A Small Rant About Today's Blogosphere

Complete: Drop#78- Guest Post on Someone's Blog/Site

     What I learned in the past few days: The blogging world is a lot  more complex than I originally thought!

     What do I mean by this? When I started this blog about a year ago, I had one goal in mind: to start a blog where I could document my progress as I worked on crossing off the goals I accomplished on my bucket list. It was that simple. I didn't want to make money or promote myself for the sake of becoming published. I didn't even necessarily have a message I wanted to promote. I had no target audience in mind or affiliates to link to. I didn't have any of the tools or ambitions that are in a blogger that are necessary in making a blog successful. I was oblivious to this. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that I discovered the truth about the blogging world. I can't say I like it.

     Truth is, most blogs that I have come across seem to have one aspect in common: the desire to make money, or to tell others how to make money. It seems like everybody feels they are an expert in drawing traffic to your blog, linking to affiliates, building a successful business, marketing, beauty products etc. In other words, everybody is an expert on everything. To me it's boring, repetitive, and overworked. Is that what I should be doing? Should I be relaying a message, playing expert, and writing 'How To' articles in the hopes that someone will read my post and take in to consideration my advice?

     Should I care?

     No, I don't think I care. I refuse to change my blog in an attempt to cater to a particular audience. I won't sacrifice the value and originality of my content or my thoughts so that I can draw a high readership. I am not out to make a buck blogging full time, and I'm not trying to exaggerate or stretch opinions to back up my own point-of-views. I am here, right now, writing about my experiences the way they took place and document how I did them.

     With that said, there is nothing wrong with a little self-promotion!

     I put the desire to be a guest writer on someone else's blog a few days ago. I didn't realize how quickly I would accomplish it! Overall, I believe it was a good experience. It gave me an opportunity to relate my interests to someone else's and provide a sample of my writing, style and ideas on a different site for an audience that I may otherwise not have reached. After all, I can't think of any blogger who doesn't want their blog read.

     To check out my first guest blog post, click below!

Adding Value to Your Travel Bucket List

 Almost everybody has a list of places they want to visit in their lifetime. Although the intentions are good, many people simply never follow through with their dream to travel. It's easy to have the desire to visit specific destinations, but actually going to all these places....

     Hey Stephanie, here's a question- Will you guest blog again?
     Simple answer: yes
     More thorough answer: as long as I've got nothing else going on, am not wasting my time on  content that doesn't represent me and my beliefs, or on a site that clearly doesn't value content.

     Here's another question- Will you be seeking guest bloggers for this site?
     There's only one answer here- For what? Who's going to blog about my bucket list? About my experiences? About what I'm doing to work towards crossing more off my list?
 

     ... I'll consider it.