Shine on

Read the countrymen links. Or don’t, because today’s blog entries, suck.
Because it’s Tuesday? Maybe. Or, because everybody has a bad day once-in-a-while? Probably. But, and this is important, it’s not everyday that everybody has a bad day.

I’ve just skimmed through those linked blogs, and let me tell you: Boring.

Hey, I sympathize. Lord knows I’m not Chaucer over here, gold dripping from my fingers, your eyes lapping it up over the world wide web. I’ve had stretches of weeks at a time when posts seemed so mundane, so devoid of spark and energy I had to resort to Gilmore Girls to breathe life back into this thing.

But what I’m saying now? Is that you have to pick your spots. This is how you get a following. This is why people who don’t deserve renown get it. A good eye, and patience.

For you bloggers: Find people who write well. Keep up with their posts. Notice that every so often one of those authors will have missed something. Their post will lack. Then notice that the others, the three or four or eight or twenty-two you follow haven’t missed anything, and write as well as ever. So you forgive the boring guy, and read the rest.

Then there comes a day when all twenty-two flop. It happens. Slumps overlap, people get distracted, that sucking sound you hear is the talent draining from the talent pool.

Now is your time to shine.

Get out there, post post post. Make it creative, make it silvery, make it funny and witty and thoughtful. And who cares if your best post can’t compete with any other post on a mediocre day? This isn’t some mediocre day! This is a boring day! Post that sucker and just sit back and wait.

Soon, much sooner than you’d think possible, others will come. They will read blogs and be bored, they will check other blogs, and remain bored. Tedium will set in. The readers fear this. Blogging is the only thing that keeps them alive at work. The only distraction. What if everyone’s posts are boring today?! WHAT. OF. DONUTS?!

Then, lo: your blog. They read the first paragraph. Not boring. They read the second. Not boring. Hope begins to build within them. They run their eyes down the page, smiles tug at the corner of their lips. Salvation!

And oh, how the comments do grow.

And as easy as that, you’ve earned yourself a bookmark. Or maybe a link. You’ve got people reading, people who know they can count on you when all else fails. You may not be the best of the best, but a walk’s as good as a hit sometimes.

Welcome, blogger, to the public eye. Isn’t it grand?

-t