focus
If the temperature reaches 35 degrees today, it will be a miracle of epic proportions. When given the choice to explore the city before my 10:30 class or return for another cup of coffee and check my email, I will choose the later, every single time.
Everyone has bad days now and then, but I am convinced that bloggers have twice as many: bad days in the real world and bad days online. There are times when I get overwhelmed by the sheer number of blogs, especially ones of mediocre quality. This shouldn't be an issue for me, except that it is--more times than not, these pages have thousands of followers, double-digit blog comments, yet they lack any original content. I recognize that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the world only needs one CupcakesandCashmere, and she's doing just fine.
So when I checked into Twitter, I was intrigued to find a post from @problogger concerning blog content. Author Jeff Goins doesn't know me, we don't talk, but I'm absolutely certain he wrote this post for me. I won't bore you with the entire article, just a few specific quotes that spoke to me.
"In a world full of choices, the way you stand out is not by adding to the noise, but by exposing your own uniqueness."
His words are so concise: anyone and their mother can link up to the latest 'popular' blog of the day and share their Instagram pictures, their favorite pins, favorite photos stolen from Tumblr...but after a while, you're clicking through the same 100 ideas. That's not to say I don't love those same ideas, because I usually do.
"When you write for everyone, you write for no one."
At the beginning of my blogging experience it was too easy to get caught up in the numbers: page views, subscribers, comments. This quickly added another dimension to blogging: writing to gain followers. Sure, I've joined a link-up or two, but I've been disappointed more times than I can count: I've read the same blog hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Do not be mistaken, I adore Pinterest and spend hours on Tumblr, but I try not to use them as fillers for my blog. My hope is to use this particular space for my own creations and ideas.
Finding blog ideas will be just as difficult as before, and experimenting with my writing style (and spelling errors, sorry Mom) won't change, but I have found a new source of reassurance when I stumble upon another cookie-cutter blog. Or maybe this newfound sense of individualism is just another consequence of being an only child. Who knows?
xoxo.
Read Jeff Goin's entire article, "If You Want to Write to a Larger Audience, Be More Specific," here. Even if you aren't a blogger, you can admire his writing style and organization.
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