My Thirty Seconds of Fame

Many of us, I think, have visions of grandeur when we start blogging.

Hey! I'm going to start a blog! Everyone will read it! Maybe I'll even make some money!

Then reality hits. A very few do make it big. Some make it into the middle-grade blogging levels. And many of us, myself included, realize that we're going to stay in the minor leagues. Fame and fortune ain't happenin' - at least via blogging.

But a few months ago, a big-time blogger contacted me to ask if she could share one of my posts on her blog's Facebook page. Of course, I said yes!

And the next morning, I awoke to... blogging fame. (At least temporarily.)

Now, for a normal post, I usually get between 25 and 75 clicks. For a super-popular post, an article might get upwards of several hundred clicks over the long-term.

But when I woke up the morning of my post being shared on Facebook, I watched in amazement as my click-recorder rose by something like a hundred clicks per hour.

Wow.

In the end, the post leveled out at something like 2500 clicks. I'm pretty sure that this will be my lifetime record. Fame and fortune (or at least fame) indeed.

I drew several conclusions from the experience:

Firstly, social media is a powerful tool for networking - for blogging and for businesses in general. Extremely powerful. Harnessing this power is extremely useful for building readership (and clients) and spreading your internet presence.

Of course, this is bad news for me, as I just deleted my Facebook account, and I don't plan to join any other social networks. But for those who choose to stay, Facebook can really work to a blogger's advantage.

Secondly, I learned that people put an unwarranted amount of trust in unknown online sources.

I'm a blogger. I share about my life on my blog. I am not an expert in homemaking, home education, or anything else.

But having my article posted by a major blogger sent a whole bunch of people my way - people who instantly regarded me as an expert. And they started sending me questions, most of which I was completely unqualified to answer - and some of which had nothing to do with my areas of knowledge at all.

Blogger: Let me tell you about all of the ways you can season a roast chicken!
Commenter: So, can you tell me the best vacation spots in Vancouver?

Friends, just because someone has a blog does not mean that she's an expert. Choose your advice sources wisely.

Thirdly, I learned that I really don't want to achieve blogging fame.

Why not?

#1 - Big-time blogging takes a major amount of time. Answering oodles of comments and questions, writing articles, dealing with sponsors and give-aways and all of that stuff. It can amount to more than a full-time job. Even medium-grade blogging can eat up serious time. That's time that I don't have.

#2 - The internet can be an ugly place. Just drop in to any major article and watch people chew each other to pieces in the comments. (Common civility, where have you gone?) I do not want to deal with the dark side of the internet more than I have to - and unfortunately, any sort of major site draws toxic individuals who enjoy hurting people.

So there you have it. I've had my fifteen minutes of fame. It was fun. It's over. And it left me profoundly thankful that I am a small-time blogger who can share her heart in a small corner of the internet without creating huge waves of fame or notoriety.

Life as a small-time blogger is good.

Fellow bloggers, I'd love to hear from you. Do you like being a small-time blogger or medium or big-time blogger, whatever applies? Do you wish you could be at a different level?