Then We Were Done or when We have Blogged All there is to Blog

Bloggers do not blog forever. A lot of blogs don't get beyond 1 post. Conscious of the high failure rate and motivated to produce a quality blog, I made sure that my blog reached at least 100 posts during its first year and 8 posts per month. During my second year, I haven't had the same motivation and have settled on a respectable 6 posts per month.

The two main reasons that I got into blogging were to practice my writing and participate in the online blogosphere community. My interest in the blogosphere community did not burn out as much as it faded away. Some of my favorite bloggers that are linked under my "Men Are Smart, Women Are Smarter" section stopped writing. Others no longer seemed as compelling. My fantasy baseball team filled up my internet surfing time as I was no longer interested in what the blogosphere had to say. It had started to feel like everything there was to say on a blog had already been said and the arguments became circular.

1. Who owns social media at company? Marketing was nominated to own social media. No, Human Resources wanted to own it in their quest to get a seat at the table at a place that doesn't involve a buffet. No, everyone owns social media. No, no one owns social media. So, who owns social media again?

2. Be careful about what you post on Facebook. But if you don't want to be careful, understand your privacy settings. Wait, privacy setting changed. Okay, go back to being careful about what you posted on Facebook.

3. Generation Y is unique, special, and going to take over the world with Twitter. Generation X is still bitter and snarky and writes nasty comments back to Generation Y about how they should move out of their parent's house before they take over the world. Generation Y says the the home ownership dream is dead and they'd rather live at home and save money to start their own business. The Boomers are too busy actually running the world to care about either generation. Boomers win. Again.

4. The most important indicator of a blog's success is traffic. No, it's content. No, it's comments. No, none of those things help make money so I'll just become an affiliate marketer like people who sign up for Amway. But it's not call affiliate marketing anymore but multi-level marketing instead.

5. You should blog to show you are an expert about your niche! Get traffic to your blog to show off your expertise! But it's not about traffic, it's about connection and no one cares about your niche expertise in vintage cookie jars. Oh well, there's always multi-level marketing.

6. Resumes will never get you a job. Well, since every job asks for a resume, that's not really true. It's all about networking. And to be a really awesome networker, you should start a blog. Oh wait, forgot about #4 and #5.

7. It's important not to settle and find a career that makes you happy. I don't know what career will make me happy. But I know that I don't want to settle. So I've defined myself by what I don't want to do. Blogging makes me happy so maybe that will be my career. Crap, forgot about the last 4-6

8. I am going to blog about how something sucks. Well, it doesn't really suck since I am going to write a fairly nuanced post. Using words like suck in blog titles is good because it draws traffic. Traffic is important, oh wait, we've done this before.

9. I am a personal finance blogger. However, you shouldn't take advice from me but use a professional financial adviser. So should I ignore the advice about using a professional financial adviser since I shouldn't take financial advice from a random personal finance blogger? This is the ultimate circular argument kind of like those circular Excel formulas that trigger a big warning when I create them.

10. Making lists are great blog posts. Lists that end in a round number like 10 are even better since ending on a random number like 7 or 8 makes it look like you just ran out of ideas. Yes, I reached 10! Victory is mine!

My lack of interest in the blogosphere and lack of motivation to engage with this community is a disappointment. The internet provides many opportunities to join community and I really do like a good community. However, I haven't found it. I do like blogs from more experienced professionals and bloggers like Fred Wilson and Laurie Ruettimann but I'm realizing how unique their blogs are.

This leaves me with a blog that is an opportunity to develop my writing and motivates me to more fully research ideas. I use some of my ideas at work. Sometimes, I just try to impress the marketing department by talking about my blog.