Comments on: I Miss Personal Blogging

By: Brandice

Brandice — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:53:15 +0000

This phenomenon is why I think LiveJournal will never die, because THAT is where you can still emit stream of consciousness, from-the-heart, self-exposing emotional blog posts and control the audience. The more public my blog becomes, the more I post on LiveJournal when I want to share the things that I can’t have posted publicly (which I have to be really careful about, as a therapist). Current blogging is great for certain things, but my LJ contains the raw emotional stuff that I share with people I trust to handle my raw emotions more gently than complete strangers.

By: Chuck Reynolds

Chuck Reynolds — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:38:27 +0000

It’s gotten away from what blogging really was and I can’t say that I miss all of the personal crap, but I do miss the personal touch and voice that blogs used to have.

I think it’s nice to have a good mix and still pull your keywords/phrases for search.

By: Clintus

Clintus — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:04:08 +0000

I have been thinking about this exact thing latley. But for me its been about getting back to actually writing again vs doing everything in video. Writing is something that I can start and stop, do from my iPhone, or real quick from a public machine. Video takes so much more effort that I find myself not doing it half the time when I really do have something to say. I need to change a few things on my site and how I want to position it but I feel a big change coming for me…

By: Jamie Sanford

Jamie Sanford — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:01:10 +0000

I completely changed what I was doing with blogging in order to focus on topics that were important to me in the professional realm. However, I am unable to fight posting personal stuff on that blog too, because it’s MY space to write. So I write about some marketing stuff and things on the internet that interest me, but I’ve also written blog posts recently about my grandmother being one of my closest friends and another about guilty pleasures, both of which have nothing to do with my professional goals. I think that everyone needs to find a happy medium when wanting to blog about different topics, or find another space to write about things they would like to express but not so publicly.

By: Francis Wooby

Francis Wooby — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:47:40 +0000

Initially I was caught up in the euphoria about “business” and “personal” meshing in this new, social media space. And although I still think recent technologies have injected wonderful elements like informality, clarity and transparency into official channels of communication, I’m no longer so sure that the content is evolving as well–at least not as much as some speculated at the outset.

Yes, we do associate individuals with brands more than before (e.g., Scott Monty of Ford), but do we really care that much about those people’s personal lives? It’s nice to have a face and name attached to the information, but the information I’m interested in is still about Ford.

Further, as you mentioned, sometimes it’s just not prudent to broadcast your personal takes on matters because they’re being read by more and more people, and could inadvertently damage your reputation.

Thus you have two factors:
1. people expecting official, business related content on social media channels; and,
2. content producers growing more aware and wary of exposing their personal expressions online

I feel that they both contribute to the waning (or increased hiding) of personal online content.

I just don’t see as much mixing of business with pleasure as I thought I might have by now.

It’s not a bad thing, necessarily. It just tells me that the dividing line between professional and personal is thicker, and possibly more needed, than I assumed.

By: Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Daniel Johnson, Jr. — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:18:40 +0000

I started the Journey Inside My Mind back in January 2002 to be a personal journal and collection of things I’d found on the internet. Over the past 7 years, I have gotten VERY raw and emotional, as I hashed through some things I’ve had to deal with.

In 2005, I began podcasting and my blogging slowed down a bit. In 2006, Twitter came along, and I realized that much of what I blogged about now was able to be put up on Twitter. With Twitter Tools, I’m not able to archive these posts on my blog each day.

Most who have read my blog or who connect with me online have said that it’s this personal authenticity that attracts them.

By: The personal touch in blogging. « Steven Buehler

The personal touch in blogging. « Steven Buehler — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:27:18 +0000

[...] dad” and family guy. Both the business and personal sides come together in his blog. But he seems to miss just reading about what’s going on in the lives of people. Quoting from his blog: But, I [...]

By: Akoha and Fighting For The Personal Touch Online : Ewan Spence’s All New Musings.

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:07:09 +0000

[...] first point, and one I can link to, is CC Chapman asking where all the personal blog posts have gone: I’ve had to change how I blog a little bit. As more people began reading my ramblings I [...]

By: Christopher S. Penn

Christopher S. Penn — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:52:39 +0000

Personal blogging assumes that you have a personal life that’s worthy of public attention. My personal life is deeply boring* by design and what isn’t boring isn’t for public consumption or Google to rehash decades later. There’s a lot that goes on outside of my personal blog – just not for the general public to see.

* deeply boring = no drama, catastrophes, etc.

By: Sherri

Sherri — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:58:10 +0000

I’m right in the middle of personal blogging and I love it for all the reasons you mentioned.

I have met some fascinating people and have made some strong friendships while learning about myself and being educated on a wide variety of subjects in the meantime.

Yours was one one the very first sites I visited back in August before I knew this “world” even existed.

I still think you do a good job of bringing a personal touch to your posts.

By: C.C.

C.C. — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:37:16 +0000

Don’t get me wrong there are still plenty of people out there doing it, but I remember when it was the norm rather then the exception.

By: Dale Cruse

Dale Cruse — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:24:08 +0000

There’s still Dooce. Heather entertains me more than 99% of personal blogs anyway.

By: Matthew Ebel

Matthew Ebel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:45:40 +0000

Allow me to introduce you to the magic of WordPress Categories. By using the checkboxes, you can list things in the “personal” or “new media” or whatever categories. Once that’s done, you can tell WP to reformat specific posts based on their category (or, if you want, separate the categories into their own pages).

It doesn’t force you to pick one or the other, you can post content that fits both. But at the end of the day, you can make it so your readers know which posts are “blog” content and which are “business” content.

Of course, if you’d rather just inject some personal stuff into your everyday posts, that works too. Lord knows we all need to speak about our whole lives, not just the professional side.

Pax,
Matthew

By: Tam

Tam — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:28:10 +0000

I have two blogs now. My old school one, which is a little too raw for public consumption and is hidden from search engines, and a more public one that I advertise all the time. I blog with a bit more care on the public one, but it is still very personal.

I’ll always be a “cheese sandwich” blogger and if I don’t get any traffic, that’s perfectly OK. I don’t really blog for the masses anyway.

By: Peter Kim

Peter Kim — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:07:40 +0000

Wait, I’m supposed to be writing posts with SEO in mind?

By: Juho

Juho — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:47:12 +0000

Yeah you’re right about that. When you start getting more readers you easily start wondering how wise is it to be completely transparent, and so on.

But the truth is, the blogs that I *really* still follow and read, all have a very personal component to them, one way or another…