Recently I’ve seen comments about blogging being ‘dead’. That no one does it any more.
It’s true that I’ve noticed that many of the blogs I am subscribed to have, in large part, gone dormant. There are still a few that post once in a while but I seem to be…addicted…to jumping onto blogspot and sharing my thoughts, sometimes daily.
I find the format of the blog useful for a number of things.
The format is such that I can explain in some detail (when necessary) what I am trying to convey and add photos to illustrate my point.
Twitter and Instagram are perhaps more visible these days, but neither lends itself to anything more than a few sentences of text.
Since it is my platform, I can feel free to choose the topic du jour, be as brief or detailed as I like. There is no editor (which can be bad) to re-write what I want to say or tell me I can’t say it (again, can be bad!)
Blogging has been helpful to me in terms of keeping my writing chops in practice for the most part. I also feel that it is a way for me to share my knowledge without expectation of getting paid. One reason I haven’t gone to a patreon format is that I don’t like the expectation of product. When I’m not feeling well or travelling, I don’t want that expectation to become further stress.
I can share and promote the works of others who I feel are helpful/useful.
This blog has allowed me to promote the things I DO expect to get paid for – teaching workshops, my self-published items, my actual weaving. Fellow weavers have been my best customers for my publications, of course, because they are my target audience. But they have also been good customers of my textiles, which kind of surprised me until I realized my tea towel collection is all (pretty much) woven by my friends. I think of each of them every time I grab their tea towel and it’s a lovely feeling of connection across the miles.
I have also used the blog at times to express my frustration with my on going health issues and I have appreciated the emotional support provided by you, dear reader, as I wend my way through the health care system and deal with an aging body.
So basically I guess I’m saying that I’m not dead and neither are my blogging days. Thank you for coming to my TED talk! 😀