WINTER 2014 || I BLOG FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE

Earlier this month I had a chance to catch up with two gorgeous people I usually only visit online. Aside from one noisy social event where...


Earlier this month I had a chance to catch up with two gorgeous people I usually only visit online. Aside from one noisy social event where I had to steal away early, it’s been years since I’ve seen either face to face. One was a flat mate from my uni days: a woman who has known me for more than 20 years and long before we’d both met our respective partners, grown our families and thrown ourselves at our respective careers. The other knows me only through my blog and hasn’t known me that long. Hell, she doesn’t really know me at all, but she’s my kinda gal and, well, let’s just say, I love her work.

Both are savvy digital storytellers – one a closet blogger, though I am yet to find her secret stash of posts (I am pretty sure they’re out there) and one a lapsed blogger. Both asked why I still blogged.

It’s a freakin’ good question, a question I’ve been chewing over for probably a year or more. Yet, it was these offline conversations about blogging that helped illuminate the answer.

I blog for my own freakin’ self.

It’s true. I am my blog’s audience – and an audience of one it may well be.

I bow down to the master blogger and because I manage and pitch content for online audiences professionally, I know what a big job it is. But that is my job and my blog is not my job. No sir, I got no time for that. I have a job and I don’t need another one. Neither do I have aspirations to turn my blog into a chore. I turn away every offer of product – why I am even offered it I have no idea. Let me just say now, to every product marketer, my PIs, let alone UBs are woeful. Don’t even bother.

I blog for me.

When I redesign a header, or buttons for a side bar, I do it because I like how it looks. When I take photos for a post, they’re photos I love and am proud of. When I write, I am writing and editing for my own pleasure – away from copywriting pressures and statistical accuracies and stakeholders that need their fair representation. When I roll through my posts, I am quietly pleased at what I see. If someone else likes it too and stops for a moment to craft a comment, I am overjoyed at the connection. There are no trolls, there are no calendars or schedules of content. I craft and create and write when the mood takes me. This blog is my digital room of one’s own.

As narcissistic as it sounds, it's a blog about me: a wicked stepmother to four; a Girl Guide leader; a woman who can (easily) be bribed with Violet Crumble.

It’s also for me: an op-shopping Nana Crackers to one (with one due any day); a work-a-holic storyteller with an eye on the world; a woman happy in her garden, knitting or baking.

Hello me.

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