Recently, I came across someone a bit snarky pointing out that one of the blogs I was writing on had a fair bit of echo to it, in the sense that articles being published there weren’t always original, but rather a mentioning of the latest news, as well as a small addition of my personal thoughts and preferences.
Rather than fight this person as they continued to slam my writing, I ignored it. I would be lying if I said that his comments didn’t bother me, but I knew I wasn’t going to be writing on the site much longer, and so in the end, it didn’t really matter to me what he thought about the content I had written.
Later though, after having some time to reflect on the comments he made, I went back to the site to look and see if he was right, and to a certain degree he was, but on the front page, over sixty percent of the articles were nearly wholly written by me.
What I realized next is something that I think more bloggers need to realize: it is your blog. Even if you are writing for someone else, when you publish a post, for that instant, the site you are publishing on is your site. Your words are being shown, your thoughts are being transmitted, and unless you are under some kind of publishing limitation, it is you that has to control the content.
If you let your readers control your content, you will most likely lose some of the enjoyment that comes from crafting posts, or covering the news and information that you find relevant and interesting.
After realizing this, I know that I wouldn’t have changed how I was presenting information on the site, or the types of posts I made because I was running the blog exactly how I wanted to, and if he didn’t enjoy it, he could move on, as the only readers I want, are those that enjoy my content.
Enjoyment doesn’t mean that they have to agree with me, or like what I am saying, but those that want to be negative about what I am writing should do it in an eloquent way, rather than the immature bashing that I was receiving.
Originally posted on May 11, 2008 @ 6:40 pm