Keepin’ It Real Since Birth

As I try to get this blog rolling, I’ve been looking at how other bloggers do it. One piece of advice I see over and over is an admonishment for bloggers to keep their posts positive. In theory I’m all for this. Most of us don’t search the web and read blogs to increase the negativity in our lives. Lord knows I get enough negativity in the car ride bringing Benjamin home from school; I don’t need more of it in my online life. Even on Facebook I tend to hide people whose status updates are continually negative because I don’t want to fill my brain with it.



But—and you knew there was a but—I am not an especially positive person. I don’t superimpose a rosey glow on everything I see, nor do I experience what self-helpers preach:  positivity breeds positivity. I’m naturally dark and grave, even at my best and most positive, and attempting to bedazzle that for the masses is silly and not what I’m about. I always said my motto, if I had one and it was PG-13, would be, “keepin’ it real since birth.”



Another recommendation by various successful bloggers is to have regular features. This not only keeps you posting regularly, which is another tip, but allows readers a sense of expectation and something to look forward to. There are a number of regular features I really enjoy on blogs I read and this seems like a good idea to me.

• Peter @ Male Pattern Boldness updates his Goals and checks in with his commenters on Mondays. (He’s even mentioned me, which totally made my day!)
  
• Chez Larsson posts her week in photos on Fridays.
  
• And, Joanna at A Cup of Jo posts her links for a lovely weekend on Friday, which is always just a hodgepodge of fun things she’s found on the web.

All of this is quite a bit of lead up to say that I will be adding at least one regular post to the blog soon and it will not necessarily be positive in nature, although hopefully it will be positively received. Essentially, I’ll be complaining about bad design, stupid ideas and wondering why I’m not general manager of a great many things. Stay tuned for that. I need to come up with a good and clever name for it first. And, I’ve got to comment on these student essays. I’d like to eat some ice cream too, but that will likely make me want to nap instead of work.
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Although I've read lots of stuff about blogging, I thought this one was pretty darn good: Colour Me Happy’s 10 Things I’ve Learned about Blogging.