Blogging Without Tears

Blogging is simple. It’s instant publication. If you’re having challenges with your blogging, chances are you’re paying too much attention to what other bloggers have to say about it.

Please remember, it’s YOUR blog.

Over the years, blogging “rules” have come into fashion — and that’s all the rules are, fashions.

When I started blogging, over a decade ago, no one knew what a blog was. Neither did I. Therefore, I had no expectations; I just wanted to have fun writing.

As blogging became more popular, bloggers started to make commandments about blogging. They were keen to tell everyone how to blog, and what a blog should be.

The funniest commandment (fashion), which persisted up until around 2005, was that blogging should have no commercial intent. The pure nature of a blog should never be sullied by crass thoughts of money — you should offer your thoughts and ideas completely for free…

I thought that was nuts, and wondered how long the “pure, unsullied” movement would last.

Not long, it turns out.

After 2006, bloggers became rapacious, and everyone, including the “pure, sullied” crowd dashed for cash.

Another idiot blogger commandment was “blogging is a conversation”… whatever that means. Usually it meant that bloggers were supposed to allow others to say whatever they wanted to say (no matter how demented) on their blogs in the name of free speech.

You were supposed to allow commenters to spew venom in their comments, spoiling the environment of your blog, not only for yourself, but also for your readers.

My attitude to that bit of madness has always been: my blog, my rules.

How to blog without tears

Remember, it’s YOUR blog.

Use your blog in any way you wish, but do also remember that your blog is instant publication. Don’t do or say anything on your blog which you’d hate to see repeated elsewhere, whether today, next year, or sometime in the next 20 years.

You can blog without tears as long as you focus on yourself, ignoring others’ rules and commandments.

Have goals for your blog, and stick to them. I like simple goals for my blogging, and my primary goal of having fun blogging hasn’t changed.

What’s your primary goal for blogging?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Blog for Big Companies, and Make a Six-Figure Income

If you’re looking for writing gigs, you’ll have seen that many businesses advertise for bloggers. Unfortunately, the businesses which advertise are all doing so because they’re looking for cheap content.

You can do much better.

You can find clients who don’t advertise, but who pay well for blogging. Did you know that experienced professional bloggers charge their clients a minimum of $1000 per month, per blog? Consider that if a blogger’s working for 20 clients, that’s $20,000 a month.

You can blog for businesses too, if you’re prepared. Discover how, with Blogging Ace: Make Six Figures in Nine Months by Doing What You Love.

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Angela Booth

Angela Booth is a copywriter, author published by major publishers, and writing teacher. She offers many guides, courses and classes to help writers to enhance their skills at her online store. She also provides inspiration and motivation for writers on her writing blogs. Angela has been writing successfully since the late 1970s, and was online in the 1980s, long before the birth of the Web. Her novels and business books have been widely published.