Maggie Sumner is Mind Bloggled

I started writing this blog because I think (make that "hope") that I have interesting things to say. And it would be nice if others read it once in a while and offered up their thoughts, too. So, this past weekend, I stalked the Internet trying to figure out how people get traffic for their blogs. What's interesting is that some of the blogs I enjoy are mere blips in the blogosphere, while other blogs have HUGE numbers and, for the life of me, I can't see why.

There is the girl in Singapore who writes about eating ice-cream on a bus. Her blog is in Technorati's top 100. Unless she's repeatedly posting nude video of herself or others as part of her discourse, I'm not sure what it is that keeps folks coming back for more. Many of the top blogs are admittedly techie and that ain't my thing, yo. And having worked for years as a professional communicator, I find the long-winded sites authored by "experts" in social media both tiresome and pompous. Too much marketing speak. Too many middle-aged guru guys touting their online prowess as a means to woo potential clients to their agencies and get them to fork over the big bucks. And there's no spontaneity there. You know everything they put out goes through their PR filter. WHAT-A-YAWN.

But what's truly "mind-bloggling," is the sheer number of folks out here, trying to have themselves be heard. If there was a volume dial for all these blogs, the noise would truly be deafening. It's at once exhilarating and terrifying. So much angst and anger, love and sorrow, and smart-ass and just-plain-smart commentary thrown up into the ether.

I may be in my forties (very early forties, thank you very much), but where this blogging thing is concerned, it's clear that I'm just a fledgling with a lot to learn. That said, I think the key to traffic is probably not to think too much about the numbers and just keep writing about damned interesting topics. After all, as technology seems to make our personal relationships more and more distant, the need to make human connections seems to be proportionately more pressing.

If you build it, will they come? I guess that remains to be seen. And sadly today, when it comes to keeping things interesting, I think I may have lost the battle. But in the long run, as my cockney father liked to say, there's still a chance that I might win the war.