Lately, there have been a number of blog posts floating around on the topic of, well….blogging and traffic. Some claim they blog as an outlet to get stuff off their chest, some just like to write, some are hard core and want people to come clambering to their site so they can eventually sell you something. All are valid reasons to write blog posts, or what is considered blogging. But let’s be honest here, if you tell me you’re writing and don’t care about traffic, I don’t believe you!

TRUTH!

The only reason anyone puts something out on the NET is to get attention, traffic, and readers, saying anything otherwise, you’re not telling the truth, nothing but the truth. Most of us blog because we feel we have control over something, we rarely have control if you have a Boss, period, the Boss has control not you. So that one is out of the way.

PRAISE!

I have come to the conclusion that, we blog with the hopes of something better is going to happen in our lives. Better could be something as simple as having many people come to read your writing, say nice things about it, praise you and your efforts, and even encourage you to write more often. That would be enough for some wouldn’t it?

COMMENTS!

Something changed in the blogosphere over the past couple years me thinks. Commenting on blogs happened more frequently in the past, but today those comments are no longer static, they have become Tweets and Updates on Social Networks. Suddenly, you feel empty, left behind, even forgotten. Frustrated might be a better word, you did nothing wrong, you kept writing and responding to comments, but people stopped leaving comments, and took them elsewhere, thinking you would come along with them. That didn’t happen did it, you didn’t want to go where the comments went, you want to stay at home on your home base, your blog.

BLOGGING!

I write about the Future Of Business as I see it, as my research reveals it to me, and I put it all here on this blog, I like that. I like it when I see the light-bulb come on when you read what I have posted, when you comment and share how you feel about a particular thing I’ve shared. It’s awesome! But do you think blogging is becoming a lost art? There are many new ways to share your thoughts, Google+, Tumblr and so on. These canned, easy to you use systems are making blogging something of a has been, blogging suddenly is becoming hard work. I don’t mind hard work, but I like to work smart too!

The truth is, I see blogging as a great place to build personal brand, even if these other systems are easier, at least here on a self-hosted blog, you can shift gears easily, you don not have the same limitations canned systems have, you can only do what they let you do. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

TRAFFIC!

I said it earlier under TRUTH! If you are putting anything out here on the Internet, you are looking for attention, traffic, and to some degree, validation. Why? Because we don’t get it in places we thought we would. Father’s go to their day jobs everyday, the people they work with say how smart he is, or she, only to come home and discover they don’t know anything. The kids think you are old and stupid, could never understand, yadda, yadda, yadda. You know it’s true, your boss thinks you are lazy, or stupid, and so on, even our Mother & Father’s did that, and we can’t figure out why we aren’t happy all the time! What do we do?

We start going to places where people like us, people who want to be with us, who say the most ego stroking great things about us and to us, and we want more of them to come everyday. It’s about traffic baby, and lots of it, especially when they pump you up to a smart, intelligent, good looking person….who wouldn’t! We get attention, and more people come because of that attention, attention brings more people, more traffic. But is that a healthy place to be, getting that kind of attention out of an insecurity, or maybe even a false sense of security.

The truth is, we do things to get attention whether we are aware of it or not, and we want that attention to come in the form of traffic when it comes to our blog, it validates us. It gives us confidence, and that confidence makes us feel incredibly good.

LOVE!

This is the real reason we do what we do on the Internet, in our churches, with our friends, and with each other here online, we want to feel loved. We want to belong to something that validates our feelings and thoughts, and I can tell you this, you will never have success in life or in business without people, like-minded people who love what you do because they to like to do it, they may even want to do it with you. Work together, what a concept!

RISK!

Knowing the TRUTH, getting the PRAISE, getting the COMMENTS, means you continue to do the BLOGGING, to get the TRAFFIC, means you feel the LOVE! We have taken something very intimate, very personal, and handed it over to you on the Internet, we have taken a RISK many of us don’t do with our closest friends. Some of us RISK everything to acquire all the above, with the hopes someone finds value in it, and the best place to put your personal brand is on your Blog. It’s where you feel at home, and I hope you feel at home here on owengreaves.com, I open my home to you, come on in. A RISK worth taking, because you are worth it, even if you feel you aren’t.

The blogosphere is changing, and I hope for the better, afterall, the blogosphere is a very tender place, we are very attached to our personal brand. We want great things from the effort we put into our blogs, and we need to think out loud sometimes, like I am today. I’m here because I believe I have the gift of helps, I only want to help, and if that help provides a living financially, then I know I helped enough people get what they want.

Mostly, I’m here to make you think, to help create new ideas for your business, and those ideas come from knowing what I share here, The Future of Business, what I see and what the world is showing me…I’m just sharing and offering to help. I had to share, why? Because I was thinking again, sorry : )

What do you think, I’m I speaking your truth, or mine only?

MANY BLESSINGS MY FRIENDS!