Happy blogmas day 7, guys! How has your December been so far? Good? Awesome.
So I’ve been doing pretty well with this whole blogmas thing so far, and I’ve made some posts that I’m pretty proud of, and a few that have received some great feedback (I knew that Harry Potter thing would work…), so overall things are going well.
But tonight, I wanted to slow things down a bit, get a bit deep (oo-er). Half because I’ve been very planned content-heavy recently, and half because it’s nearly 8pm on the day this is supposed to go up and I hadn’t written anything yet.
So in this post, I’m going to be talking about us bloggers, our content, and whether it’s “OK” or not.
In reality, every piece of content you put out onto the big wide world of the internet is OK. Of course it is. It’s yours. It’s your content, your ideas, your words (or your creation, depending on your type of content), it’s completely yours. Why should we worry about what other people think, and whether it’s “OK” for other people? Surely we should just be happy within ourselves and what we make, and bugger the rest?
In an ideal world, yes.
But the real world isn’t ideal, and an ideal world isn’t real. In this world, full-time bloggers are almost obligated to create this high-end, tailored content that sticks exactly to their brand, and might not even reflect their true beliefs or intentions, just to pay the bills. Same with YouTubers, designers and everything else-ers.
Many will argue that these people bring it on themselves. That if they don’t want to make this content, they don’t have to. But I can empathise with this type of modern entrepreneurs, I can see the issue. Where does the fine line between content we really believe in, and paying the bills lie? Where does it end? Will anyone ever actually find the line, and lie on it comfortably? I’ve taken this line metaphor too far, haven’t I?
But, even apart from the huge money-making bloggers and content creators in the world today, and narrowing down to us little new starters out here, trying to find our feet in the digital content world, it’s slightly different.
While yes, we do have more freedom by the ways of creating whatever we like, without having to worry about bills or reputations (as much.. I’m still a firm believer that we should always watch what we say online) or making brands happy, we still have those niggling doubts in the back of our minds about “What if no one likes it?” “What if no one reads it?” “What if I say the wrong thing?”
It seems these days like it’s very hard not to offend anyone on the internet, and anyone who is anyone has felt that little twinge of anxiety when they’ve posted something online that could potentially stir some s***.
I have it, too. Even though I might not be talking to anyone in particular, my content isn’t refined, and maybe I haven’t found my niche yet, I still worry.
I worry about whether what I’m saying is right. I worry about whether what I’m saying is true, whether it reflects my true beliefs, whether it covers absolutely everything I wanted to say. There are so many things to think about before you press that “upload” button these days, that if we let these things take over, it would be next to impossible to ever get anything created.
So my advice to all of us out there just trying to get out is thus: Do whatever you want. But make sure that whatever that whatever is, it’s good. That it’s not just good, but that you love it. That is the most important thing.
It doesn’t matter if it’s rushed, if it’s a first draft, if you haven’t checked it, if the photos aren’t okay, if your skin doesn’t look great or you’ve got something in your teeth. If you can fall in love with what you’re putting out, everyone else can too.
Jessica G Allen 