they don’t add bloggers, but the guys who run spill.com are allowed to go and Ain’t it cool is allowed to go. How many people do I need till I can go.
My peeve about blogging? I wish I was allowed to start!
Our VP of Marketing has been thinking of starting a blog, so she’s been reading Blog Rules by Nancy Flynn.
Now she’s thinking of *not* starting a blog, due to the legal issues. On page 48, Flynn says that the blog owner is responsible as a “publisher” for the content of the replies — if those replies are edited (i.e. if we delete spam posts, defamation, copyright violations, etc.).
We’re having a big committee meeting this week about whether we should blog or not. She yanked me out of my old position in the company to do this — the waffling is driving me insane.
Does “get it off your chest” have to constitute a negative reaction?
For me, that means “state your opinion, and here’s what I think.
I love to blog,
I love to share what I’ve learned in life.
I love when my readers leave encouraging, inspiring, and meaningful comments on my blog.
I love learning something new everyday.
I love to read other blogs and blog comments, and see what someone else has to say.
I love the fact there are 110 million+ blogs out there, and people are learning to express their opinions, and share their knowledge with the rest of the world.
I love that we have an opportunity to make money with a blog, and can choose to fill our pages with ads, or not.
I love that there are so many talented people in cyberspace who freely and willingly share free themes, plugins, widgets,and gadgets with fellow bloggers.
I love that Darren asked this question, so I can have my say. Thank you!
Way too much hate.
I love blogging…………………………
How cut-throat everything has gotten since money and advertising came into the picture. How much like high school everything has become. It depresses me, to be honest.
How people’s minds have shifted away from personal expression and human connection to hierarchical positioning and getting as many pageloads as possible.
Yes, I make money off blogging. But even with the money – which has its charms, no doubt – I kind of miss the good ole days.
I wish there were more readers for non-tech blogs. I’m looking forward to the day when blogs are more like magazines, and everyone knows how to subscribe.
I also wish there wasn’t so much competition coming from big money blogs, especially the ones that are backed by major corporations. If there’s one thing I wish corporate America had stayed away from, it’s blogs. I’m tired of seeing the same listings on the Technorati Top 20. Oh and that reminds me…
I’m tired of Technorati because they have not updated my authority or ranking for over three weeks, despite the fact that I know I’m being linked to by pinging blogs. Their functionality is NOT stable.
The biggest frustration I have is getting a good index of my posts together and into the hands of people who care. I’m constantly advertising my content to potential readers in bits and pieces I select at a given moment, and it is very inefficient marketing.