WATERMARK

Mosaic by Niki Robinson

Lorelle
at WordPress published a
series
of posts recently on Personal Blogging, by guest blogger
Edrei Zahari. (You’ll find links to the
whole series at the bottom of each post; don’t neglect the comments.) In
response,
Damien
Riley confesses that "Personal blogging has
become my fixation," and points to
The
Online Diary History Project for some context.

I was pleased to see these, as I think this is a large — and largely overlooked
— segment of the blogging community. Most of the writing about blogging is
aimed at the probloggers — that is,
business bloggers (or meta-bloggers) who are blogging for money. Most of the
mainstream media attention goes to political bloggers, who blog about power, and
may make a bit of money while they do so (or not.)

Problogger seems a completely
appropriate name for these folks; a melding of
professional and
blogger.

From
The
Free Dictionary:

    pro·fes·sion·al  (pr-fsh-nl)
    adj.
    1.
        a. Of, relating to, engaged in, or suitable for a profession: lawyers, doctors, and other professional people.
        b. Conforming to the standards of a profession: professional behavior.
    2. Engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career: a professional writer.
    3. Performed by persons receiving pay: professional football.
    4. Having or showing great skill; expert: a professional repair job.

n.
    1. A person following a profession, especially a learned profession.
    2. One who earns a living in a given or implied occupation: hired a professional to decorate the house.
    3. A skilled practitioner; an expert.

Then we have:

    am·a·teur  (m-tûr, -tr, -chr, -chr, -tyr)
    n.
    1. A person who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession.
    2. Sports
An athlete who has never accepted money, or who accepts money under
restrictions specified by a regulatory body, for participating in a
competition.
    3. One lacking the skill of a professional, as in an art.

adj.
    1. Of or performed by an amateur.
    2. Made up of amateurs: an amateur cast.
    3. Not professional; unskillful.

Except
in sports, where it’s understood that amateur status merely precedes
the professional (or the Olympics) this word has become a bit of a
put-down:

ama·teur·ism n.
    Synonyms: amateur, dabbler, dilettante

But let’s not forget from whence it came:

  [French, from Latin amtor, lover, from amre, to love.]

So what of those — we amateurs — who
blog for the love of it; who are not dabblers or dilettantes; who work hard to
acquire the skills and expertise to write
well, and blog well; but do not put ads on our blogs, and are not paid for our
efforts? Who blog for fun (not profit); for family and friends
and interested strangers; for the joys
and pleasures of creating something useful, or entertaining, or beautiful. Or
even, goddess willing, all three.

We, and our blogs, rest somewhere between the personal diaries and friendship
communities where relationships are key for both writers and readers; where
content matters because of who creates it, rather than how well it is presented
— and those business/ professional blogs that are written consultant to client,
or service to consumer, or proselytizer to converts and prospects.

We — those of us in this undefined, middle ground — may not be sure what we
are doing, or what we are making; but we are not unprofessional. We are not
unskillful.

To the extent we read advice about blogging aimed at probloggers, we both
increase our expertise, and become more confused. Much of the advice, about ad
placement and
SEO
and professional networking — and even design — seems irrelevant — or at
least, we wish it were. We hope it is.

We just want people who might like us to find us.

I read these blogs:
ProBlogger,
Lorelle,
Rebecca
Blood,
Burningbird,
molly.com,
The
Blog Herald (and many others – check the
Blogging & Tech folder in
my
Bloglines) and have from the beginning, because I’m one of those compulsive
folks who want to do it right.

It’s always been a push-pull for me, though, because I also read the kind of
blog (if there is such a kind) that I write: no particular niche, no hope of
making money, just a bit of whimsy and a bit of depth. An attempt to reach some
balance of such on the blog, and in my life.

It’s an odd thing. On pro-blogs, humor is allowed; serious is allowed; depth is
allowed — but whimsy is discouraged. Firmly. Discouraged.

But for me — and for many of the bloggers I read — that whimsy, that
silliness, that temptation to act out in whatever style suits us — seems to be
the engine, and the ignition, for our writing. Whether it’s pictures of our
cats, or widgets and badges, or ridiculous quizzes — we like them. We like to
share them. We like to pass them back and forth.

But we’re actually quite serious about what we do. We want our blogs to look
good, to work well, and to express what we present with some eloquence and
style.

Thus, the dilemma. Let’s see — should I be writing, or marketing? All this
whimsy slows loading — that’s bad. How will people know what to expect, when I
keep changing the subject? Gosh, my About
Page is all wrong. Do I really need to belong to all these social
networks to find readers? How many blog directories are there, anyway? What
category does Watermark
belong in?

I do believe this may be the introduction to a series of related posts. I’m even
considering reactivating
Blogging
Blog as a niche blog for my kind of blogger.

We shall see.

Is there something in particular you’d like me to talk about? What would you
have wanted to know when you began being a blogger?

Do you blog for the love of it? Because you can’t help yourself?

And if you don’t blog, why don’t you?

blogging

[The mosaic above was a gift from my friend Niki. She found the watercolor
reproduction in a book, and was inspired to make the frame. It’s my
favorite of all her mosaics.]