[A BLOGGER’S LIFE] Beyond Comments, Likes & Followers// HOW TO SHAKE THE POPULARITY COMPLEX//

Blogging comes with its own set of anxieties. You start a blog, you write that first post – which you think is immaculately written, by the way – you hit publish, and then NADA. You may as well be screaming into the void!

No one comments back.
No one likes your post.
No one even visits your blog.

And then you start to feel let down by your own genius – “Maybe my thoughts aren’t worth that much.”

Now, it’s only natural to want people to read your content. We crave comments not because they make us seem popular but because they validate our ideas, our thoughts and that’s something even the most talented and seemingly indifferent writers want.

But what makes them different from YOU is that although they WANT that, they don’t necessarily construct their content around that desire!!

Face it, we see a popular blog writing amazing posts and people commenting back and forth and WE WANT THAT. We all want that. AND THAT’S GOOOOOOD!!

I believe you actually should take steps to promote your blog, to make friends in the blogging community to ensure that your content is being read BUT what we fail to realize is that when this necessity becomes an obsession, that’s when the quality of our writing starts degrading. Because then we just write whatever will get us comments, whatever gets us reblogs and mentions and all sorts. Now, all that is fun and should be participated in WITHOUT IT REACHING THE POINT WHERE IT BECOMES YOUR SOLE PURPOSE BEHIND WRITING.

And I am totally speaking from personal experience.

Before starting this little beauty I wrote on a different platform, still a blog of sorts. It was my first experience of watching other people engaged in meaningful and deep conversations and I wanted that badly.
So I would do research on the most famous blogs and would write in accordance with what they were preaching, what their ideas were. I didn’t realize that they were saying what was on THEIR MINDS! It was their personal opinion. It was something that THEY felt really STRONGLY about. AND THAT’S WHAT GAVE THEIR POSTS SUCH MEANING AND POWER!

I, on the other hand, was just faking an interest in similar topics and needless to say, THE QUALITY OF MY POSTS WAS ABSOLUTE TRASH. Well, okay not TRASH, but it wasn’t something that even I myself would want to read. Because I didn’t feel THAT strongly about it. AND THE READERS MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE – 

I still kept on doing it (I don’t know what THE FUCK I was even hoping for) until there came a time when I ultimately tired my mind of forcing it to write on topics that just weren’t my forte. I wasn’t well opinionated about them and naturally, that led to a decline of that blog.

I started this one, however, with a pledge that I will only write what I REALLY WANT to write about and I will not let myself be WRONGLY influenced by the popularity in the blogosphere. Don’t misunderstand me, some posts are so immaculately written that they force me to think, form opinions of my own on that topic, and ultimately generate ideas related to it. Now THAT’S healthy. But writing something just for the sake of popularity is a race that would never win you accolades and certainly not loyal and happy followers.

That’s my promise to you!

The blogging community is rich with beautiful and well-structured ideas and you will always find something to inspire you, to actually make you THINK. And that’s what good content should inevitably do. It should either entertain you, make you feel happy, or it should make you think hard and true about something, or sometimes both.

But you should NEVER sway from your preferred path and change the whole identity of your thought system just for the sake of experiencing the thrill of being someone who writes about topics that, even though are totally out of your area of expertise or opinions, gets you comments or followers.

That being said, I would still like to encourage each and every one of you to go out there and introduce yourself to all these other absolutely lovely human beings and their beautiful blogs because every writer, even someone who has a HUGE bank of knowledge and genius that would fade Mark Twain in comparison, needs readers who can make sense of what he writes. Because in the end, a post, although a piece of mind of the writer, is worth what readers make of it, and what they get out of it. Could be more than that but it’s CERTAINLY NOTHING LESS!

So, GO WRITE POSTS THAT YOU WANT TO WRITE, ON THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT! Be inspired by other people. Think hard and true and THEN go and promote what you write and it’s my promise to you that there will be many, many readers who will resonate with what you wrote.

LOOK AT THIS HANDSOME BASTARD!!! ❤ ❤  *heart eyes*

Attract YOUR kind of audience by writing YOUR kind of posts. THAT’S the way to win those loyal followers and commenters. 😉