NaBloPoMo. Let's see how I do. Going to Peru for the second half, so it may be just too plain hard, though at least right now I know I'd like to blog about the trip. Maybe do the thing where I write offline and post later when I get an internet connection. Maybe just do my best during the time I'm here. Oh yeah, going to CA next week, so more traveling. Don't think my Nana has internet at her house either, maybe I can email my posts in from my phone?. I have a feeling they will be short ones then, but there is something about just doing something every day, even if it isn't long, that feels good.
I really should be doing my Morning Pages every day, why does that feel like a chore and not blogging every day for a month? I guess because that's supposed to be 3 full pages, and a blog post has a lot fewer restrictions for length. Been thinking more about blogging lately. The whole Julie & Julia movie got me going. How do you create a blog that's viable for getting ads, for getting book deals, for getting movies? And if you base it on your life, what do you do when people get attached to who you are and you want to change, or stuff happens? People seem to relate to real, to the little personal details, but sometimes that seems too personal, like giving away too much...? No idea. bits and pieces at a time, always unfolding ideas. Changing and growing.
Someone today told me that the thing about the kids growing up today, the ones they call Millennials is they've never been alone - they've always been able to text/call/chat with others, they've always been plugged in. I do wonder what that's like. We talk about our cell phones and remember how we lived so many years of our lives without them, laugh at ourselves a little when we panic at leaving it behind while doing errands or some such. I don't know how old people are giving phones to kids, but more or less, they WON'T remember what it's like to live without always access. How does that change you? Who you are, how you relate to the world? I guess we'll find out more as they get older.
I just spent a week without reading as part of The Artist's Way. Much of that week I was mad, frustrated, felt punished that I couldn't get online and read emails, Facebook, etc. This week I'm finding much of that stuff empty, when I expected to be hungrily trying to make up for lost time. Not so much. I still think there is a point to it all, and a beauty to the ability to connect, I mean, the people I've met online, the musicians I've interviewed! The connections to like-minded souls who sometimes seem to be few and far between here in town. I wouldn't want to give that up. But I can still have those connections while being more focussed about how I spend my time online. If I have the discipline/motivation. We'll see how it goes, how inspired I get, how much I feel driven to escape. Because I'm sure a lot of it is an escape, filling time, trying to feel productive.
I HAVE noticed little bits of balance coming in with doing The Artist's Way I think. Taking more walks, cleaning bits of the house. Not necessarily being more creatively productive so far, but feeling more settled, less frantic, less depressed and worried. So that alone is worth something.
The whole time change thing has me pretty messed up. I don't even know which of the clocks in our house got changed yet or not so sometimes I get thrown by an hour in one direction or another.
5 comments:
"How do you create a blog that's viable for getting ads, for getting book deals, for getting movies?"
Please tell me if you figure this out. I've been banging my head against the problem lately too.
Yeah. Sheesh. It comes down to having lots of readers I think, I mean, the viable part. Getting those readers is the big trick. What do they want bad enough to come back for more often enough to make it worth it for advertisers? They all say "Create compelling content" but what does that mean in practical, concrete terms? Most of what I hear, if you want to make money blogging you have to treat it as a full time job. grah.
Yeah, "Create compelling content" only works once you've broken in a bit and have enough readers to evangelize. Early on, I think a lot of self-promotion is necessary. Not totally sure how to go about that, or how to design a theme or set of content to kick the thing off.
When you say design a theme, do you mean a theme of stuff to write about or a design/template visual theme?
If you've got an actual subject you're passionate about and that subject happens to be something the people are interested in, I think sites like Problogger and Copyblogger have tons of practical tips about actually getting started with cornerstone content and stuff. I guess I just don't see my LV blog as being high demand audience-wise, but maybe I haven't been aggressive enough in promoting/haven't found "my tribe" yet? :P I think it's about making relationships with a core big enough of people who will talk about you on their blogs/sites (is that what you mean by evangelize?) Leaving lots of comments on other blogs, twitter conversations, etc. I think I'm too close to my own site though to figure it out easily...
oh, yeah, I meant theme of content, what you write about, how you present it, etc.
It's not just the subject itself, but also the angle for presenting it, target market, etc. And then also a plan for letting the target market know you're there.
I've got several possibles for that, but haven't been able to nail it down enough to really get in-depth about the marketing plan side of it.
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