Cup weekend a year ago was when I started blogging. Why? Mainly, it was desperation to get my stuff out there and read.
Partly, it was talking to somebody I respected who suggested that I be less snooty about the new media. That the new technology could be really good for writers because we were no longer entirely dependent on the whims of publishing houses and newspaper editors.
Partly, it was in response to nice people asking me where they could read more of my stuff.
Partly, it was having seen the movie Julie and Julia and wondering if I could pull off the same trick. For those who haven’t seen the film or read the book, they tell the story of Julie, an American who spends a year cooking her way through the recipes of culinary legend Julia Child and blogging about it. A few weeks in, she writes plaintively ‘Is anybody out there?’ And then her blog takes off. She has hundreds, thousands of readers, she turns it into a best-selling book, there’s a movie…
Did I really think this would happen to me? No, but I was hoping for a slowly increasing audience.
A year on, the best thing my blog has done for me is provide a regular deadline. It has forced me to write something most weeks. Since last November I have posted 40 times, and I might not have done that if I didn’t have an outlet, if I hadn’t had the sense that I didn’t want to disappoint the fans.
The fans, such as they are, have been modest. Readers are lovely, and tell me they appreciate what I put out there, but they are mostly my friends and family. Who I appreciate no end, but I was kinda hoping to broaden my audience.
The most ‘unique visitors’ I have had in one day has been 42; the same day there were 93 pages viewed. Generally, when I put a post up, I get about 35 unique visitors. Which, in terms of blogs, is probably pretty pathetic.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I don’t facebook or twitter, and I have been told that’s the way to publicise a blog. I’ve also been told I need to have a more focused blog – one that has a clearer, less diverse topic.
Maybe there’s limited interest in my reflections on my middle-aged, middle-class life, on trying to find depth and meaning in a largely fraught and superficial world. And I guess there is a limit to the number of blogs out there in cyberspace that people want to read. I don’t read anyone else’s blog – why should I expect anyone to read mine?
Maybe the writing is too old school: too long-winded, not chatty or cool enough. The times I have repeatedly tried to get posts on other blogs, I have had no luck, and great difficulty working out quite what they wanted. Their feedback was polite and even encouraging, but just didn’t make sense to me.
Maybe, the writing’s just not good enough.
So, will I stop the experiment, now that I’ve completed 12 months and it hasn’t exactly taken off? I don’t think so. The blog makes me write more, and that’s gotta be a good thing - for me at any rate. I love the discipline of weekly writing. I appreciate hugely the people who bother to read my blog – thank you, and keep doing it if you can bear to. I would love to have a lot more readers – tell anyone you think might be interested to have a look.
I’ll keep at it, and see how it goes.