Any internet search you run on the topic is guaranteed to give you scads of links to blogs, articles and books, all saying the same thing - "build and develop your audience". Worse yet, they may even tell you hold off on writing anything until you've sat down and planned out just who that "target audience" is supposed to be!
And, my only thought in reading every single one of these well-meaning columns is "Um - yes, I kind of figured that an audience was the goal". The actual "how" remains ever unanswered though. I mean - if you think of blogging in a traditional media or entertainment sense, your traffic drivers would be billboards, theater marquees, and ads on TV or in the newspaper (for those folks who still read them). Okay, but we're on the web. And, we're not MGM or some other huge media conglomerate with an unlimited advertising budget. And, maybe that's my problem; I'm thinking about this too traditionally. Let's just do it and see what grows organically. Maybe nothing; but maybe something tremendous!
And, as for sitting down to determine who YOU are? Well, good gravy; I don't know! I barely know who I am out here on the web-frontier. I know how to turn my computer on and make it do what I want 98% of the time. I can run a Google-search like nobody's business and I'm on Twitter and Facebook. I'm a wife to Andrew and a mother of three (Samantha - 19; Charlene - 6; Martin - 4) who works a full-time job, runs a small business with her husband and occasionally balances a semester of online classes in there somewhere. Other than that, I'm you. So, if you've found me here and you're wondering the same kinds of stuff I am; wonderful! Welcome! Drop a note and let me know you were here.
And, if you're still waiting for that blind-leading-the-blind moment where I tell you "how" to blog; I'm sorry to disappoint. I don't think there is any single "how" for me to share with you other than to write what interests you, in your own voice and to yourself. Because, let's face it. The web is a very big place. For at least a little while - you very well may only be talking to yourself. And, very much like in the real world - it is always okay to talk to yourself; just be sure you don't start to answer yourself (or in this case, comment on your own posts)!
