It seems to me that I have two choices here: to just give up on pimping my posts and my site. Or find some way of fighting through, of slaying the Angel in My House and Linda B. The former is the more comfortable; the latter is scarier than anything. The former guarantees mediocrity; the latter guarantees—nothing. But then I hear echoes of all the successful people I've listened to who say that at some point in their careers, they have had to scare themselves, and that the scaring is what they credit with their success. I've often wondered what they meant, but maybe now I have an inkling.
Pimp That Post!
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As a woman new to blogging, i thought I was alone in my reluctance to promote my blog. In all honesty, self-promotion was my weakness in the corporate world as well. Thanks for your article. It gave me a push when I needed it!
Joanna: I think Linda B. is a divorced fitness instructor in Pittsburgh! I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it hard to do. Mostly, I see all these people who are just gushing their way through the social networks. The effect of all those voices is, for me, silence. Really. I can start out saying, 'okay, today is gonna be a Twitter day...' Then I read a! bunch of Tweets (and these are only from people I follow) and I have nothing to say. Liz: I like what you're saying, that it's a personal relationship that fosters readership. In the best of all possible worlds, that would be enough. Buuuttt, there's no way for people outside of the MLB or More realm to find my posts other than on Digg and Stumble, etc.
Boy, you really hit the nail on the head. Pimping is hard! I'm really bad at it and have yet to Digg, Stumble or Tweet. I better get on it :-) Thanks for the nudge. And when you want to take Linda B. on, I'll be your wingman :-) Terrific post! Thanks.
Hi Jane! Here's my take on it - if you went around only pimping your posts, I probably wouldn't read them. I first went to visit MidLifeBloggers because I liked how you presented yourself over at BlogHer, and when I made a comment that it didn't seem like a place for me, you encouraged me to take a second look and then went out of your way to make me feel welcome. When you announce that you're here, I come here because I'm interested in what you have to say. But if all you did was tell me where to read your stuff, but didn't give me any reason to be interested in you as a person, I would not be nearly so loyal.
