In February my blogging life celebrated 5 years. There are several months missing here at WordPress (you can see the gap down on the lower right of the page) from when I was over at Blogger but other than that this has been a pretty steady recording of my life from then to now. The number one search term on the Internet to find me is still “pink bathroom”.
I find blogging really fulfilling, even when my writing doesn’t feel sparkly and smart (can’t be sparkly and smart all the time, sometimes a carrot is just a carrot). It’s not so much what you write about when it comes to privacy, it’s what you don’t write about. Ree Drummond from “Confessions of a Pioneer Woman” said basically that in a recent interview.
I don’t know how many people read my blog who don’t know me although I do get emails from time to time, especially when I drop in my email address, which I do on occasion (sonya@plumlovely.com), and sometimes there are comments. The most exciting contact I made hands-down was my Canadian cousin Ann Lawson who contributed so much to the family history project. Finding family? Now that’s something special.
I don’t advertise the blog even among friends or co-workers, although I don’t write anything that anyone couldn’t read. My yardstick is my next employer. Would my next employer be more or less likely to hire me for saying it? I err on the side of caution but I don’t think that takes anything away from the substance of what I blog about. If I felt stifled I wouldn’t feel inclined to keep writing.
Recently I’ve been doing research for a talk on blogging. Up until two years ago I was regularly speaking on blogging, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, del.icio.us, etc., for work and other conferences. This upcoming talk gave me the opportunity to catch up and see what’s going on in the blogosphere.
If you’re interested in blogging I would recommend Technorati.com’s State of the Blogosphere 2010. “Welcome to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2010 report. Since 2004, our annual study has followed growth and trends in the blogosphere. For 2010, we took a deeper dive into the entire blogosphere, with a focus on female bloggers. This year’s topics include: brands embracing social media, traditional media vs. social media, brands working with bloggers, monetization, smartphone and tablet usage, importance of Twitter and Facebook, niche blogging, and changes within the blogosphere over 2010.”
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