Blogging for an Audience 101 – Don’t allow a person to monopolize your time

I know… oh lord another blogging article. The amusing part is today I mentally wrote a post and filed it in the glass room about how people should stop writing instructions on blogging. And here I am writing one. Oh well, I have been called hypocritical today already once so I might as well ferment their belief.

Be careful who you listen to about blogging if your goal is an audience. If your friend Nancy is one of the “advice giving friends,” but really has no clue what she is talking about then don’t listen to her. People look down on views and follower counts. I don’t. I view them as data that if analyzed properly can give you a recipe for success. Look and see how many views or followers a person has before following their advice. Also just because they have 33,388 followers doesn’t mean they have a damn clue either. There are plenty of people running around calling themselves Opinionated Man and handing out shitty advice.

Blogging for an audience takes discipline. You can’t allow a commenter to monopolize your time and energy. It will happen, you will get a blogger that feels the need to “shine” and make a scene on your article. They aren’t always trolls either, sometimes they legitamitely care about the topic. That doesn’t mean that you have to break your blogging rules to accommodate them. When I say “blogging rules” those aren’t WordPress rules, they are my own that I have set to ensure I have enough seconds in the day to get everything done. Yes, I broke it down to seconds. Anyone that knows me knows I am that anal sometimes.

People ask “how do you respond to all those comments and keep up dialogue?” It takes practice. I currently have close to 500 “live” articles on my website, but I had over 1700 last year. I removed those and I am partially glad. While it was a nightmare for my meta, widgets, and my blog when I deleted them… it was worth not having to have the same conversation over and over on those old threads. Bloggers will ask me why I am so short with people or why I don’t debate and there is a simple answer. I don’t have time.

“Well isn’t your blog about sharing opinions? Are you only here to listen to people that agree with you?” I listen to EVERYONE and read EVERY COMMENT on this blog and my other blog as well. I don’t pander around for praise and anyone that says that is just ignorant and has no clue what I am about. I choose when to debate, which is the right of any blogger, writer, or human. I know what is worth debating, what is just worth saying, and what should be loudly proclaimed and fought over. I recognize tones in people’s comments and writing and I will sometimes check YOUR BLOG before responding to see where this will go. It is called being smart and understanding that I can’t cater to all of you. In fact, my blogging method is to view no single blogger as special. Ever.

Time is the enemy when it comes to taking on an audience. As you post more and more people will still read old posts and comment. You will quickly find yourself in 500 conversations and sometimes you will get confused as to what you said or did not say. It happens and honestly if your audience doesn’t understand that then don’t bother telling them. They won’t get it.

I have taken on the habit of clearly telling me when I will and will not debate. This often annoys them, but I am willing to live with them being annoyed. I often wonder if they can handle the emotion they have themselves adopted. You will have to develop your own etiquette for blogging, but make it your own. A lot of bad advice out there so find what works for you.

-OM