Hello,
I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
Thinking out loud
Blogging these days is so serious. You must have a blogging plan and strategy, a clearly defined specialty (or a niche, if you don't hate that word as much as I do) and a specific audience to keep happy. There's no spontaneity, there's no personality. Instead there are lots of blog posts featuring the same infographics found on every other site and all the advise you didn't want to get.
The other day Richard MacManus published a post about blogging in the new year 2016 (from whom I stole the whole thinking out loud -thinking). He asked, amongst other things, if finding an audience is really what personal blogging is about. He has noticed how many bloggers are returning to the thinking out loud kind of blogging. This type of blogging used to be the big thing in blogosphere before it was flooded with, well, everyone and their cats.
If you're on my email list, you have been reading my thinkings out loud for a while already. Recently I also noticed that I've tried to steer clear from that sort of writing on both my list and this blog. Due to this I did a little overhaul on the list and rebranded it as The Art of Extempore, something rather random and unpredictable. Now I'll be going more to the path of thinking out loud, and less to trying to be informative and tell you what to do with your life and business. I've brought myself to rethink this blog as well, and what I want from it. Do I want to compete with bigger blogs which have multiple writers and ad revenue? Or do I want to do something which feels like me, which has personality and shows authenticity? (The answers are no to the first and yes to the latter, if you're still unclear.) Personality and authenticity, that's the only way to separate myself from the crowd.
Bloggers everywhere are getting too obsessed with formalities and (giving) information. Even personal blogs must now be filled with advice and serious problem solving. Answer the questions of your audience. Be useful, provide tips and data. Have a niche, write to your readers. Forget what you want and need. All the edges are sanded off.
No wonder. It's easy to be swayed by the traffic. The most hits on my blog are directed to the information packed post. Of course, since people are looking answers to their questions. You want to know how to get rid of spam on Instagram, if bounce rate affects search visibility and which works better, MailChimp or Mad Mimi. I must continue to give the information, so that I can gain more traffic. Don't know what that traffic will do to me, I don't even sell ad space on my blog. Nor are most of those people interested in my services as a web and brand designer. They don't even want to buy my art. Totally wrong people to lure around here, if I only think about what's best for me. And why wouldn't I?
I was thinking out loud about this earlier: "Perhaps I will start a new thing: Not giving a shit about being useful and informative, and writing whatever I like, whenever I like. It's my blog and I write if I want to."
Perhaps is an important word, since I quite didn't. I don't know why. There's no real explanation. It could be due to being scared. Scared about appearing unprofessional and serious. Scared about showing the real me and my weaknesses. Scared about losing all the traffic I've been gaining and dropping my site downwards in search results. Scared about all sorts of silly things. Thinking out loud is more personal and it's more revealing than a cold, distant and information packed post. As such it's a great tool of personal branding. It gives a look in how your mind works, it shows what makes you you.
Instead of being obsessed about how many reads a blog post has gained and how much traffic my site is generating, I pledge to make things personal and more spontaneous around here. I will be thinking out loud, wondering things and being more me in general. It might be "the wrong strategy" and not the best way to gain audience. Then what?
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