Monday, July 9, 2012

Norman


We fill our blogs with widgets, and we submit posts to social media, and link to previous posts and announce future posts, and before we know it, we forget it's all about the writing. In the end, though, that's what blogging comes down to. That's where it started, and that's what's still best about it: honest writing and real stories.

Letters to my Daughter, is just that. Each post is a letter to Norman's daughter. There are no pictures, no social media buttons, and no ads--it's blogging, nothing more and nothing less.

And it works. Each post reveals more about the writer and about his family, each post tells a story, and each post makes the reader reflect about his (or her, really) own actions. And yet somehow it doesn't feel contrived.

I've written many times that between Twitter conversations and conventions meet-ups, many blogging dads end up talking among themselves. I wouldn't say there are cliques, because the word has negative connotations and that's not what I mean, but limited time to read means we often read blogs by people we already know. I hope I can get you to expand the circle and include Letter to my Daughter in your reading list.



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7 comments:

  1. Wicked share Oren! It's funny you mentioned the piles of crap we end posting on our sites, because I have recently noticed that I had let my blog get away from me. I've decided to follow through with the commitments I've agreed to but then it's back to doing what I started the blog for in the first place; Writing! Love this feature btw and it's not an ass kiss move so you'll do mine, I think it's important to spread the good word of Dad! Cheers! Chris

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    1. Thanks! Not that I think social media is evil. I love following people on Twitter and I love the fact people follow me. I can get too obsessed about numbers, but I think even then I can always excuse it with "If the numbers are up it means I'm doing something right." But in the end, it is all about writing.

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    2. Agreed. I was more talking about the sponsored posts and stuff like that. I think with social media, as long as you are taking the time to make a personal connection with people, you can post your links and promote yourself without feeling bad. The guys just post links only are the ones I unfollow very quickly.

      As far as numbers go, I look at them but I don't stress over them. The growth will come with time and content. I'm in no rush to become a blogstar. But I will get there, lol!

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    3. I try to keep a balance, but it's very easy to fall into the giveaway-blog trap. In a way, it's cool that things like that can help get more people interested in reading the blog, but I also have to make sure there's anything left to read, you know?

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  2. Well said, and I'm happy I read it because I was starting to feel a bit "lost" already. I've just started a dad blog and when I began writing I had never thought about all the other aspects of blogging than just writing. I found out immediately that everyone were using social media sites to bring traffic to their sites, and though it helps, I still haven't managed to figure it all out yet.

    I'm beginning to wonder if I spend to much time thinking about how to spread my posts around rather than concentrate on my writing. And being an Norwegian writing in English I usually spend quite some time on my posts to get some decent standards to it.

    It seems to be a lot of work keeping up with things, much harder than I had imagined. But in the end, I created my blog to share my story as a Norwegian father, and the content needs to come first.

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    1. Don't get me wrong, I'm not using Twitter (and even the blog's Facebook page) just for traffic. When I have a new blog post up, I link to it, but that's about it. I love the whole "connecting with people" thing on Twitter, and I also love the blog's Facebook page as a stand-alone thing. Maybe social media can bring traffic to a blog, but for me, it's much more than that. It's probably not for everyone, though. I don't know if I'd recommend getting into Twitter if you don't like it (although I hated it at first but now I'm addicted).

      And English is my second language too, so I feel your pain.

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