They say it takes three weeks to form a new habit. According to WordPress, it has been three weeks since I posted on my blog (and that was just a Wordless Wednesday). So, have I officially formed a new habit of not-blogging?
How much have I not-blogged? So much that thinking about my blog is making me feel guilty. So much that when I want to visit other people’s blogs, I do not come to my blog first so that I can jump to them through my blog roll. I have been avoiding my blog, like a friendship I am trying to end. Like an ex-boyfriend who is standing in the corner at a party… I don’t even want to look its way.
Another friend has also been avoiding her blog. Apparently many of her readers care. Apparently many of her readers sent her emails, asked if she was okay, asked if she was coming back. I guess my blog is the proverbial tree in the forest… it fell and no one heard a sound. Did it make a sound?
Furthermore, I don’t even know if I want to come back here. I made some mistakes with my blog and people I know in real life. Recently I gave the address to a few people I probably shouldn’t have. People who have met my kids. People I don’t know well. Also, I wanted to write about some things here that I couldn’t because of other people that I know who read this blog (If you think I am talking about you, you are probably wrong… in the words of Carly Simon “Your So Vain.”)
So, what’s a girl to do?
I have a friend who has a “successful” blog. She blogs fairly infrequently but she is always getting swag, not to mention amazing trips because of her online presence. Last summer, she got to go to Colorado on a yoga and wine drinking retreat. She doesn’t really like/do yoga. Although she does like/do wine. I am jealous. Maybe I need to get one of those kinds of blogs. But I think I would want to start over. I think I would be more concerned about privacy.
Do you read blogs that don’t include photos? I usually don’t. I like photography. But I think if I wanted to have a blog big enough to warrant swag I would be more concerned about privacy.
I joined a FB group for bloggers in my state. Most of the bloggers on there are making money or at least getting lots of freebies because of their blogs. I checked out some of their writing. It sucked. Really. Not only were their blogs boring, they were poorly written. Poorly written and NOT funny, a combination that I find unacceptable.
Also, even though I rarely edit anything I write, blogging still takes time. Time that might be better spend reading or exercising or hanging out with my family.
So, this is an entire post about blogging. I think one of the first posts I ever wrote was similar…. 02025 (hey, look, my dog just added to my blog. I can’t delete that. I think he is trying to send someone a message.)
And, I am pretty sure if I read this post back it will seem like I have been drinking… but I haven’t. And either has my dog.
Again, I am left with the question… what’s a girl to do?
Do I have anything worth saying? How much will I miss this community that I imagine exists here? Where can I publish my bad Haiku?
If I do decide to shut this down, I have an idea for what I think could be a commercially successful blog. It came to me yesterday at the gym… Sweat Stain Rorschach Test. I can think of a million businesses who might want to sponsor that bad boy. So, if you don’t see me around here for awhile, you’ll know where to find me. You can probably google it. On the other hand, you might not want to. I thought about googling it just to see if it already exists. But I was afraid. Anyone brave enough to google that, go for it, and get back to me.
But…but…but…would you still do wordless wednesday posts from your old school Weight Watchers book? That’s the question.
I’m with you, as you already know. I think about privacy all the time, and when I wrote popular posts that got a ton of hits, I kept waiting for the offer to get paid. Ha. It never happened. I never this blogging thing would become so damn confusing. I really didn’t. I thought I would write sweet stories, share some photos with a dose of honesty. But then I discovered that I love my boys to do that so publicly. And now here I am. My blog is shut down. I miss it. And I don’t know what the hell to do. Let me know when you have all of the answers.
Is this up for vote? Cus I vote STAY! Even though I know you in real life, I would so much miss your blog humor.
I dig your blog. I second the “stay” vote.
Please stay. I would oh-so-miss your humor and I second the Planetista. More WW cards!
I’d miss your blog, which means your audience around the world would miss you!
my blog went dark after I got pregnant. My son is now snoring across my chest and I still haven’t posted, although ideas are finally starting to come back. The monetization thing is a bonus, IMO, but the point is community. Not only do you have a readership, yours leaves comments. In my case, it’s the comments I’m after. On the privacy problem I got nothing; I think we all struggle with it but I concede that your situation is more acute than mine. Member-only site for photos (WW excepted)?
But I want to know about your son. So I hope you will start posting again soon. Comments are complicated. I write fewer these days because I often read blogs from my phone. But I never blog from my phone. So it doesn’t remember my identity. So many steps to say something snide is usually not worth it.
I think that there are some writers who write well enough that I don’t have to have photos. But, I like photos, too. And not photos lifted off the internet that the blogger didn’t even take. I have thought and thought about what to do about my blog and I just never know. So I kind of keep limping along.
I wish everyone whose blog I used to read would just go back to blogging. NOW. At least twice a week. Please.
Well, I’ve been missing you because no one else gives snark in the comment section as good as you do. Please come back to writing and please come back to commenting on other blogs–hint hint.
As for no photos, ahem, I disagree, I go to blogs for the writing. If every once in a while there is a photo, well, great, but if posting photos keeps you from writing then it’s time to throw away the kodak, kwim? (did I just date myself?)
What I did when I felt like you (too many IRL people knew who I was) I shut down the one and started a new one with no names and no photos and no other (I hope) identifying information. I made the old one private so no one could link back to it and voila’! Fresh start.
Go ahead, change your address and your M.O. but don’t go away forever. That would be no fun.
Commenting has been harder because I have been reading blogs on my phone and/or my laptop. I am often not logged into WordPress. If I forget to log in first blogger eats my comment. By the time I have gone through all those steps either the kids NNNNEEEEEEEDDD me OR I have realized that what I had to say just wasn’t that important.
But I am dying to know what BG thought about Country Gender doll.
I know, you are a no-picture girl… but you write so well.
You’re not the first person to ask about the country gender reaction…I thought I mentioned that she loved it but I can see that a more detailed description is needed.
As you may recall, I changed by background as per your request. So it looks like I now have my next topic, as per your request. What else do I have to do to keep you around the blog world????????
Seriously.
You have to keep on. I enjoy your blog and your take on things. Your perspective is very refreshing and frequently makes me laugh out loud. Even though I have known you in real life since the 80s I am always impressed at the thoughts you express in this format.
I like that you said 80′s when we both know it was actually the 70′s.
The Sweat Stain Rorschach Test site does not seem to exist yet. But somehow I don’t think you’d find it a satisfying way to spend your time.
You are a brave woman, Kyra.
Do you think you could do a combo of Sweat Stain Rorschach Test and Weight Watchers recipe cards? Like maybe sometimes the sweat stain would be in the shape of a WW entree?
I still don’t know how people make real money on their personal blogs. I accepted an offer to write elsewhere for real money, but I assure you that was a fluke, a lucky connection, and sometimes (okay, most of the time), I think that what I write is utter crapola (which is similar to crayola, but made with crap instead of crayon).
As for privacy, I have no good answer. I use real names and real pictures, and I feel okay about it. Maybe I’m too comfortable with it. Maybe I’m on the beanbag of internet privacy with a bag of Cheetos and a Big Gulp, and I should sit on a straight backed chair with a Weight Watchers entree instead, being very, very careful. I really don’t know.
But I’d miss your voice if you no longer wrote, so I think you should still write something, somewhere.
Your comment made me want a bag of Cheetos and a Big Gulp. Life on the edge… or sunk into a beanbag chair with junk food… that is how I like to live. And I have VIVID memories of my mom buying us our beanbag chairs. They were TEN WHOLE DOLLARS. For that price I knew they were special.
Please don’t give up the blog. We just have to make everyone quit Facebook.
I’ll blog when you blog, jcmarie
i read the same 8 blogs every day. your blog is the top on my list. i check it even though you are busy with your family and i know you don’t have time to write each day. if you go, i will be down to 7 blogs and that would make me sad. i say you stay. where else would i get to enter fun haiku contests? also, i blogged for a while back in my younger days. it was fun but then i slowly stopped. perhaps it should become a habit again. but who wants to read about a girl with 4 cats? yeah, not many people.
Well, I am a lame-o blogger and I haven’t blogged in, well, months. And instead of reading my faves off my blog list, I read faves off Capt Murdocks, and I always hit yours when it’s new. I write really good posts, but it seems thinking them doesn’t get them to the computer:) Good luck with your decsion, but I think you should just keep randomly entertaining us.
Shiloh, my posts that are still in my head also have perfect grammar and spelling, without me even trying.
Agghhh! Don’t stop blogging. I don’t know you (but I have also adopted a child from Ethiopia . . . ) and I read your blog, um, religiously. You are funny and snarky and you write well. Pictures are a plus, in fact I really look forward to them (like the wordless Wed. when your kids looked at and approached a construction vehicle, or your daughter sleeping with/on the dog, or your son climbing to the cookies—-these are such awesome images and they are inspire me to pay more attention to the little moments—thanks, btw) but since I don’t know where you live (really—and maybe I am not paying close enough attention), I don’t think the privacy issue is too scary. I read and re-read your “fucking librarian” post. I LOVE your blog; please don’t stop blogging. Oh and my email address has changed