I love unique blogs full of exuberance, creativity and pure authentic passion. Blogs that feel like snack food for the soul. Blogs that don’t make me feel like my only purpose as a reader is to bump up the numbers at a vampire fest. I logged on today to learn from some of the world’s top pro-bloggers and ended up feeling like the poster child for how not to blog. A few of my crimes?
- I use the word ‘I’ more than ‘you’.
- I write about myself, my home and my family – one blogger called this “egocentritis”.
- My favoured format isn’t daily How To… lists or Top 10 anythings.
- My posts are so long they’d land me in blogging jail if there was such a place.
- Even my short posts aren’t easily scannable by folk who like to whizz through dozens of posts a day.
- My post titles aren’t written with search engines in mind.
- I still think of you as a reader, not ’traffic’ that needs to be ‘driven’ somewhere.
- I haven’t stuck to one niche.
That’s why I was delighted to come across today’s Daily Mmmm… while I was doing what I call synchronicitous surfing, letting my natural curiosity take me from one link to another for the length of time it takes to drink a coffee.
A couple of curious clicks led me to a Dutch blog by a stay at home mum and part time teacher who makes little works of art, creative pieces rich in colour and detail. I love hand-made craft items that take time and love to create; in much the same way, I enjoy blog entries that aren’t just dashed off to feed the insatiable hunger of the search engines.
I smiled when I came across these wee hearts; they warmed mine on a cold autumn day full of low self-esteem, self-doubt and ranting frustration. I wrote to the artist and asked her for permission to use this photo; she replied, in English, within minutes and her warm, appreciative response made my day.
