Hello all! While it may seem to the untrained eye that I have simply become a slacker in the blogging department, I have actually been working hard on redesigning and reorganizing my website. I'm talking to designers and doing research to try to make the most of my online presence. One of the things involved in this is taking a good hard look at what the whole point of my blog really is.
When I think about why I'm doing this a few things come to mind.
The first is noble: I want to help people. I really, really want the stuff I have gone through or am going through to be a boon to others who may be going through similar things. I'd like to share ideas or things that others might benefit from. I also, on my new site, want to marry my blog with my photography and writing instead of having two separate (three if you count Ah! The Blog!) areas to tend to.
The second reason is not noble as much as it is truthful: I desire community. That's a hard one to admit because what it really boils down to is wanting to matter. My internal desire to have other people buy into me and my writing, care about what I have to say and even respond to it. This has been the hardest thing for me because I don't get many comments on my posts. I have blogger friends who get tons of comments with every post, ten, twenty or more. I rarely get one. When my friend Patrick asked me the other night after a show how the blog was going, I didn't know what to say. I had been in a funk about it all week because I was asking myself what the point was. I'm getting over a thousand page views every month but little to no interaction. I'm such a social, extroverted person and this lack of dialogue is disheartening. Poor Patrick had to listen to me whine about being unsure of myself but that is what it's all about--needing the approval of others. I have the same struggle with my budding photography "career". What's the point of taking photos if no one is looking at them?
I'm working on this, though. It's been made very clear to me via a few random comments from friends and strangers alike that my posts and photography and other writing do matter and are noticed even if no one says so in the virutal world. I need to remember that even if all this work just serves as a record of my life to look back on when I'm sixty-two then it is well worth the effort. Especially with a memory as bad as mine.
A third thing is almost just as embarassing to admit: I'd like to make money via my blog. Even if it's just the place where someone sees my photography and wants to hire me to take photos of them or write a bio for their band or an article for their website. I'd like to try ads again, but this time for people I know and businesses I patronize myself. I have NO idea how this works but I'm willing to figure it out. It may seem like selling out and if it is, that's okay. I have three kids to help take care of and if advertising on my site is selling my soul, well, if it means a little more security or being able to give generously to the people I love or causes I support the so be it. My dream is to live a life that is simpler and more abundant in things that matter the most in this short little life I've been given.
So this is where I am at. The Musician's Wife is a work in progress. Both the site and the person behind it. I really appreciate the support of all my readers, friends old and new and my family as well. I hope you will stick with me as I navigate creating a new site that is a better representation of the people my husband, kids and I have become since starting this blog in 2009.
