1/17/2013

staying true to myself

Lately, I've focused more on wanting to grow my blog than blogging because I love it. I've started sponsoring other blogs in hopes of gaining more readers. And I've gained some followers through a few of those sponsorships. But I've also realized it's just not worth it.

I took to twitter with this last night and made my newest resolution to follow only blogs with content. Blogs I enjoy. Blogs that have bloggers who care about their content and their readers. And then I unfollowed a few people.

I write for me. And I blog for me. I absolutely love sharing my life, my successes, my struggles and my failures with you all. I love hearing your stories and knowing that something I wrote resonated with you.

And I do want to grow my blog. I want to be a successful writer. But I refuse to do that at the expense of losing myself and my writing.

This blog might eventually have giveaways and some reviews. I may even have some guest posts. But my entire blog will never be those things.

I would love to attend a blogging conference - to get to know other bloggers. But I wouldn't attend a conference with the purpose of making money off my blog. I'll take the money if it comes; I just don't want to follow someone's format and then only stick to that format. I want to write when I want and what I want. I want to remain true to myself above all else.

If I lose followers for that, fine. If I gain followers for that, fine. As much as I love comments (and I do love them!), I will not lose myself for comments.

It's not to say that I won't continue to sponsor other blogs. I will. But I am going to stick with blogs who have content, blogs that appreciate the people who sponsor them.

There's no ill will towards any bloggers who feel different than I do. There's no ill will towards anyone. There is enough room on the Internet for all of us. This is just who I choose to be.

11 comments:

  1. I totally agree with what you are saying. Your blog is your blog.... it should be a reflection of you :) Not an ad for some product.

    ReplyDelete
  2. it's tough. blogging turns into a popularity contest so often. but then it's like who are we really in competition with? we're each so different. I run into not wanting to tell too much personal info on my blog. but sometimes I just can't help it. other times i'm overly aware that people i don't know read this thing and it freaks me out. i've paid to sponsor blogs too, but i didn't get out of it what I thought I would. then i felt bad not renewing. but button swaps are truly the way to go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I try to keep a nice balance between sponsored content and regular content on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blogging is like therapy and a support group wrapped into one. That's why I blog. I'm gonna find your tweet and retweet it! Esther Norine Designs

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am very new to this world. Some times I feel like I am back in high school. Just keep true to yourself and the right people will follow you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i am right there with you! i am a fairly new blogger and i only have 35 followers. i definitely blog for me but at the same time feel the need to get into the blogging world. i feel like it's held on lock and key sometimes. boo. i'm a new follower to you and i love your blog. you inspire me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello from mingle monday!
    love your blog!
    I cant wait to read more!

    xoxo
    Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  8. :)
    I like this, L.
    Not worth it. It really isn't. I've gone through all the emotions of blogging: hating, loving, whatevering. Read blogs with content. Write quality posts like you always do. The readers (the ones you'd want any way) will come. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I AGREE! It seems that everyone is hopping on the sponsor bandwagon and I just don't want to right now. Is that wrong? Thanks for writing a great post, Leslie!

    Kristin

    ReplyDelete
  10. Awesome post!! There definitely needs to be more bloggers with real (and quality) content out there. I'm in the same boat as you. I want to grow my blog, I really do want a profession in the writing industry and I want to have an audience for what I write. But what I write is not cheap, boring, sponsor posts or giveaways or link ups (the majority of the time. Once in a while there is a pretty funny idea for a link up, and then I'll join.) I do accept sponsors but I don't offer guest posts, because I'm greedy about writing on my blog. I love writing new content for my blog--and I love that that's your focus for blogging as well!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is great!! I feel the same way! I took a week and a half unplanned hiatus from the blogging world when work got too busy and came back to 800+ unread blog posts. After I got my heart beating again I started thinking about how much time I spend each week reading all those posts. I don't have that kind of time. So I flipped through the blogs. If they're primary posts were content-less link ups and nothing but guest posts & giveaways, I clicked "unfollow". I feel so vindicated to find this post and realize I'm not alone!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...