Blogging for the Right Reasons

I’m not sure if this happened to you guys when you first started your blogs, but I have been incredibly excited about every little thing that happens on my little blog. Of course, no one else knows about it except my boyfriend who persuaded me to do it in the first place, so he’s the one I run to each and every time something happens. I get a new follower, I run to him. Someone likes my post, I run to him, and, of course, I update him at the end of the day with the stats of how it performed that day (and how many views I’ve had from each country because I think it’s super interesting).

He always has the same response. He’ll smile at me, tell me that he’s proud of me, and that I’m doing a good job. Sometimes, since he’s in advertising, he’ll give me strategic little tips about how to make it better. I’m sure he probably gets bored of hearing about it day after day, but he never lets it show.

Anyway, (I believe it was yesterday….the days are all running together) I was getting so excited about having new followers that he stopped and told me, “just make sure that you’re still writing what you feel and not what you think will attract more followers.” That definitely stopped me for a minute. I thought back to why I started this blog in the first place, to help people who were going through similar things that I went through and to give people hope and encouragement.

I realized that in all the excitement brought on by new followers and getting likes, I had lost my focus (even if for a little while) of what I wanted my blog to be about. I actually spoke about this a little in one of my earlier posts, but it’s easy to lose focus of why you started doing something in the first place. Between getting into a daily routine, wanting to promote your blog by adding more posts, and getting crazy awesome stats, you can lose your focus of what you really wanted to accomplish. I think that’s why having an accountability partner is so important. You need someone that knows you well enough to tell you when you’re getting off track.

Now, I’m not saying by any means that getting new followers, likes, and record breaking stats are bad. They’re really great and necessary if you want to reach more people with what you’re writing. Just don’t let them distract you from what’s really important.

-Alice

*As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc. you can always e-mail me at aliceboyd713@gmail.com or leave something in the comments section (even though you may not be able to see it, you can now post anonymously).*