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The Ballad of the Egocentric Blogger: How to tell if it's You, You, YOU!
SEO embraces many a discipline within the internet jungle and isn't just about search engine rankings. It is about finding ways to increase website traffic and in turn website traffic that converts. Whether this be via the search engines or social media, or hawking door-to-door, the key factor is ROI (Return on Investment). For this reason, blogging can be like mana from heaven as it covers these particular aspects nicely. Constantly updated content is one of Google's likes, plus you can build authority as well as your online brand by creating a buzz around your blog. This, if you'd been wondering, is why I tend to discuss blogging so much, on what is essentially an SEO blog. There, glad I've cleared that one up.
Anyways, today we journey back to this land of blogging and pose the question, who is more important to your blog, you or the reader?
You may tell yourself repeatedly that it’s the reader, you may even convince yourself of the fact, but are we all just blinded by our own sheer brilliance?
An unto unseen access to the means of the production and the distribution of information through Web 2.0 and the internet has put us all at the helm of our own broadcasting company, where we can choose the content, the output, and how much or how little we wish to share with the outside world.
Suddenly everybody is an expert in one area or another and popularity is measured through website traffic via analytical tools, and social media sites. As I’ve said on occasion before, this can only be a good thing and should not only be celebrated but pursued to its fullest extent; as opposed to being looked upon as just another way to turn a quick shilling.
But does this newfound power benefit the reader or ourselves? Are we fast becoming a digital nation of egomaniacs drunk on the swagger of the occasional taste of glory on a social media site? Is everything we post more concerned with reliving or maintaining that glory than providing useful, informative, or entertaining content?
Has blogging become a case of believing our own hype and playing to the crowd for the sole purpose of boosting one’s own cyber-profile?
Here are a few ways to gauge whether you may have forsaken your audience and are now solely in it for yourself:
- There is more self-indulgent twaddle than valuable content. (Guilty)
- Posting becomes more and more intermittent and irregular. As though it doesn’t matter to you that your readership may have settled into a routine of checking your blog at regular intervals for fresh content. (Guilty as charged)
- Posts become meandering, languorous, and more concerned with fancy wordplay and ostentatious metonymy than engaging content. (I see a pattern emerging here)
- You submit your own content before any of your readers can, in the misguided belief that you and you alone have the power to make it go hot as opposed to the ‘inferior masses’ that’ll sink it without a trace. (Oops)
- You make up for a lack of content by an overuse of images. (Oh dear)
- You curse your social media mates when your post fails to go front page - or even reach double figures – for not voting for you. (I’ll get my coat)
Obviously, if like me you do all these things, you should perhaps rethink your vocation and maybe consider a career on the screen or stage, where such egotism is positively applauded – or you’re getting paid so much you don’t really care what people think...
But light-heartedness aside, although it’s important to write for yourself, what you want to write about – wouldn’t it lack the all-important conviction otherwise – it is of an equal priority that you consider the reader and your audience, even if they number just the one wee fella in the Outer Hebrides, as after all it is their loyalty that keeps you buoyant. And even the world’s biggest egomaniac needs somebody to talk at.
If your blog is for the purposes of promoting the rest of your website or, God forbid, only there to plunder a few pence from Adsense or affiliate links, achieving this balance is particularly important as it is a steady readership that will make or break you. After all, what use is a book if nobody ever reads it?
Related Posts:
The Beauty of the Blog - Why we Should All Learn to Love our Blogs
Five Reasons why the Need to Blog Outweighs the Desire
Blogger's Scourge - A Melodrama in One Part
Why do we blog?
Comments
However, as time marches on and your literary prowess rises, so will your readership number.
And therein lies a cautionary tale — fool be the one who changes their style, or their topics of interest like they change their socks.
"Has blogging become a case of believing our own hype and playing to the crowd for the sole purpose of boosting one’s own cyber-profile?"
Excellent point. I could (but I won't) name a few 'bloggers who pretty much do exactly that.
I have this 'blogdar thing — once I sense that 25% of their content is nothing but self-masturbatory verbiage, I delete their feed.
For me, I write stuff that I'd want to read. Sounds weird, I know, but I'm a really fussy reader. I like to read stuff that's a conversation or a narrative, if you will.
The author of this 'ere article will remember Ronnie Corbett's meandering monologues from the Two Ronnies show.
That's possibly as a far out as any 'blogger ought to go. Beyond which lies readership ruination, for sure...
I do not want people to feel neglected by my recent irregularity either. I feel most useful when I blog because I know it may help someone. I especially don't want to give the impression that it's 'all about me'..So thanks for the wake up.
Great stuff for sure. :-)
@Wayne - Cheers mate. Some good points there. Your posts always keep me entertained and interested anyway. As for Corbett, well you've hit upon the only part of the Two Ronnies show I couldn't stand (apart from Elaine-bloody-Paige warbling every week). And if my articles (oo-er) ever get as meandering and - dare I say it - downright dull as one of his monologues then somebody please put me out of my misery ;)
@Kim - Thanks, as always. I think it pays not to lose focus, as it then gets so easy to fall into the trap of 'Oh, I'll do it next time' or 'Another week won't go amiss'. I'm sure we've all done it. As for your Learning SEO Basics blog, it is, and remains, a constant resource for excellent and well-written information. Thanks again.
Many thanks for the Sphinns and Stumbles from everybody too :)
Unlike a book that sits on your shelf, a blog is readily available on the internet, ready for anyone who's willing to read it. Chances are a blog is more useful than a book, even if no one's reading it right now.
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The "creator is just a damned creator" vs. "creator must needs be a marketer" tug-of-war is often on my mind.
Fortunately, I shouldn't have to worry too much about living up to my own hype because there's not a lot there (yet...)
:)