Blogging: How Serious Are You?

I've spent a fair amount of time over the past few weeks perusing blogs and seeking as much information as I could get my hands on, for the sheer sake of borrowing creative genius. It seems that when it comes to blogging, we tend to fall into a particular category. I'm not just talking about the standard blogging genres, because I don't believe I 'fit' into any in that respect anyway; I blog about education, I blog about myself & I blog about odds and ends. Categorise me where you so desire. No, what I'm talking about is how seriously we take our blogging.

While I will stand by the fact that I began this particular blog because of hilarious writer's like Amalah, I wasn't doing so for fame or fortune of my own. If you have, for some bizarre reason, ever taken the time to go through my archives, you'll notice that for months I had practically no readers at all. Except for my Mother, bless her cotton socks. (And after reading back over some of the dribble that I came up with in 2006, I'm surprised that I have any readers at all right now. Completely cringe-worthy.) So blah blah, I didn't start this blog for popularity; it was more like a way of me writing every day, even if those days didn't contain anything newsworthy. Once I pick a challenge, I usually stick with it.

Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, I've made my fair share of blogging friends. In fact, when something of note happens, I tend to scramble for the keyboard to blog and/or email you all, because sharing with you seems equally important as sharing to the people who surround me in reality. (Ha, in reality. That makes you all sound like figments of my imagination. Hello? Are you really there?) In regards to what I write, the content itself is all over the place. I would like to say that I don't censor my writing for anybody, but that would be a lie. I'm very aware of who reads my blog. I'm very aware that I'm unaware of people who read my blog. And so I do keep things censored, and steer away from certain topics. Them's the breaks for not being anonymous, and for keeping things 'real'.

As you can see, I'm doing a wonderful job of my usual trick today; rambling on and getting off track. Just a few paragraphs ago, I was discussing the seriousness of blogging. But what exactly does that mean? I don't actually know. Let me have a stab at figuring this one out.

There are the popular bloggers; ones with an insane amount of readers, the ones that are common place on our blogrolls and are well-known amongst the rest of us. Then there are blogs who fall in the middle; they still value their blogs and take care of how they look, and are happy with their fabulous, if a little smaller circle of friends. (Of course, they always welcome new visitors, too.) And then there are blogs for people who just plain enjoy having their own space of the internet to call home, unconcerned with who reads them, how many comments their posts recieve and what their site statistics happen to be on a certain day. Which of these do you think you fall into?

I think for the time being, I'm an 'on the fence' blogger. I do secretly experience thrills of pride when I see myself on a new blogroll or when I make a new blogging friend, but if there suddenly became a rule where your current readership was frozen forever? I'd be happy with what I've got. As for my writing, well, I have my days. I'm happy enough posting a random quote from one of the kidlets one day, followed by a deep and meaningful post about the future the next. Nothing like a little variation, and besides - that's life. All over the place.

But does all that mumbo-jumbo make me serious about my blogging? I think it does.

I blog every day. Regardless of the content, I try to ensure that my posts contain good grammar. I use spell check before posting. I punctuate fairly well, if you ignore my overuse of commas and exclamation marks, but that's a story for another day. I enjoy recieving comments from readers who have enjoyed what I've posted about, or simply want to join in on the topic at hand. I'm fussy with my sidebar, and currently love my text-based template. Checking the blogs of my stalkeriffic friends is something I do daily.

Blogging is simply a part of my routine, including in my lunch breaks.

What are your thoughts? Do you think you are serious about blogging?

I know I'm seriously addicted, in any case. And wouldn't have it any other way.