Blogging About Blogging

Yesterday was the two-month anniversary of Grumble ‘n’ Grin – a personal blog about ? – hmmm… I’m not really sure what it’s about. My intention was to write consistently. It was about experiencing what it is like to participate in the blogosphere, to publish ideas that I might normally keep to myself and to see if and how the site received traffic.

How have I fared?
First, let me just say that it is a good idea to set goals that are easy to attain. If I had set a goal of publishing prize-winning material and acquiring thousands of readers, I might be sorely disappointed. But since to be successful I only had to write something on a regular basis (and I get to define what “regular” means), I have been very successful. I have posted consistently – in fact, almost daily. Weekends don’t count because I have noticed very low traffic on Saturday and Sunday. It seems that productivity could in fact be much higher if people were working instead of surfing the net!

What has the experiment showed me to date?

1. It is FREAKING TIME-CONSUMING to write a blog every day! This is especially true on those days when you just don’t feel passionate about anything or when you have other things that need to get done.
2. While not having an agenda or focus may be freeing for the writer, it is difficult to build a readership. There are exceptions, of course, like super-star blogger, Heather Armstrong, publisher of Dooce, who writes about her daily life with edgy humor. My conclusion? You need to actually have talent to be successful writing about your life.
3. Talking to yourself in public is weird. And so is writing a blog which is very similar to talking to yourself in public knowing full well that people could be overhearing the conversation.
4. Despite numbers 1 through 3, I am going to keep blogging about nothing much — at least for a while longer.

What have I learned about blogs?
During the last couple of months, I have spent some serious time surfing the web – yes, work has been slow and yes, I probably could have been spending my time more productively but it’s still better than last fall when I played Sudoku for hours on end and mostly scored BELOW AVERAGE.

But I digress. Back to the subject of blogging. The most successful blogs seem to fall into a few categories:

1. News Blogs – with multiple authors, covering everything & anything from politics and celebrities to sports. Examples: Huffington Post & Daily Kos: State of the Nation
2. Marketing Blogs – people talking about marketing, social media and how to use it. Example:Seth’s Blog & Chris Brogan
3. Technology Blogs – geared towards technology and gadgets. Examples: Gizmodo & TechCrunch
4. Community Blogs – topical blogs on which the community creates the content. Examples: Free Travel Blog to Share your Trips TravelPod & icanhascheezburger
5. Blogs on Blogging – written for the millions of bloggers who want to know how to blog successfully. Examples:Daily Blog Tips & Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging – ProBlogger

There are also successful blogs that are a combination. The most successful one being Boing Boing. I honestly don’t understand the popularity of this blog. I have checked it out a few times mostly because it ranks as one of the most popular blogs but it just does not grab me. As much as I hate to admit it, I may just not be cool enough to get it. Here is how Boing Boing is described on Technorati

Boing Boing is a weblog of cultural curiosities and interesting technologies. It’s the most popular blog in the world, as ranked by Technorati.com, and won the Lifetime Achievement and Best Group Blog awards at the 2006 Bloggies ceremony. – Technorati

So what does all this mean?
There are millions of blogs being written. Like anything else in life, there are a few who are successful (success being defined as attracting a huge readership and generating revenue for the author/owner) and then there are all of the others. My favorites, though, are the blogs that are about making money blogging. That’s how they make money. All the blogger wannabes read their blogs so they make money. It is like any ponzi scheme – first in reap rewards.

Since I began blogging, I have read a lot about what other bloggers say about blogging. The general consensus is that your blog should have focus… mine does not unless you consider personal viewpoints on a hodge-podge of subjects to be a FOCUS. Somehow I don’t think that’s what they are talking about.

Regardless of it all, I am going to keep blogging about WHATEVER. I may even publish on my own site so that I can play with the layouts more. I will also keep creating my own definition of success; one that is easily attainable. As many of my fellow senior managers used to say, “Redefine Success”. That’s a sure formula for publishing a successful blog.