This turned into something about my blogging dilemma

[valis2]

So I went this morning to have blood drawn for the annual health testing for the health insurance company. I'm such a wimp; I took the day off. I always feel weird and light-headed afterward and I get a little nervous about driving the hour-long trip to work and back, so this is probably a good thing.

Anyway. This has been a pretty unusual two weeks for me. I've been pretty busy for the past two months, definitely, but while I've been sick I've been parked in front of the computer, working on the website and eBay and Etsy. I've gotten back into listing crafted items in my crafted item Etsy shop. Updating my blog regularly. (My business blog.) Adding new items to my website. Completely overhauling eBay, and editing every single active listing (over half done) into bullet point format instead of block-o-text. I'm also adding scale reference photos.

I've also been keeping up with my eBay auctions, giving them a makeover too. And I've switched from scans to photographs, which was a big step for my eBay stuff.

My to-do list is still big. I need to really get back on track with my clothing auctions, which have been sadly neglected since the Big Backup Meltdown where I lost everything. I need to finish editing the rest of the active listings. I want to take some new photos of my existing Etsy crafted items, because the photos I have right now are not great. I also need to take photos of the unlisted crafted items. I should also craft a few more new items and dig out some old stuff. I wasn't going to put up $8 items, thinking they were too inexpensive and would be a waste of time, but now I'm thinking that they're usually my bread and butter items at shows and I might just try a few. If I can figure out an easy rig to take pics, then it might be worth it to try. Some of them have funky themes which might show up in more searches.

So what's the result so far? Hmm. My blog and site are getting a few hits. Not a lot--definitely not a lot--but there's a slight improvement. And I've been getting some views for my crafted items on Etsy. I also got into a treasury, which wasn't so easy with my old photos, which were bad.

This leads me to my next problem, which is my business blog. I just get so meh about updating it, honestly. The issues, they are many. I would like to be engaging and interesting. I'd like to share stuff, but I just feel this...reserve. I just don't feel like I can be that open on it. Plus, anything really funny or bizarre, I like to keep for LJ. And I don't want any connection between LJ and my business (I'm in a somewhat conservative business).

I love pond pics, and I'd love to put them on my business blog, and I think that they're pretty good for something like that. Traditional blogs seem to not really be about the communication quite so much; they're almost like you're sitting on a rock in the ocean, expounding on something, and people float by in boats and wave. Whereas LJ seems like we're all in boats, and we hook up to each other and talk. Um. Bizarre analogy. Anyway, the pond pics are great because I could do a pond pic every few days, and that would bring people in, definitely. People like pics on traditional blogs. It would be a great selling point for the business blog.

Sadly, though, it would be a huge connection between the two. And I can't have that. I'd have to make my LJ friends-only if I did it, which I do not want to do.

So I really flail with the business blog. I read several other business blogs in the same business that I'm in, and they usually have a few different tones. There's the wistful, what-does-it-all-mean, I-am-an-artiste kind of blog. I do like those. There are also blogs that really explore creativity. I like that. There are blogs which ruthlessly show the entire interior life, including kids, of the bloggers. I like that, too. But none of those fit me. First of all, I giggle at the thought of the wistful blog, even though I can be a little like that sometimes. And I'm just not creative enough to float a blog that explores creativity. And I am too private to show the interior life, especially because I absolutely don't want to reveal some of that stuff. Not that I have kids, but seriously, my interior life involves people with even more privacy barriers than me, and I don't even want to go there. I'm sort of anonymous here, but there, my face is out there.

But I have just now found another blog, with a blogger who dares to be...funny. Internet-style funny. Clever. Interesting. And I realized that I had deliberately left that out of my blog. I would wince whenever I wrote something amusing, and delete it, though I'm not sure why. Probably because of years and years of retail experience, where you can't be too much of an entertainer, unless you're really really good at it.

Anyway, this is like a revelation. I will try being a little funnier. No pond pics, but maybe some other pics. I don't know. I just feel weirdly fragmented. Like, I want to have one persona online, but it's impossible. And then something happens, and I want to share it everywhere, but I feel like I can't. And having to choose where to put things feels unnatural.

I'm sure it will sort itself out eventually, but for now, I'm still kind of flailing.

Comments

[valis2.livejournal.com]

*laughs and laughs* But an awesome barge, dressed up to look like a submarine, right?

[droxy.livejournal.com]

Maybe a merchant ship-LOL