Specifically I am talking about drawing the line between business and personal blogging. I originally started this blog as a way of sharing more of my plush creatures and telling stories about what they get up to while they wait for someone to liberate them from my shop. I let it lie dormant for quite some time and then I resurrected it by adding in my 2 other Etsy shops and writing about all my different creative projects and creations.
In the past few months I have been doing more online courses and a current one, Unravelling, has really made me think about sharing a bit more of myself with the world. I woudl like to create a sort of personal journal on a blog, where I write a bit about what is going on in my world (and my head!), and hopefully connecting a bit more with others. Now, here is the question - does that fit with this generally rather light-hearted blog or should I start a completely new one? Do you, the readers, want to read about the adventures of the 365 Scientist followed by my anxieties or worries on body image for example?
Also, just how personal do I want to get when people can see who I am? I would feel more comfortable blogging anonymously about such things - I don't want people to connect my fun toys with a person talking about sadder things, and I don't want to accidentally offend anyone who actually knows me in real life.
There is also the question of how to gain any readers and followers of a new and personal blog - I would feel disheartened at talking online pretty much to myself, and can't connect with followers I already have if I want to be anonymous - aaaggghhhh!
I would love some knowledge from anyone who writes a personal blog, or who mixes personal and business successfully.
Thanks for reading this post even though there is only one picture and lots of my ramblings!!
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4 comments:
@fur will fly Thanks for your comment on my post! I do tend to take my pictures on the overblown side. I like to open the aperture right up inside, which gives me problems with focus sometimes, but it brings in so much light. I don't like to increase my ISO too much because of noise, and since the little one moves so much, slower shutter speeds would give me even more blur than I already get. So aperture it is... I also try to catch perspectives that include lots of angles and contrasting colors. But if all else fails, I do alter them a bit by upping the exposure to where it's bright like I wanted it (I only shoot in raw, so this isn't a big deal).
To answer your question in your post, I think a personal blog isn't a bad idea to keep things separate AND give you more freedom to write your journal. As for creating a community, you want readers who can identify with you. I think the best thing to do would be to start connecting with others who keep more personal blogs. They will become your readers for that blog, and that will be good because they would be the right connections for that. Unravelling is a great place to do that, by the way. Maybe as you grow more comfortable, you could link the two up?
I used to keep a personal "motherhood" blog when my little one was an infant. In my blog now, I try to keep my truly personal things out, although I share things about my daughter sometimes. Even so, the audience is totally different and I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing what I used to in the other blog.
HTH and cheers!
i recently read an article about being conscious of your "bloggers voice" ... basically, if your most personal posts are primarily sad/bitchy/paranoid/woe-is-me, then people will naturally assume that's who you are. obviously, we all have these insecurities (some more often than others), but there's much more to us than that.
so it's all about balance. if you want to talk about those things here, make sure you balance them with "feel good" personal posts. obviously most of your posts now are "feel good" but like you said, many of them are light & don't necessarily let us get to know YOU (some of the recent ones on your growth as an artist certainly have though).
going anonymous is the safe way out - your choice. but again, if there isn't that balance, people might not want to read sad, sad, sad all the time. you could certainly promote it the same way you would your blog/shop: set up an anonymous twitter/facebook/whatever ... just lots more work. :)
Thanks so much to both of you for your replies - much to think about there! I guess maybe if I started to share a little more of my creative and personal side on this blog at first then I could see where that leads. And yes, it is all about getting more comfortable with sharing more of me, and getting the 'bloggers voice' right.
I will explore some more blogs and see how others manage to mix the 2.
Thanks again - I really appreciate your answers.
I think it's important to open up a little bit. It helps readers connect the bubbly part of you to the quirkiness of your plush. Or, if you were a dark, emo, sarcastic person and your plush was more along the lines of Tim Burtonesque it would help them to see that you're not being a poser, that's just how you think and view the world.
Personal triumphs or pitfalls throughout the day are appropriate in my opinion. Funny stories, especially if they inspire a new creation, are excellent. But for posts such as weight woes, road rage, and "why oh why did the kids get into this AGAIN!" should probably be posted on a personal blog.
There is certainly a line where business and personal life can be too intertwined but I feel it's key to know the artist at least a bit to understand the artwork. It helps fans better appreciate the work you do.
By the way, an excellent blog that is this woman's work but still gurgles over with her personality is Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. You can feel the type of person she is, you get to know more about her, but in the end she always delivers her work (in this case, awesome recipes). Worth checking out, even if you're not into cooking, simply to see how she blends the line.
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