Comments on: BlogHer Comment Turned Post: Microfame & Jealousy

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:10:42 +0000

Hey! I am sure I saw your keynote then! The whole experience of BlogHer mooshes together in my mind. I was so tired much of the time!

I can respect the instinct to run away from the concept of being famous or having strangers pay attention to you. It makes a lot of sense.

I think of it as like, I have that personality, which I got from my mom, that makes me strike up conversations with people in grocery lines. But there are introverted bloggers too, while it seems like an oxymoron.

Thanks for stopping and commenting, I appreciate it!

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:55:21 +0000

This is great. And I think sometimes people get confused a little about what they want. I mean, if you are a writer and you have a product you are trying to sell, like if you have a book you’re self-publishing or you need to drive traffic for reasons like that, then yeah I guess you have to, I hate to say it, build your brand. I know a lot of RPG writers who do this and it’s organic and builds community.

But that’s a really small slice of people that need that. The rest of us are just making blogging a part of our everyday lives and might want to resist getting swept up in the drive for numbers.
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!

By: Nina

Nina — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:58:06 +0000

I have a very love-hate relationship with fame.
On the one hand, I really don’t like it and it frightens me. If I were to become famous, I’m fairly sure I would go into hiding and stop writing immediately because I would feel so blocked and paranoid.

On the other hand, I do want to be recognised for my worth (if there is any) and if my words make sense to someone other than me, then it’s as weird as it is wonderful. (I was one of the Keynote Speakers at BlogHer 09 and could not get over my astonishment when people would come up to me afterwards and say they liked what I wrote). I get only a handful of comments on each post, and generally that doesn’t bother me, even though there is a part of me that really likes being validated for what I long to do well.

I am with you though, I love to cultivate connections and the possibilities of relationship with others through mutual affinities/love of words. That was why I got into this internet thing in the first place.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:35:01 +0000

I found your blog via your comment on BlogHer. Your thoughts on microfame drove me here…so well put!

I have been blogging for 4+ years, with a hiatus. My current blog has very little in the way of commenters and the like, but I really don’t care about it the way I did when I was first blogging. I’m doing this for me–not an audience. My personal non-blog writing–that’s for an audience, a specific audience, but my blog is where I get to exercise my writing hand, as it were, while answering to no one but myself, and what I think is important at the moment.

The traffic, the stats, the number of comments mattered to me at first–it was instant validation! Years in, having dumped the old blog and started a new one, I’m much more satisfied with what I’ve got now.

By: … in a Bottle » Blog Archive » Too much information overload

… in a Bottle » Blog Archive » Too much information overload — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:06:35 +0000

[...] mentioned all this the other day when she talked about her audience and blog fame and it got me thinking. My Google reader is out of control. When I find a new blog, I scoop it up [...]

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:26:28 +0000

It has to do with my own purpose for blogging, which goes through changes but in the end boils down to something personal. I’m just not trying to sell anything.

By: Rob Donoghue

Rob Donoghue — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:30:08 +0000

Huh. So, I get this, but I have to think about it because I feel like it’s a slightly different lens than the one I view blogging through.

But you’re also making me thing more than I have time enough to write, so this may get followed up on another vector.

-Rob D.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:07:34 +0000

There is no question in my mind, it’s nice to have visitors and comments. If I said something worthy of dialogue or comment I am really pleased. Like this post for instance – I’m like, wow! I’m glad to hear people’s thoughts.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:05:30 +0000

My high school efforts were all focused on gaining social power in the underclass. So um, power to the unpopular bloggers! Or something.

Sadly, I barely went to college parties when I was in college.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:01:52 +0000

That sounds like a really good balance. It feels like you also don’t feel obligated to be anything but yourself in your blog, which I struggle with sometimes, I don’t say things I might like to say or it hampers my writing a bit when I worry.