I have to admit at the outset that marketing is not a particular strong point of mine. After about two and a half years of blogging somehow I have managed to get 150,000 views on a blog with posting it on my facebook and linked in pages, twitter feed, and my yahoo profile (if anyone even bothers to look at that). Mostly, it appears that people view my blog because of word of mouth (that is, other people doing my promoting for me, or saying that there’s this crazy loudmouth with a blog that others need to check out), or because they happen to google random subjects like cocaine use among members of Chicago or about the Sons of Korah or other subjects that occasionally end up as part of my blog. While I do take suggestions as far as what to blog about, generally I blog about what I feel or think at a given moment, and then let people read what they like.

Blogging about what I think and feel is not without a fair amount of risk. Ideally, my goal for this blog is as part of a much larger series of conversations. I do enjoy people reading what I have to say, but most of the time when I write there are people I am talking to. Sometimes it happens to be people who write (or read) particular books. Sometimes it happens to be people who find themselves as part of the subtly/obviously coded references on blog entries, and sometimes it may even be people I don’t know who find themselves on my blog because they are drawn to a subject. By writing about myself so openly, I understand that people may think they know me much better than they do, and that they may know a lot about me (perhaps even too much) simply by virtue of reading what they do. One of the frustrations I have found as a blogger is that while people may often view the posts, and may occasionally even like them, that most people are simply not drawn into the sort of conversation that I would wish to have. Instead, there is a lot of liking (or disliking) in silence, and not a lot of feedback. I must admit I find that somewhat frustrating, as writing a blog like mine really means putting yourself out there, and it would be nice to see more of a response.

This is especially true because a lot of my blog entries are responses of some kind, whether to specific people, specific books or messages, specific situatoins, or simply because I have too much going on in my head and I need to write it out to make some sense of it. There are other people who blog for other reasons, but my blogging is basically a mix of a public diary, a series of thoughts and reflections and critical review, and conversations about books, music, history, religion, and personal business. I have found that few people seem comfortable living their lives that transparently and that openly. There are many people I read who seem to write much more tactically than I do, using their blogs more as public image management and as a place to put their own obiter dictum rather than being places for less dogmatic and more personal reflection. Of course, as my personal reflection takes the form of personal essays, it probably appears more dogmatic than it is in reality. The difference between appearance and reality can often be a large gulf in our lives, and this is no less true of our public lives on the internet.

One thing that does tend to bug me a little bit is when people not only post a given blog entry or personal essay online (call it what you will), but then they choose to share the link in half a dozen related groups trying to maximize views. This would not be so irritating if I did not happen to see it so often. I would think that just posting it once ought to be enough. If it is worthwhile, I would think that it would draw attention based on its worth and would not need to be endlessly promoted. I suppose part of my lack of marketing skill, if one would call it that, is simply a disinterest in spamming people to death with endless links to my messages. While I do not hear of anyone appreciating my restraint in this matter (I would like to think that restraint is one of my virtues), it is an aspect of my personality, and I tend to be rather true to myself online, even if my personality may at times hide in plain sight because it is hard to understand my often dry and ironic and generally sympathetic tone. I don’t think blogs are only places for talking (though I certainly do plenty of that), but also places that should provide a fora for listening and conversation as well, provided the conversation is respectful. It takes a fair amount of time and effort and energy to write on a consistent basis, and it is always better when that time is not spent casting words out into the wind, but actually at making life a little bit better as a result of skillful and respectful communication.