MNBlogCon 2017 musings
It's both entertaining and embarrassing that I can point to this blog at a blogging convention and note its 2002 start date. It's a mess -- a glorious, fascinating, pathetic, inspiring mess -- of random content over the past 15 years.
So when I confront the "what's my niche" question... I don't have one. And maybe that's what it is. A non-niche. (That's so meta!
I was introduced to the term "lifestyle blogger" at this year's Minnesota Blogger Conference, and the fact that I'd never encountered that term before now probably tells you something about my qualifications as a "blogger." I explained to those around me that my attendance was "aspirational" rather than... I don't know. "Real"? "Functional"? I don't know what the opposite word would be. I know that I'm nothing like the bloggers who were around me, with their focused themes and editorial calendars and monetization plans
Yet I still love to write, and I regret that I don't do it more
My podcast (Ericast.com) has taken over most of my creative expression these days... but even so, it became "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month.
My random "minor celebrity" site (which will go unnamed here, but you can easily find it if you click around) has much better traffic than this does. Yet it's there merely as an exercise in SEO and an entertaining experiment in how people click on what's popular. Pat On Purpose wrote something really personally convicting:
Maybe I should tweak my template and that would make me more motivated to blog... because being pretty counts for something, right?
So when I confront the "what's my niche" question... I don't have one. And maybe that's what it is. A non-niche. (That's so meta!
I was introduced to the term "lifestyle blogger" at this year's Minnesota Blogger Conference, and the fact that I'd never encountered that term before now probably tells you something about my qualifications as a "blogger." I explained to those around me that my attendance was "aspirational" rather than... I don't know. "Real"? "Functional"? I don't know what the opposite word would be. I know that I'm nothing like the bloggers who were around me, with their focused themes and editorial calendars and monetization plans
Yet I still love to write, and I regret that I don't do it more
My podcast (Ericast.com) has taken over most of my creative expression these days... but even so, it became "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month.
My random "minor celebrity" site (which will go unnamed here, but you can easily find it if you click around) has much better traffic than this does. Yet it's there merely as an exercise in SEO and an entertaining experiment in how people click on what's popular. Pat On Purpose wrote something really personally convicting:
If somebody were to ask my wife or my hypothetical child about what I do it must be something that they’re both proud of.I'm not sure I can say that of everything I've put out on the Internet. I'm not sure I can say that of most of the things I've put out on the Internet. It's not that I'm embarrassed by them or think they're immoral. But did they add value to society? No. Did they entertain society? Maybe -- in tiny pockets, at least. Maybe that's enough.
Maybe I should tweak my template and that would make me more motivated to blog... because being pretty counts for something, right?
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