On blog following
Recently, I have felt a little bit paranoid about not having enough blog followers, comments, etc to fulfill my side of the marketing and publicity once my book is out there in the World, and this is part of my contract, as well as something I feel organically responsible for. My day job is marketing, I should have this tied up.
A simple search shows Maureen Cracknell's blog - for example - has 63,000 followers on Bloglovin alone. That's just an insane number and it's hard not to feel inadequate when your blog has been going for a year and a half longer and has 280.With Instagram gaining in popularity, and more of the blogs I like to read popping up in my reader less and less as they switch over to micro-blogging, it feel even more like shouting into the void. I used to get double-figure comments, now I'm lucky to get 3. Has my viewing figures got lower, or has interest and engagement dwindled? Is it since moving away from my old circle of sewing friends in the UK? Did they artificially prop me up? Is it because I've posted less recently? How long will blogs be relevant for?And content, what content do people actually want from blogs? I know that I like reading posts about idea development, quilt psychology and politics, recaps of shows I've not been able to go to. Thoughtful and reflective posts, I guess a bit like this one. I know they are the ones I comment on most often. Are a lot of posts out there now just simply blog hops, sew alongs and simple tutorials that have been done 100 times already? I skip through a lot of posts so I bet you do too.What do I want to achieve from my blog? I don't want to post every day with every microscopic detail, if I have nothing to say that day I won't say anything. I don't think I want to do weekly giveaways, or be tied to posting about sponsors once a week. I think that content can get dull if it is regimented, even if there is free stuff potentially up for grabs. How do others feel about this? My blog is almost like a diary for me, I look back at what happened when, at how I have developed, and I hope if people are interested enough to do that too then they will see that you can develop as a quilter significantly in just a couple of years (this blog started as a jewellery making blog!), and it will be a positive thing all round.I've made peace with the idea that I'm not going to be one of the big shots, I'm going to stay true to me. I'm going to post what I want and not get bogged down with getting followers from having a huge giveaway, or feel I need a sponsor to be successful. As the Good Life Fitness advert on the radio goes, "Don't strive to be better than everyone else, best YOURSELF". P.S. My email is down at the moment, so if you have contacted me I won't get it for a little while.