Start a Blog They Said, It Will Be Fun They Said

It seems the world, their hubby and the pet gerbil has a blog. And so they should as blogging is brilliant. Little did I know when I started mine that I would still be blogging about the ups, downs and sideways views of single parent life 6 years on? There you go, I still am and loving it. But it does have its drawbacks and there are some that aren’t talked about much.

On 20 February 2014, there were around 172 million Tumblr and 75.8 million WordPress blogs in existence worldwide. According to critics and other bloggers, Blogger is the most popular blogging service used today, however Blogger does not offer public statistics. Technorati has 1.3 million blogs as of February 22, 2014. And every second of the day two more blogs are created. 

There are the more common drawbacks that anything and everything gets turned into blog fodder. I admit I have done it. When my own son was near the top of a very tall tree, I stopped, took a photo, and then told him to get down. The teen does something brilliant, I first make notes and then congratulate. There are the hours of research to back things up. The whole boring nerdy side of checking your blog is working and the heart stopping moment when its not.

But there are other drawbacks. Some that are talked about in hushed voices or not openly admitted. When you first start a blog you worry that no one is going to want to read your waffle. This lures you into tapping away at your keyboard and putting your heart and soul into each and every post. Your blog starts to become your friend. The only friend you feel you can talk to. It becomes your best friend. Your baby. Your life. Then you start to panic that no one is reading your posts because let’s face it you are basically the next J.K Rowling and everyone is on the edge of their seat to hear what your cat had for tea. So then you install an analytic programme and the number addiction hits you. Watching the numbers change is so pleasing.

You do some more reading on the whole blogging lark as you think you should become more serious about your blogging whilst you wait to be discovered and your blog turned into a book  film.  You learn you need to be more in there with your fellow bloggers. So you read a blog or two which turns in double figures. You come across some blogs that boost your blogging ego as you tut and shake your head. You’re on a role.

(Quick look round and starts to whisper) And then the mother ship of all blogs opens up on your monitor and your only word is ‘shit’. It has a look of effortless style and co-ordination. You hate it but love it so much. You scroll, read and scroll. The photos are so annoyingly gorgeous. ‘Quick snaps’ of their little darlings being cute smack you in the face as you glance at your un-cute darling picking its nose. Then you spot a few things in the photo and spend the next few hours poring over the images looking not at the little darlings being cute but their choice of rugs that are to die for. The effortlessly stylish lounge that peeks out at you. The oh-so trendy kitchen that looks homely and lovely. For heavens sake even the coffee mug half in shot is crying out to you.You get discouraged and poodle off to see others only to come up with the realization that everyone else’s lives are so stylish and dreamy and perfect.

Now if you have made it this far down the page you will might be a blogger nodding or a newbie wanting to start. So here is my small list of advice.

• First off don’t be put off. I have loved every minute of my un-perfect, uncoordinated and un-stylish blogging life and the people you meet are amazing. Don’t if and um just get on with the darn thing.
• Don’t think all bloggers are you competition or your enemy. They are not, well most aren’t.
• Listen to good advice and ignore the hyped up prattle. A good place to start with some of the ins and outs of blogging is Nickies Geekalicious blog. She has series of posts on Getting Started on Google Plus and her SEO post is a good one to start you off.
• Lastly, and this one I have to keep telling myself, a photo is a spit second of captured time. You don’t know how staged the photo is. Or how they live their lives when the camera isn’t there. They are human and still burp and fart just like you and me. So get over it, find out what your sparkle is and put it out there.