To Bring The Funny or Not To Bring The Funny?

I think Being Funny is a trap many of us fall into.  If we use humor as a coping mechanism in real life, of COURSE we will write funny stuff on our blog and find the payoff richer in hits and comments.  Personally, I found it harder and harder to be light and airy and funny as my son went through evaluation and crisis as a preschooler.  I'm definitely guilty of thinking I had nothing to write about when my life was filled with learning about autism and simply getting through the day, because I wasn't being entertaining. 

The longer I read and write blogs, however, the more I know that blogging is an infinitely rich and varied experience.  It is both an art and a business.  Did I love those day when a stumbled post exponentially increased my traffic?  Hellz YEAH.  Did many of those readers come back? Eh, not so much.  Did that matter to me?  As it turns out, after dealing with the issues in my real life - not so much. 

That's me, though.  Many people feel differently.  Their blog is their identity, or their dream for their future, or their job, their lifeline.  If you can and need to, keep bringing the funny.  If it helps pay your bills and lets you live your life and lets you express yourself, go for it. 

For many of us, though, blogging is far too personal to disconnect from at the end of the workday. Negative comments and non-existent comments and real life crises have have taken me away from blogging, and yet here I am.  Still plugging away.

Here is my short summary, based on 3+ years of blogging and decades online.  If your goal to is to be a "professional" blogger, then act like a professional.  Do your giveaways, hand out your coupons, shill for products shamelessly or just promote the ones you truly believe in, but don't expect people to come for a deeper connection.  Don't engage in "validity" wars.  Know that you will have to blog through thick and thin, through good and bad. Hell, embrace it, because can you imagine what your (our) lives would have been like 100 years ago? If you are going for "funny," imagine yourself as a young Jerry Seinfeld.  What would Jerry do?  Would he open his guts or would he gloss over everything and let Kramer do the funny bits?

If you blog as a personality blogger (semi-professional or non-professional) you need to figure out where your comfort zone is.  Don't worry if it takes you a while to figure out your boundaries, and if they shift.  My personal experience has been that people are more forgiving on-line than they are in person, but I'm not Dooce.  I'm not a target, nor someone people feel compelled to defend, but those are two positions you should consider if you are going to blog.  How do you handle the extremes?

I am much more interested in the personal histories of individual bloggers than the coupons and giveaways and recycled advice that many sites offer.  As a personal note to Miss Banshee, I think that the biggest gift we can give other people is a glimpse into our insights, hard as they may have been won.  I certainly skew toward the funny writers, but as any chef knows - a little bit of sour only enhances the sweet.