“Can you give me a list of all your recipes?”
“Why are you putting ads on your site?”
“I think you should stop posting about fashion and concentrate on your make up tips instead.”
“Can you write about that new steak place that opened in the city?”
The new phone is out. How come it’s taking too long for you to post a review?
Do you often get these kinds of comments? When you started writing, you probably, and I sincerely hope, did it for the passion. Time passed, and your readership scaled and you blog grew up faster than its neighbors. All of a sudden you received email from PR companies, and yeah the freebies started to pour in as well. Event invites, blog roadies, and yes there were the haters as well.
All of a sudden the passion started to fade and you felt disillusioned, looking back at something you started as sharing your passion in reckless abandon which turned into a chore you needed to do once, twice, thrice a week. Sometimes everyday.
At one point, did you feel that your topics were dictated not by your own personal accord, but by your readers who demanded your time?
2 thoughts on “Do you feel that your readers own you?”
nice tips, i’ll try this! thank!
Well, I guess that’s one way of looking at.
You could also see it in a “glass half full” type of way and say that you’re succeeding. Your audience wants to interact with you. The media wants to give you coverage. People are praising your efforts. If you’re not writing for your readers and with their interests and goals in mind, then you’re not operating a “blogging business”. You’re operating a hobby blog if you’re only wanting to write about what you want to write about. Nothing wrong with either avenue, it’s just what your goals are.
I don’t see my readers as “demanding” my time. I see them as rewarding my efforts by responding to me and helping to shape my blog to be more successful. I write for people, not just myself. If your blog regularly feels like a chore, I’d argue that you’re in the wrong market.
Interesting thought though. I bet a lot of bloggers feel this way sometimes. I think you can have balance though. Ultimately, you call the shots on your blog. But you need to listen to what your audience wants if you want to be successful.
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