While going through all the posts I have uploaded on this blog since it’s launch almost nine years ago, I came across this particular post from October 2008.  It reminded me of the difficult few years during which I struggled between blogging about the things I passionately wanted to blog about and blogging about the various passions I knew would get me more readers.

This is a struggle I see a lot around me, as many young women start up blogs with the hope that it will become a money-making machine, only to remove it from the internet years, even months later because the fire ran out.

While some lucky bloggers manage to have a passion that appeals to enough people to shine the light of success on their endeavours, most struggle to strike gold.  But that seems to be the problem in the first place: these bloggers try to appeal to the masses by blogging about topics that are popular, rather than by learning to craft their art in such a way that they become popular because of who they are.  They are letting the public’s passion mould them, rather than moulding the public’s passion with the strength of theirs.

Focusing one’s attention to what is mainstream in this day an age is quite dangerous.  For one, the tide being as strong as it is, a curious look into mainstream might sweep you right along with the rest of them.  Had I succumbed to the temptation of blogging about popular topics, I might have been an internationally well-known blogger by now, but I wouldn’t be blogging about my passions.  How happy would I be?

Another reason to not step into mainstream interests online, as defined by Google Trends, is that oftentimes, the spectacularly bad is particularly trendy.  I can’t help but wonder how much of one’s sense of hope turns into despair in these conditions.  This feeling is further compounded by the fact that superficial and unimportant news seems to make for most of the other news trends.  How then, one might get caught thinking, is there any hope for the future when these things are considered “news”?

A third reason has to do with the way reports are written.  I feel like more often than not, news stories are written in such a way to generate a passionate response.  And even if it isn’t, beware of the comment section.  Reading such things takes its toll as precious emotional energy goes into completely unimportant things.

Yet another reason has to do with effecting change.  I have heard many (including myself) hypothesising that if they become famous, they will have an influenceable voice that they can then use to effect change.  But if you become famous for a superficial reason, how much weight will your voice carry when discussion weighty matters?

Of course, this is quite the black-and-white scenario.  We can’t segregate ourselves from mainstream interests.  Similarly, there are some Google Trends that we should take note of.  Furthermore, some individuals, who became famous for superficial reasons, have learned to use their voice in a powerful way.  But ultimately, my advice to a girl-next-door who wants to become a world-renown blogger is that she should consistently upload quality content about something she is incredibly passionate about, content that she then should market diligently and systematically.  Maybe her blog about a more serious matter will not attract as many people as would a more superficial blog, but she will remain true to her passion and will effect change within the small community that bands together around her content.

{ Sahar’s Blog is all about being in a constant state of learning.  So it only made sense for me to go back to all my previous posts and see how my thoughts on certain topics have changed over the last nine years.  In this new, ongoing series of posts, I’ll be rereading some of my older posts and reflecting on the same topic in light of what I’ve learned since then.  It’s going to be very interesting to see how things have changed! }