No, I'm not a personal blogger

Technology moves pretty fast and I'm usually one of the first people to jump at the chance to try new tools and platforms. I like learning and as a consultant, it's important for me to stay on top of trends and tools in order to make the best recommendations for my clients. The way technology evolves has always influenced the way we interact with each other and build communities online.

I've loved every minute of my growth as a writer and the communities I found through blogging, from LiveJournal to Myspace to my own personal blog.

But I loved the days when blogging meant actually engaging with each other in the comments, finding new blogs through communities like BlogHer and 20Something Bloggers, and even the weekly tags we would do (before Twitter got big). My favorite was Thursday Thirteen and the way we would link up to go comment on each other's posts.

I always felt that I had a community and that there was always potential for it to expand week over week with the conversations that would happen naturally in the comments of those blog posts. Even when Twitter started picking up, I still enjoyed the back & forth we'd have in those comments.

But as with all things, the blogging world evolved, and I tried keeping up.

I was a brand ambassador for a while and loved the free jeans I got, I went to the conferences, but once personal blogging turned into a business, I lost my taste for it. Google Reader died, comments were turned off, and suddenly, personal blogs evolved.

I just wasn't prepared for the commoditization of the blog posts. It was no longer a place where we wouldn't have to worry about being perfect. We now needed the perfect header image or Pinterest graphics or the right keywords.

Don't get me wrong. I'm in the business of marketing, so I know the value of blogging to a business. And I have mad respect for those who have successful personal blogs that they've converted into a business.

But it's just not for me.

I did get caught up in the hype.

I mean, I knew how to play the game. I missed my communities, so I gave it a try. I created the perfect Pinterest images, updated the plug-ins on my blog site, and joined the Facebook groups.

I had hope.

It just didn't feel the same.

So, I stopped writing any personal blog posts all together. I leaned heavily into Twitter and building my freelance business. I used up my creative energy writing for my clients.

Once I evolved my client work into strategy and recouped my creative energy, I wanted to get back into writing, but it didn't feel right to call myself a personal blogger because there's now a connotation that comes with that in the form of being a "creator".

I'm just a writer who has a lot of thoughts that she wants to share with the world.

In the last edition of my newsletter, I wrote about the evolution of how I show up in the world.

Which brings us to now and this space.

It was originally called The B-Roll because I thought it would just become the home for my weekly newsletter, but as I find my writing mojo, I want to leave room for growth as a writer (not a personal blogger).

So, welcome to the journey.

I hope you stay a while as I find my way through rebuilding my relationship with words after a tumultuous time.

But more on that next time.