There’s A Blog For All Reasons

Most of us enjoy hearing about other people’s life experience – how they handled, overcame, managed, coped with or endured various life circumstances or challenges. For some it is nothing more than a strange desire to feed on the salacious exploits of a persons train-wreck of a life courtesy of tabloid talk in print and media. Phew, say that in one breath!

That is a medium that has little to do with sharing inspiring, insightful, motivating life stories in a way that dignifies the person living the experience and more to do about titillation with money being the bottom line.

Interestingly, it has been the advent, and growing popularity, of the personal blog that is single-handedly changing the way life stories are being shared. I know, I know, one can readily find tabloid-driven exploitative blogs; however, there are countless personal blogs representing a cross-section of real life that are helpful and enjoyable to read. These are the blogs that helped shape the way I would write about, and ultimately share, my life experiences.

There are many talented writers out there covering a wide scope of topics on their blogs and, as the title of this post says, you can pretty much find “a blog for all reasons”. When I started my blog I knew I wanted to keep it simple and honest – to simply write about the way illness has impacted my life, my relationships, and keep it honest when sharing my thoughts and feelings about the experiences.

Initially, because I tend to be a private person, it was a bit daunting when watching my feelings spill out onto the computer screen, yet, if being honest with myself, it was also somewhat liberating. I am forever thinking about different subjects I want to write about – and if something should evoke a strong response from me my husband, Gene, will usually look at me and say, “uh huh, sounds like a blog topic to me.”

How to gauge the frequency of postings has been one of the biggest issues when it comes to blogging for me. Well, that and a bit of insecurity nipping at my heels… the last thing I want is to have an arrogant or miss-know-it-all tone when sharing my point of view on something. Of course, it didn’t help matters when I read the criteria many want a blog to reach before they will stoop to reading it is tied to the number of comments/subscribers listed. Huh? Wow, that is something I have never paid attention to when looking at a blog.

If the comment/subscriber number is the top criteria the typical Blog browser looks at before moving on, well, I’d venture to say they have been missing out on some quality blogs. I hope the next time you are surfing the net for particular information you will check out the lesser-known sites -  go ahead and check out bloggers who are plodding along because they genuinely believe in what they have to say … I think, no, let me rephrase that, I know you will be pleasantly surprised at the gems that are flying right under the viral radar of what we know as the Blogosphere.

How do I feel about and/or view my blog, The PeppyWrites Chronicles? Hmmm, in some ways that is a difficult question for me … and, believe me, it is one I have been asking myself quite a bit lately. I’m sure there are a slew of excuses I could come up with to explain the lull The PeppyWrites Chronicles has been in but, really, I don’t think it matters – what does matter, at least to me, is what lies ahead for this blog.

It was when mulling over these things that I started to think of all the blogs I have come across since starting mine. The blogs I enjoy reading or have sought out for technical or writing information have a broad range of popularity and yet, their level of popularity has never had an influence over my desire to continue reading them…. and I hope that hasn’t been an issue with mine.

Blogging, for me, isn’t about winning popularity contests. Now, don’t get me wrong, it would be fantastic to have countless readers subscribing to The PeppyWrites Chronicles – however, that isn’t why I started my blog nor is it what drives me. Though I must admit it did start weighing on my confidence … I’ve been wondering what I’m doing here which has, in turn, impacted my postings.

So, revisiting my reasons for starting this blog has been good for me. It has reminded me that it’s not a numbers game for me but, rather, I genuinely believe my experiences have something to offer anyone, no matter their situation. And there are countless well-written, inspiring, helpful, insightful blogs out there where, clearly, the blogger only cares about the quality of the posts being published and not the subscriber list or commenter numbers.

Yes, there’s a blog for all reasons out in the Blogosphere … and I hope The PeppyWrites Chronicles will be among them for a long time.