Blogging, People Pleasing, and Fitting In

We all want our blogs to be read. We want our posts to be liked, tweeted and shared. To achieve that, there’s all these blog tips out there. And that’s great. It really is. But you should never feel too bad if you’re not doing one of them because it just doesn’t work for you.

You see, we want our blogs to fit in. We want them to be successful, and we want readers. It’s not bad to want that. Sometimes, though, I think we get way too caught up in that stuff – myself included. We are always trying to people please – design a certain way, blog a certain way, all for more readers.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a BAD thing. You want to have a nice design so people will stick around. It’s not bad to do any of those things, but you shouldn’t feel like you’re not a cool blogger if you don’t.

Blogging can be like wanting to be popular in school, sometimes. You want to take care of your blog (like you would yourself) and such, but if it’s not always the most popular, that’s okay. You don’t have to use every strategy.

It is YOUR blog. Trust in God. He has a plan for you and your blog, and He will not forget about it. Sometimes it can be discouraging, but know that God has greater things coming for you.

Also, be yourself regardless. Write about what YOU want. Don’t do what everyone else is doing just to look cool. If you get an idea for a post, or if there’s a post you saw that you’d like to write, too, that’s different. That’s awesome – go for it. I’m just talking about if you purposely write about what all of the “big bloggers” are writing about because you think it will help your blog. The right readers are going to read your blog for YOU. That is what makes blogging special – we all have different interests, we all have different writing styles, we all have different thoughts, etc., and that is what will make your blog special. Like I said, God has a plan for you. If you be yourself (the you that you are in Him, of course), then He will send the right people to your blog.

I’m also not saying to never use blogging strategies. Heck, I use them all the time because they do help my blog. I’ve WROTE about blogging strategies. They are not bad, what’s bad is when you feel pressured to do them because that is what you think will make you “cool”.

It’s like fashion trends. Is it okay not to want to be in on what’s hot right now? Absolutely. It shouldn’t make you any less cooler, because it just means that the certain trend wasn’t your style and didn’t work for you. On the other hand, if you DO get involved with the trends, is that bad? No! If you like one of the current trends, then go ahead and get into it. But does that mean you are “cooler” than those who don’t have the trend? No, it doesn’t.

Blogging and lots of things in life are about finding what works best for you. Let’s not set “cool” guidelines, let’s just help each other out instead and be a light for God. I think the world would be a much better place if we did that.