Whether you are writing a blog or another form of content, a huge question you need to answer is this: Should you write for yourself or for your audience?
This week's Create If Writing episode came from an email that Sarah Borgstede sent me (thanks, Sara!). Except, this was not HER question. I'll share with you what she wrote and then I'll address what I pulled from it. And I'll also address her question a bit because it would be rude not to, right? Right.
THIS topic would be awesome. The seasons or stages of blogging.
At first I just posted randomly, about myself. That was my "all about me" stage. Now I've got my editorial calendar and I'm doing the whole Pinterest thing. I consider this my "Pinterest" stage. I hear you on the sponsored posts. I've started to delve into that and am not thrilled and I don't think my customers really like them either. I do need to make some income, though. I have a product: www.faithfulfinishlines.com. It does well but it's a tremendous amount of work! I run it (a 7 week program) a couple times a year. I need to offer more smaller products to go along with it, or products that can be purchased anytime. Working on it. It's all such a learning process.
[from a later email] I kept reading, "people don't want to read about YOU. Write for the reader." So I quit. But I miss writing like that and just being myself. My blog does well...I think it does well. I haven't been blogging very long and I get 100,000 page views a month. And I do enjoy it. And it is me. But it's not ME-me.
Help?! Is there a way to somehow do both and not lose this good thing I have going here? I thought I was all set with my blog goals and vision and now I feel confused.
How I LOVED this email back and forth that we had going! (Ps- if you are NOT signed up to my email, you are missing this very back and forth. Sign up HERE.) I think this is a great topic and one that I've come back to many times. Because this isn't an answer once and be done kind of question. This is a constant finding-the-balance and toeing-the-line kind of issue.
So do you write for yourself? Or your audience?
I want to offer some thoughts on this idea that I pulled from Sara's email and then talk about blogging & seasons a bit as well.
Should You Write for Yourself or for Your Audience?
Find Your Why.
I emphasize this so much in my different trainings and courses that I feel like a broken record. But if you want to blog or create content intentionally, you need to nail down your why. I would say that you need a primary and secondary why. These help you make decisions about the kind of content, the frequency, and just about everything else. The kind of images you use depends on your why. The revenue streams you choose depend on your why.
Example: If I am a blogger whose main why is to make a part-time income and my secondary why is to get a non-fiction book deal, my blog will likely look different than someone who is writing just for fun or someone who needs to fully support his or her family on a blogging income.
Find the Balance.
I think it's important to balance writing for yourself and writing for your audience. Unless you don't care if ANYONE reads your blog, you have to think about audience. (And if you don't care if anyone reads your blog, why aren't you just writing a journal in a notebook?) You also want to think about what YOU want to write (and what you CAN write about) if you want to enjoy your work. Too much focus on the audience and you may hate it. Too much focus on you and you might lose your audience. Unless you're a fabulous, amazingly insane writer or have a totally interesting life. Or are already super famous and people would read your grocery list.
Example: If you are writing to produce an income (getting back to that why), then you need to be more audience-centric. If you want to write as an outlet but also hope to make some money, you may be more focused on what you want, but you will still have a sense of serving your audience.
I think so much comes down to your WHY. Then you can find the balance of what you enjoy that will also serve your audience and community.
But then we get into the really interesting part of Sara's question about seasons. We DO have seasons of life and seasons of blogging. Often the relate to each other, but sometimes you may have a season of blogging that is not related to other outside life events.
Did you know blogging itself has had stages and seasons?
Blogging started with web logs-- online diaries that were found on places like Live Journal. They were super personal and people didn't always use real names. Blogs then shifted as they moved to sites like Blogger (remember blogspot?) and Wordpress. At first they didn't even have comments. (Listen to more about blogging history in my interview with Darren Rowse!) Blogs were still personal and looked very different from other websites.
Over time, blogs became more professional and polished as people realized they could make money blogging. Blogs moved toward looking more like sites and sounding more formal, rather than the impersonal journal style posts that really started blogs. They were more like a magazine in look and feel.
Maybe TOO much so, which I think is why things are shifting a bit more back to be more personal. (At least, that's what Paula Rollo tells me. And what I'm seeing as well.) I love finding a blog with a strong, personal voice paired with great visuals and navigation and all those user-experience elements you expect from a nice site.
If you want to take a look at my journey (minus the blog I accidentally deleted), you can find I Still Hate Pickles, my first foray into really writing a blog, and then Kirsten Oliphant, my lifestyle blog I still update. Not as much since I got passionate about writing here, but I don't think I'll ever stop the more personal lifestyle/parenting blog.
What has been YOUR blog journey? Do you struggle with the balance of writing for yourself and writing for your audience? Leave a comment below!
