Through the social networks I've got to a post about "15 Words of Advise to Become a Good Blogger". It was early morning, I haven't had my coke yet, so I was stupid enough to CLICK ON IT and READ IT. A quarter of the way down the super-moronic text, I was wide awake thanks to outrage and pissed-off-ness (a brand new word!). (I guess I was far more pissed by being directed to this article by someone I had on my social networks, whom I'll be probably be ripping out... once I discover who the offender was.) Now, what was there exactly that upset me? Well, I should have seen it coming from the title (the post is actually in Spanish, that's another reason why I'm not liking it), but it was basically about 15 dos-and-don'ts for so called "being a good blogger". It was filled to the brim with crap like "Good Bloggers don't use cursing words" and "you are a good blogger if your name appears as author of the post. If not, you are a 'content maker'". It was ironic also to read in the list that "good bloggers creat content, not re-blog (I didn't know that word!) or translate from other blogs", and yet the "15 Tips to be a Good Blogger" appear in other blogs in English. (Guess this moron blogger isn't a good blogger also by their own standards!) There were also simplistic tips like "don't put out only text, but add visual interest to attract readers", and other bull- about how you had to strive to get "traffic". Since when blogging is a socially tied down activity instead of an expression of freedom and individuality? I mean, if I wanted to read socially approve blank, bleached articles I would pick up any of Rupert Murdoch's papers. Now, give me some credit - this could have gone both ways: the bad way it did go, or on a snappy, funky, irreverent way, which is what I would have expected.
So, what is actually being a Blogger or Bloggerina, and what makes us Good?
Well, you make the Blogger. A Blogger or Bloggerina (female blogger), is someone who has something to say, something to show, something to express - something original - and does so, normally in a "blog" which is this: a corner of the Internet where you can write things and publish them for others to read. Like a journal or a diary. It's original, it's own and it's atuned to your soul and who you are. It doesn't need to encompass the whole of who you are, as you can blog only about one topic , or have several blogs to blog about several things, or blog in one blog about anything that comes to mind.
There's not one formula to make a post or a blog a successful one, other than the very spark, the very spirit of the blogger or bloggerina herself. No type of text or picture, no outlay, no language, no topic makes what only the spirit of the blogger can. When you blog, you are a blogger. Good or bad, as the one behind the keyboard and the screen, that should be indifferent to you. As a true Blogger, you write, to upload pictures and sounds and video because you have this unstopable need to express. You blog because you feel it in you - or that's why I personally believe you should do it.
The good or bad blogger exists in the eye of the reader, and it's not measured by the traffic to your blog (that shows only how popular you are, and popular isn't the same as "good", as you can see from the Jersey Shore, Glee and Twilight). A blogger can be both good and bad at the same time and about the same post, and it doesn't matter what's the majority of opinions, what matters - as blogger, to oneself, is what we express and how good, how originally, how perfectly have you managed to say what you wanted to. Paraphrasing Kierkegaard "it doesn't matter what you blog about, as long as you are true to yourself".
5 comments:
boah you've been terribly motivated lately, haven't you? I can hardly keep up with reading your new postings :D
Bloggerina, Bloggerina, Bloggerina ... LOOOVE IT!!!
Oh, I am so much asking for permission to use that one :D
yeah, what to say about the rest : popular isn't good - though having readers might increase the motivation of a writer to get even better. or worse...
^_^ Actually the term Bloggerina isn't mine. Some Hungarian blog space (I can't recall the name of it) uses it to differentiate between the guys and the girls. So go ahead! Take it! Spread the word, my Bloggerina mate! ^_^
Motivated... I feel energized and I'd love to keep up the rhythm for long, but we shall see about that. There are a lot of things that could keep you from posting daily (such as the net crashing down on you, which happened to me yesterday!) or you are on a trip and there's no wifi around... you know how it is.
Perhaps due to the changes in my life, I feel like I've more... "drive" to collect my thoughts daily in some sort of rambling, and thus keep the posts coming! Worry not about catching up, as there might be a few posts ahead that might not be interesting at all, or too boring to read (like this one I've drafted and prepared about tax evasion? Coming soon!).
As for the bloggers and the popular bloggers and the traffic... Maybe I'm peculiar, but I often turn away from the popular because often I've got the feeling they are fake. They found a formula to keep people coming and repeat it, repeat it, repeat it. Some are cool (like IncitingARiot, you can find him among my followed blogs)but in general I prefer the personal, more private, more secretive blogs, those with little audience, where the blogger or bloggerina ^_^ still has a sense of privacy and goes on with topics candidly, honestly. Those for me are winners.
Then, what's the point of being popular? Hire adds and make money? That kinda sounds to me like whoring out your writing. I might be mistaken, but that's my personal perception. (I can feel a blog topic coming!) I like blogs like you: honest, human, real... far better than a super-popular blog read by one million people daily across the planet, always writing about the latest in technology or "Politics in the Cyber-Era".
hmm, I don't read any blogs except for yours (I used to read a friends about his semester in Columbia but he's back home) and therefore I think I'd probably read anything you'll write except for things including the world taxes ... that makes me, as the doctor would say: "Basically ... RUN!"
(no offence here :D)
One friend of mine works for a company that helps people to find a job or to increase there carreer. She studied journalism and is a professional Bloggerina, so she gets paid for writing these posts. I wouldn't be able to do so (despite the fact that she sometimes has to write about topics she's not into but which her bosses think might catch most people's attention)
Hehehe... yes, I guess taxes have that effect on people. :-P I studied them, so I guess that's why I'm not against them - though when I've got my raise and found out how much I was taxed it sent me to a fit! - so worry not, no offense taken. ^_^
I'm honored to be in the list of "surviving blogs" of your read blogs! ^_^ I must be doing something right, I guess. I don't know what it is (but it's not taxes!), but let's hope it continues there!
I was going to ask you (and I already published that...)about the Blogger/Bloggerina topic, would you be interested in tackling the topic with me? Kinda like we did with the Sabbaths, you know, each of us maybe dedicating a post or two to the topic of bloggers, around the same time? It could be fun to be able to develop topics from one another's post or link or something. Or simply put this together, like a 'thematic day' or "thematic week".
What do you say?
oh i'd absolutely love to do that.. though by know I don't have a clue what I should write about. I thought about maybe interviewing myself about that topic. Questions like: Why do you blog? What inspires you? What made you start a blog? ect... Do you think that would be appropriate?
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