Most of the blogs I run across include photography. Blogging documents trips, family or friends’ gatherings, spotlights interests, conveys information, or displays creative talent.
I find that I compete with myself daily as a blogger. I check my statistics multiple times hoping that I have more visitors today than yesterday or my highest day. Why am I driven to do this, I wonder? The statistics gods seem to know that people like me click their little line graph like a cookie addict reaches for the fresh-baked snicker doodle that calls from the plate in the center of the table. I’m not trying to sell anything. Yet, the blog gods suggest what to do to get more visitors, suddenly my mind is screeching “Get More Views! Get More Views!”
So if I really want to be a successful (as defined by Getting More Views) blogger, what must I do? The best blogs usually have a theme. Highly viewed bloggers write about what they know best, and they are worth reading because readers know they will learn something about that subject. In the information line I see lots of travel blogs, and I’m not sure yet what sets the good apart from the great. Political, economics-related, and educational blogs are popular as well, but they don’t seem to show up in my reader. Hmmmm.
I enjoy conversational blogs. The topics vary greatly depending on each writer’s life. Folks write about their experiences with cancer, fishing, raising kids, eating sweets, shopping, or whatever consumes them for the moment. I enjoy getting acquainted with these people, but their viewometers don’t usually register at the viral level, unless they are about 18 and writing about music or sports that is already a viral topic on its own.
Other successful blogs may not have a specific theme, like travel or self-publishing, but they display quality product. Expert writing varies from humorous, thought-provoking, informative, surprising, emotional, or a stunning tapestry of description either in poetry or prose. Great photography, even just the “record shots” my dad took, requires an artistic eye. Photographs include primarily snapshots, and by that I mean unposed. However, photographers often stage the possibility of a photograph, where they position the camera on a tripod and wait for the right second when the bug walks on stage or the lightning flashes. Many take conversational photos, just snapping what strikes their fancy at the moment when they happened to be holding their camera. Other photographers’ skills lie in processing the photos layering and enhancing what they took to make something extraordinary. I think fewer people actually manipulate their photos once they are created because it takes a tremendous amount of time and knowledge.
My blog falls into the conversational category. My life experiences flit like a theme-less butterfly, streaming from thought to thought, from interest to interest, and from experiment to experiment. My photographs aren’t ugly or uninteresting, but I wouldn’t rank them as competitive either. The only constant is that I love to write, take pictures, dabble in processing, and hurry up and publish, so that I can see More Views. “Take More Pictures, Write More Words! Get More Views!” my head is bombarded with these burgeoning thoughts.
This blogging experiment caught me. I’ve turned from a butterfly into a fish, and I’m netted. I’m making friends in places I’ve never been, and learning skills I never had. I’m getting positive feedback – even from my husband and friends at home. And I even Got More Views than I ever thought possible the other day, when 100 people visited my site. WHOOPEE!!! I’m happy, happy, happy!!!!
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
18 responses to “Blog Thoughts”
Hi – I’ve had a very enjoyable stroll around your lively and entertaining blog. Following you now and looking forward to more of the same. Thank you.
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Thanks Lindsay, I’ll try to keep you entertained. I’m sort of dry right now after all the flurries created by Renee’s birthday party. That was amazing!!! So now it’s settle down and be funny again!!! hahaha 🙂 I’ll look forward to meeting you on your blog, too!!! 🙂 Marsha 🙂
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Marsha, this may be a random place to stop and say thanks, but it also seems the perfect place to say howdy. I’m glad you ventured up onto my porch and decided to sit a spell. I love when that happens, especially when I go to return the tin your cake came in and find another place like home. I’ll enjoy visiting with you and getting to know you. I’ll always leave the light on and have something fresh and cold or fresh and hot to drink. Just a word…I tend to swear a lot..a LOT…but as people get to know me, they come to realize I write the way I talk…I’m having a conversation. I know, my Mother hates it too, but I am who I am. Welcome to the porch, come back anytime. 🙂
Rhonda
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Thanks, what a nice thing to say. I appreciate the time you spent visiting, and we’ll go back and forth!
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Excellent post! You can tell how many views you are getting?! Oh dear, I better stay away from that! I still barely know how to work this whole wordpress dashboard thing. I just nip on it and quickly go to post section before I become too distracted. Your blog to me is a little story blog, snippets inspired by your life. Reading you is always a delight, and your style is so lucid, creative, humourous, and always laced with a vibrant positivity. I come here for the same reason I go to books (like an ambien (or insert other sleeping medication) moth to a buzzing incandescent bulb flickering)- to imbibe of a literary delight, to delight, to laugh, to learn and to experience- my addiction, my fix. I love your tribute to all the fascinating blogs out there. I am just as enamoured. Learning so much! I am grateful for your penning and accompanying photos. Your blog inspires me as I’ve bugled time and again.
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You are the amazing and inspiring one! Your comments make me feel invincible. SUPER WRITER, and then I read someone else’s writing – like yourself, for example, and think, “How could I write that well. I can’t even think such wonderful thoughts!” So it is, and that is what makes this adventure so wonderful – that people are so unique and each have their own perspective and their own talent. They learn and develop from melding their lives and ideas with others’. It is truly the wonder of human existence. And we are aided by this marvelous contraption that allows us to communicate with people all over the WORLD! And it even translates fairly accurately so that we can sort of understand people that don’t write in English. How awesome is THAT! I’m so glad we met and have had the opportunity to inspire each other.
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I think the very same thing when I read your blog! YES it is just astounding, communication spanning across continents, overcoming language barriers, delving into new worlds of thought, culture, ways of life….it is just blasted GROOVY! I am so grateful to have tottled onto your blog that night. We are friends well-met lass 🙂 Most indubitably!
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So now we both rush to the keyboard, think through our next masterpiece so that we can share and be entertained another day. I LOVE it!!! So write away, my friend, Write – I mean right away!!!!! I can’t wait to read your next briny post. Did I spell that right???
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YES! Oh I have a bully squirrel saga I am just beginning to form with you completely in mind as my ideal reader lass. I am soooo excited!
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youre very like me you’re just random!! Random is a great thing to be as it is never boring or predictable 😀
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Random, than’s me! I asked my husband the other day if I was predictable. As I predicted, I wasn’t. At least not totally. He THINKS he knows me, but…. Well he knows that I’m random.
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;-}
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funny how that is… I think I do some of the same. (I don’t even know what to write anymore…lol!) uh… good luck! haha!
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Thanks for the nice ”introspective” read! ‘I’ve turned from a butterfly into a fish’ is quite a line!
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Thanks! You have some interesting articles on your blog as well. Love the writer’s lair. What a gorgeous little place, and a great article. Then I saw that you recommended a friend for an award, so I had to stop reading and go congratulate her. I’ll be back. Thanks for visiting my site.
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Lovely comment – just writing a post, but will never only visit a blog only once that I liked. A good blog is something of a ”coming home” feeling. And that’s such a nice thought, the congratulating part.
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You are so right. A blog that I like is almost like an immediate friendship. It creates a bond.
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Thank you for those words. Very true.
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