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Well I don't know about other bloggers, but I am sure feeling like one. I've felt the hypocrisy creeping in as my blog grows but my hours in the day do not. The transition into this new stage of blogging is causing me some stress so I thought, why not blog about it?
When you first begin a blog, every comment is a gold coin to slip through the slot of your very empty piggy bank. You go back to the comment and read it just as a child revisits his bank to shake it and hear the coin rattle around or even jiggle it out to admire it and polish it up.
However, as the coins and comments accumulate, it becomes impossible to polish and respond to them all. Suddenly, the bank is just too heavy to shake, and planning how you will spend the money takes more of the child's time just as responding to all the comments takes away time from new posts and opportunities you want to pursue.
Here I am with a meager 70-100 visits a day, and I find myself bemoaning my hypocritical state as a blogger. I am asking people to read my blog, comment, share it with others, help me grow, participate, and yet I for the most part I will not be able to return the favor. I will not be able to read their blog, comment, or promote them.
At what point is a blogger exempt from responding to each and every comment and reading long lists of blogs? I still read several when I can, but not at all like I used to or want to. I try to promote a core group of friends, but I often fall short in that area, as well.
I guess it's similar to the dilemma of anyone climbing to the top in something. Young hopefuls go from door to door, and audition to audition hoping someone will listen. Finally, someone does and suddenly they find themselves needing a bodyguard to go out on a Friday night.
Okay, so maybe that's a crazy comparison, but you get the idea. I love my readers and want to show them how much I appreciate them and hear them as they share from their lives, but I have to earn something if I am to keep this blogging thing up, and that means less time commenting and more time on the paying jobs.
The sad part is that the interaction between writer and reader on blogs is one of the greatest, newest and exciting parts of publishing online. Never has it been so easy for those with an opinion to share it so immediately. And those comments often times are helpful, insightful, encouraging, and needed. I always read other's comments on my posts and I do value them, yes even the ones that don't see things my way.
One of the positives of more comments, though, is that the readers begin meeting each other and establishing relationships with each other and that truly makes me happy. I'm thrilled when two of my readers meet through the comments section and can encourage each other.
Am I a blogging hypocrite? Yes, and likely to remain so. But I think most mommy bloggers would agree that I would rather be a hypocrite as a blogger than a hypocrite as a mommy. If I spend all my time writing about the privilege and joy of motherhood but do not actually spend time with my daughter, then that is the hypocrisy I fear most.
Please dear reader, if I don't read your post or reply to your comment, then assume I was at the park with my daughter enjoying her laughter, and most likely you will be right.
Janna - Can also be found at The Adventure of Motherhood.
