Sunday, 29 April 2012

Finding my voice

I have been feeling frustrated with my blog recently and getting all bothered about how many visitors I am getting, how many comments, how many followers etc, and concluding that it's not many.  So I have been reading up on how to improve your blog and get more hits.  Most say that you need to find your own voice and be authentic and I am finding it a real struggle to find my voice.  I read other blogs and think to myself I want to be more like Elsie on Beautiful Mess and not reveal much about my private life, my feelings and just focus on the crafts, doing posts that are fun and quick and easy to read, not too meaningful, fairly light, with lots of pictures, but then I think but that's not me, I am deeper than that,  if I try to be like Elsie then I am not being authentic or using my voice.  So then I think I know I will be more like Kelly Rae Roberts and be really descriptive about my feelings and gush and be all about the love and the art, but that isn't really me either, I don't like to gush and I don't speak like that and I do lots of other things than just art. Or maybe my blog should be more like Elise Blaha and be like an online diary of everything I do, a document, but then I don't have time for that and don't want to share some things. I get very confused and muddled and I lose myself in the sea of other peoples voices.  I have conversations with myself that go something like this; I know, I will just focus on crafts for my blog, but then I want to include bits about my life too, and my life is also about Art and and photography and my new baby and friends and family and days out and Christianity, and I want to include all these things too, but then my blog looks muddled and doesn't come across as cohesive, I am too eclectic to focus on one area of my life only, maybe I should have lots of blogs, one for each aspect of my life/personality, but I can't separate them, they are all intertwined, the craft inspires the art and the photography reflects life and so on, plus I barely have time for one blog let alone five or six. I want my blog to be a true reflection of me, but I also want followers, I don't want to put people off by being too opinionated about things or focusing too much on one aspect of me that might put people off, like my faith or my baby, no one wants to hear someone gush about their baby all the time, and for goodness sake don't mention politics, but that's me too, I have an opinion, I am educated, I have a degree for crying out loud I need to express who I am in a true way, not in a way I think people will like, but am I brave enough to do that? Can  make that commitment?  Do I even have time? And I don't come to any sort of real conclusion and so I just carry on blogging about whatever and sometimes not blogging at all then feeling sad that I only had 5 visitors today or whatever.  What do you think? What should I do?

5 comments:

  1. This is a really tough decision and unfortunately one that only you can make, we can't all be Kelly Rae Roberts and not every blogger will have thousands of followers.
    I guess you need to ask yourself why you started blogging in the first place? and what you wanted from it and work from there?!

    X

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  2. I know exactly how you feel, been there. But, as the comment above, I had to remind myself why I started my blog. The moment I stopped worrying about followers, comments and hits, I felt so much relief, the pressure was off and I just blogged for me and the joy it gave me ... suddenly when I stopped trying so hard, in came the hits and the comments. Keep the faith!

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  3. It is hard and I can only say 'yes it is ok to be yourself' Write your blog for you, visit others and leave comments ant they will visit you....as I have!
    I also turned off my blog moderation thingy as I had read a few comments on other blogs saying that put people off commenting. I think a varied blog is a good read. I don't comment on every post I read but on the one's I feel need one or I think I have something worthwhile to add.
    just a few thoughts, hope it helps.
    oh and Blogger won't let me follow other peoples blogs anymore, although I try. I just add you to my sidebar instead!
    xxx

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  4. Dear, dear Helen, As with the others above I too know exactly what you are saying..... I "lost" you for a while, but have just found you again from Lyn's sidebar ..... I have her on my sidebar ..... (and you too in a moment when I have sent this to you) Don't be discouraged, keep on keeping on and share what you are and what you do. I have the same feeling about "no-one comes to call so what is the point?" when I look at blogs like attic24!!!
    I once bought a delightful little picture from you ..... a teacup, it was for my daughter-in-laws birthday, perhaps you will remember? At the moment I live in your town, and if ever you feel like meeting up for a coffee and cake in the Museum tea room, just drop me an email.
    Have a wonderful and blessed day,
    love Val xx

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  5. Hi Helen,
    I just tried to leave you an email, but it says "it is not a valied email address" - I copied and pasted the address from your contact link above.
    love Val xx

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I love reading people's comments on what I have written, but I am not in the business of debating, this blog is my space, so if you can't say something nice, the please, don't say anything at all. If you don't like what I have written then please don't read it.