To Blog Or Not To Blog

Over the last few weeks, my life has slowly been overtaken by blogs. Once a week I write something here to keep Sariah from sending over the Three Nephites (or their close cousins) to rough me up. Then I have my alter ego gig. Then Robby Nichols at Covenant asked me to help out at an LDS reseller convention by talking about blogs. Finally I have been working my tail off on my Farworld Blog Tour.

So the other day my sister gave a deep sigh and asked me something like, “With my new book coming out, I’m supposed to start a blog. What do you recommend?”

I asked her, “Do you want to do a blog?”

She said, “No. I really don’t.”

My insightful, blog experienced, marketing savvy answer was, “Then don’t.”

Could be I’m just a little burned out on blogs at the moment. It could even be the word blog has lost all meaning for me. Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog. See what I mean? It kind of starts to sound like a digestive act Kerry talked about on Friday. It certainly doesn’t sound like anything you discuss at the dinner table.

But I think my answer was and is, really how I feel about almost any marketing activity. Don’t do it unless you want to. And understand what you hope to get out of it.

I recently heard a speaker describe initiative not as what you do the first time out, but what you continue to do afterward. Here’s the thing. If you don’t blog, no one is really going to miss it. They’ll check your website, realize you don’t have a blog, and move on. It’s not that big a deal. But once you start a blog, you built up a certain level of expectation. It’s like making friends. There is an understanding that you’ll stay in touch. By my analogy then, starting a blog you don’t want to do is like making friends with someone you really don’t like. (Say, Rob, for example.) What are the chances of keeping the friendship or the blog going if you don’t like it? Not so good. And it’s better to have no blog than a dusty thing that sits in the corner.

Of course, just like writing, a blog does not have to be a commercial venture. You can keep a blog as a sort of journal. You can use a blog to tell family and friends what you’ve been up to. You can use it to share information you know about hobbies or interests. You can use it to make new friends. In fact, I would go so far as to say, even if your primary goal is to sell books, or rakes, or juggling knives, you won’t keep the blog up unless you really come to at very least like what you are writing about and who you are writing to.

The first thing you have to figure out is why you are blogging. As someone who is heavy into marketing, I spend a ton of time visiting other sites, checking tools like technorati, marketleap, and statcounter. I decide what kinds of things to blog about. I decide when to post my best blogs. I trade links. I check my referral sources. Essentially I treat it like a business. I love it, but I still work at it.

But why do all that if you’re just looking to stay in touch with friends? Why worry about how many hits you’re getting if you posting about Timmy’s first words? Isn’t that kind of like worrying about whether your diary will become a best seller? Have fun with it. Post when you want to and enjoy what you are writing about. If posting regularly becomes a drag, team up with some friends so you can all carry some of the weight (and make fun of each other.)

The same thing goes for all these networking sites: Facebook, MySpace, Cre8buzz, or whatever. For the average LDS writer, the time you put into a networking site is not going to pay for itself. Not even close. If your sole goal is to make more money, spend your time writing the next book.

But if you are looking to make friends or stay in touch with friends, then stop treating it like a business (how many hits did I get? How high am I ranked? How many friends did I get today?) It’s just another thing to obsess over.

Blogging is great. I’ve made a ton of new friends. I’ve ordered far too many new books. I’ve hopefully done a pretty good job of promoting my new book. But don’t do it unless you really want to. There are enough things we have to do in life. Spend the time you have free on the things you like.