How to Be A Successful Blogger

How to be a successful blogger is what you can call link bait. It is a headline whose sole purpose is to bring in traffic regardless of the value of the content. Link bait is a term that some people use as a pejorative. I suppose that you might define it as being a back handed compliment- but sometimes that is ok.

Link bait is an important part of this discussion because it is germane to why many people blog. A blog is a platform that they use to promote their thoughts, ideas, views and or products. And that means that they want eyeballs- they want readers to spend time reading and commenting upon whatever it is they are writing about.

If you want to have a real discussion about what it takes to be a successful blogger than you need to define what that means. What is a successful blogger? Is it that rare person who takes their blog and turns it into their full time job. Could be. Or maybe a successful blogger is that man/woman/child whose blog is turned into a book or movie.

I’d argue that the definition of a successful blogger is contingent upon an individual and their goals. I would love to have this serve as my full time job. It would be very cool to be able to say that this joint here is the reason that I got a book or movie deal. Either one or both would make me very happy, but I don’t have to have that to feel good about my corner of cyberspace.

I don’t need it because I already am successful. For six years this place has been my home, my refuge, my therapy, my oasis, my sandbox and much more. For six years this place has helped to chronicle the lives of my children and the people I love. For six years it has been my confidant and a vault of secrets and wishes.

This is where I confess my sins and whisper about my dreams. This is where I talk openly about things you wouldn’t ever hear anywhere else. This is my Tara. This is my island except there are no others, smoke monsters or castaways. There is only myself and my guests. Welcome to Fantasy Island my friends.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to improve upon the work that I do here or that I don’t dream about opportunities. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think about change because I think about it constantly. But if you are one of the 17 long time readers you know that. You know things about me. You have insight that few are granted.

It is a little disconcerting and somewhat frightening to think about how much you know. But in the end I can only be who I am. I can only write the stories that I know or that I am in the process of learning. I can tell a good yarn or two and weave a few strings into something that resembles a story. Sometimes I write them because I am happy or sad. Sometimes I delve into the darkness and pull out old heartbreak and sadness and share that with you.

And sometimes I do the same with stories about joy and love. There are moments where I look at the screen and wonder where the words come from. But they do come over and over again. More often than not I am surprised at how many people come by here. I find it both flattering and amusing.

That is all part of why I think I am a successful blogger. And maybe that is the key, I think I am successful, therefore I am.

Maybe it is all about perception and awareness. Doesn’t really matter much what it is as long as it fits whatever you want it to fit.

Dinner time now- back later.