Written on October 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 am by kellydiels
Why Blogging is Like The Wizard of Oz and There’s No Place Like Home. A Polemic or Maybe a Manifesto. For all the Red Shoe Bloggers.
A Guest Post by Kelly Diels.
Let’s mash up reality and assume that Dorothy wrote The Wizard of Oz and it is a memoir told through the lens of pharmaceuticals and it is to be published next year.
Dorothy has written a great book: part trippy fantasy, part freudian/jungian/wonky archetypical therapy, part love letter to friendship, and a prefeminist, feminist, post-feminist meditation on the nature and power of femininity wrapped in a trendy, little-dog-carrying, hot-shoe-wearing package. It is Sex and the City meets Eat Love Pray meets Little Red Riding Hood, on acid. It is a journey. It is a great book. It must be read.
Dorothy knows this. She feels it right from her soul to the soles of her ruby red shoes. She can see the future: a movie. Musicals. The talk show circuit. Oprah. Much money, much love, much conversation, and a place in popular imagination.
It can be all of these things, not because she promotes the flying monkeys out of it – which she will, and absolutely should do – but because it offers a watery answer to our thirsty, questioning souls: you are the author of your own affair. Plus there are weird scary creatures who learn to love each other and grow as twisted, maturing moral entities and we all know that stuff sells. I hear a little book called Twilight is doing quite well these days.
So this book should sell. It needs to sell. Dorothy wants it to sell. Even more than that, Dorothy wants it to be read, to land, to take root, to grow, to inhabit, fertilize and animate our popular imagination.
If I was Dorothy – and I am – I would start a blog before I even started writing the book. I’d go all Seth Godin and build a tribe on Twitter. I’d find my people. I’d give them somewhere to find me. I’d get on the cluetrain. I’d Oprah. I’d firestart. I’d listen to Leo Babauta when he says he doesn’t believe in SEO. I’d make friends. I’d work the aich-ee-double-hockey-sticks out of ProBlogger and spend serious time with Outspoken Media. I’d figure out the lessons learned by our pantehon of blog gods and best-selling writers. I’d figure out the mechanics of demand and distribution and audience and I’d build it and they would come. And if they didn’t come, I’d go get them and then hug and pet and feed them because that is the purpose of promotional tricks and lassos and rodeo ponies and hoopla.
But I would only do that if, like Dorothy, I had something wizardly to offer: the journey. The passion. The learning. The love. The living. The lessons. The magic. The really, really great content. Please.
And this is what exasperates me about the ‘blogging and social media for money’ superhighway. So many times I follow the yellow brick road laid by an enterprising blogger who’s working the system – rocking the comments, manufacturing controversy, guest posting, paper-training SEO, tweeting – and when I get there and pull back the curtain…nothing. No wizard. No magic. No message. Just a lot of mechanics and whirling buttons and a robotic, soulless special effects machine.
Honestly, that’s what a lot of problogging and blogs and social media enterprises are looking like these days. It is turn-key blogging. It is execution unsparked by ideas. It is a waste of time and tweets and it won’t make you money.
Straight up: I don’t make a cent from my blog and I’m certainly not disparaging bloggers who do. I LOVE money. I want money. I want you and Dorothy and every other problogger out there to have as many tiny dogs – more! – as you and your minions can carry. I just want you to make it from selling wisdom, truth, experience or sparkly scarlet maryjanes (and if you are, I’m ALWAYS in the market for red shoes, so please put me on your mailing list). I want you to make an offering. I want you to have something to offer. I want you to be a Red Shoe Blogger. I just made that up.
A Red Shoe Blogger is not blogging exclusively for money. A Red Shoe Blogger has a mission and is animated by passion and all the tips and tricks and hacks and tools and tweets are harnessed in service of that divine, cosmic, helpful, genuine, meaningful objective. That mission is Home.
So this is what I want from all the Red Shoe Bloggers out there: I want you to buck the system, or work the system, but know that the system is not a slot machine that will pay off if only you keep pulling that arm and never ever run out of nickels or take a pee-break.
Success is not just about the systems. The home address of success is passion, talent (let’s be honest), creation, contribution, collaboration, conversation, and community.That is where hot sweaty abundance and cold hard cash reside (FYI, they’re totally a couple) and I wish more bloggers lived there too.
Because, after all, there’s no place like home.
84 Responses to “Why Blogging is Like The Wizard of Oz and There’s No Place Like Home. A Polemic or Maybe a Manifesto. For all the Red Shoe Bloggers.” - Add Yours
Josh Hanagarne
October 3rd, 2009 12:51 am
Kelly, this post was every bit as strange and interesting as I expected from you. I’m happy we’ve had a chance to get to know each other better. I hope you’ll be over here more often!
Casey Brazeal(North and Clark)
October 3rd, 2009 12:56 am
Here Here!
You should blog from a position of passion. If you don’t have some emotion what can you be write about.
Sometimes I go to a blog and I feel like I am watching a commercial. Why would I want to read a commercial? I want to read about and witness the things people are creating. I want to see the passion that people have.
I’ve got no idea what red shoe blogger means. But, a good blogger is substance first style sometime later.
Crimson Conservative
October 3rd, 2009 1:16 am
This post makes me feel a little better. So far, I’ve made less than a dollar in two weeks of my blog being up. According to some, that’s above average! I guess I’d consider myself a “Red Shoe” blogger.
Would I like to make some proverbial “coffee money” from my blog? Sure. But I’d rather elevate the dialogue and conversation among my followers and visitors than making a quick buck from pop-ups, rollovers and animated banners. At this point, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, and hope people appreciate it.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews
October 3rd, 2009 1:25 am
Thanks for taking us on a trip. You’re passion about blogging is apparent!
I don’t know if i got everything you were tying to communicate out of that post, but I can say this… I see tons of people who are trying to follow that “secret formula” and writing about things they have no experience with and have no passion about…
If writing about things you actually like and being passionate about it is what being a red shoe blogger is… sign me up. :-)
Jenny
October 3rd, 2009 1:33 am
This is absolutely awesome post. Thank you for breaking the scan to bold subhead.. scan to bold subhead.. scan to… process that I use when reading most posts in my RSS. And thank you for pointing out that truly great content is essential. That while the blogosphere can be broken down and approached as something that can be used for the main purpose to profit, it is so much better, so much more refreshing when it is used to share ideas that you are truly passionate about.
Kelly Diels
October 3rd, 2009 1:44 am
@Josh. Thanks. I love it when you call me strange. I interpret it as ‘creative’. That’s just how I roll.
@Casey. Yes! Yes! Yes! And I just made up red shoe blogger. I was streeeeeetching the metaphor – dorothy. learning that it was in you all along. passion. clicking the shoes. home. red shoe blogger. It is a stretch, lol.
@Jenny. I have been thinking about the heading thing a lot. I don’t use them because I write in a stream-of-conscious kinda way, so it is not how I think. I worry sometimes about the conventions I’m breaking…and then I don’t. Thanks for letting me know you liked it!
Mike Piper
October 3rd, 2009 1:48 am
Oh my gracious. I haven’t had this much fun reading a post in a long time.
The run on title combined with a completely cracked out introduction was apparently just too good to pass up. :)
Great job breaking rules while imparting some wisdom.
Pace Smith
October 3rd, 2009 1:50 am
Yay, Kelly! Your guest post kicks major ass. I got up out of my chair and cheered!
Julie
October 3rd, 2009 1:57 am
Yours is a voice of sanity. Thank you!
Katie
October 3rd, 2009 2:11 am
Whoa! I like you and I like what you have to say. A refreshing new take on The Same Old. And how did blogging for money get so same old so fast anyway?
The New Dorothy
October 3rd, 2009 2:15 am
I totally love this analogy! The premise of my blog is all about being the new Dorothy, the new/modern adventurer and wanderer, a good friend, a courageous soul…and that we can all learn a lot from Dorothy’s journey :) Thanks for the dose of inspiration, Kelly!
Fish tank
October 3rd, 2009 2:18 am
Thank you for this article, it is true there are so many junk blogs, just focusing in making money instead of giving quality content.
Lydia, Clueless Crafter
October 3rd, 2009 2:25 am
I’ve got my sparky Mary Janes on, feeling the scintillating energy guide me!
What a great visual post.
priscilla_clara
October 3rd, 2009 2:37 am
this is a great post! really original and inspiring.. ^^
it makes me more passionate about blogging, thank you! ^^
AnastasiaCarroll
October 3rd, 2009 2:58 am
I came to this conclusion a few days ago. I started a new blog before I finished my book which I actually only started. Anyway if you don’t have many visitors hardly you’ll sell anything
Jannie Funster
October 3rd, 2009 3:01 am
Now humming Rod Stewart’s “Passion, passion…” And picturing munchkins following him, pied-piper like.
Jonathan Frei
October 3rd, 2009 3:08 am
This was fantastic and passionatly written post. I feel inspired to find that voice and story and market the heck out of it. It has to be about the story and the journey and the passion that takes us there. It can’t be about the money, because there’s a lot of easier ways to make that besides blogging.
Kelly Diels
October 3rd, 2009 3:18 am
I had mentally summoned courage this morning. I was ready for “this gives me no practical tools that I can use in my blog” sorts of comments. And it is a love fest. Wow. Thanks. But where are the contrarians and practical people???
Carl Coddington
October 3rd, 2009 3:30 am
“something wizardly to offer”. I guess I’m going to start a Harry Potter Blog :)
InventingLiz
October 3rd, 2009 3:36 am
Fantastic post! I have definitely had that experience of pulling back the curtain and finding nothing there, or as another commenter said, going to a blog and finding one big commercial. Blech. Good content is not enough to be successful, but you have to start there before you add in the bells and the whistles and the tweets and the stumbles and the diggs and everything else.
Danielle LaPorte
October 3rd, 2009 3:42 am
you’re over the rainbow baby. as in, the pot of gold.
Russ Henneberry
October 3rd, 2009 3:47 am
Fantastic post and very well said…. I couldn’t agree more. I only hope I have the talent that you mentioned above because I certainly have the passion for my topic — I live and breathe it.
Thanks Kelly.
Alison May
October 3rd, 2009 4:06 am
Oh wow. That was the giddiest, silliest, girliest most scrumptiously entertaining, but eminently sensible take on the whole pro-blogging business that I’ve read in an age. More please, my tinkly shoes are a-twitching!
Angela Mills
October 3rd, 2009 4:42 am
Beautifully said.
Julie Scipioni McKown
October 3rd, 2009 4:57 am
Brava!!
Dave Doolin
October 3rd, 2009 5:03 am
Those aren’t Mary Janes. They’re very nice shoes, of course, and very sparkly red.
But Mary Janes have a strap.
This would all be easier – for me – if more people could see the poetry and elegance in well-written code.
Ronna Detrick
October 3rd, 2009 5:50 am
Not surprisingly, Kelly, you practice what you preach. Consistently. Powerfully. Provocatively. Thanks for the affirmation that content and passion matter, that there’s really no Wizard, and that “magic” and heart and awesome shoes really do matter.
I’ll walk that yellow brick road with you any and every time – not because Oz is at its end, but because the trip itself is what matters!
Thank you. Amazing!!
Colin Stevens
October 3rd, 2009 7:58 am
Very passionate and inspiring post. Made my Friday that much better=]
Stan
October 3rd, 2009 8:29 am
I agree 100% with Kelly. These day, there is a lot of junk online just for the sake of being. Lots of content with no value to anyone.
I believe, that passion and willingness to share are the right fuel for the blogging community engine.
And thanks for sharing this post Darren and thanks Kelly for writing it.
Carrie
October 3rd, 2009 8:54 am
i’m inspired
Sami - Life, Laughs & Lemmings
October 3rd, 2009 9:27 am
Now THAT was a great read! I am striving to become a “red shoe blogger”. I think I have the passion, message, collaboration, community, etc thing down. My goal is to continue doing that but also make money. It’ll happen but I’m mostly in the spreading the message part of it at the moment.
Thanks for the inspiration Kelly. Entertaining post.
Luis @ TheClevelandShowBlog
October 3rd, 2009 10:23 am
Interesting, did you happen to write the last sentence of the post before you embarked on the actual body? Just curious… You’re right about the passion part, while some people can make a good living off of blogging, it’s just not a realistic full time job for most people, but that doesn’t mean that they’re stories and ideas aren’t worthy of being seen / read.
Reminds me of a blogger I know that is constantly complaining (on his blog!) about how he’s not making money off the blog so he can’t spend time on it. He should read this post!
Kelly Diels
October 3rd, 2009 10:51 am
@Dave your insightful shoe analysis makes me swoon.
@Carl please don’t. please.
@Sami We are in sync. I want to work at what I love and make money too. I just think that getting the foundation right – ie having something to monetize other than the framework of a blog and a few marketing tricks – is the key.
Julie, Not in Oz Anymore Blog
October 3rd, 2009 11:20 am
Kelly,
Thank you for your GREAT post. I couldn’t agree with you more. I had my first blog over 5 years ago, read alot of Seth, and I was taught to write what you are passionate about and connect with others. Post on others blogs, connect up, network, share. etc.
In addition, being a Dorothy and the Ruby Red Slippers (hence the spin on the Not in Oz Anymore Blog) I TOTALLY get what you said…….
Thank you
Kelly Diels
October 3rd, 2009 11:46 am
@Luis You’re weirdly prescient. The last line arrived about 3/4s of the way through the piece. This is a good thing. Sometimes (always) I go off on a tangent and am not sure how to wrap a piece up. Sometimes it ends itself. Like this time. Phew.
@Alison. Oh my. I think you just wrote my new bio. Giddy and girly. I may have been described that way a time or two before (@joshhanagarne, I’m a-talkin’ to you)
@Carrie That was what I hoped for. Really and truly. Thank you.
@Danielle xoxoxoxoxo
@Ronna You make me sound so wise. I kinda like it. Don’t stop.
Kelly Diels
October 3rd, 2009 12:29 pm
@Mike oh I have to hire you to write about me. I can pay you in imaginary blog tokens.
“The run on title combined with a completely cracked out introduction was apparently just too good to pass up”.
Yes. Cracked is my new favourite word. Thank you!
Nathan Hangen
October 3rd, 2009 12:57 pm
Well written and unique post. Some good resources listed as well. I agree that you need to be different and have some passion/emotion in the blog, but sometimes it takes time to get there. It helps to start somewhere and then learn to find your voice.
Kelly Diels
October 3rd, 2009 1:05 pm
@Nathan you’re exactly right. That’s what I did with my blog. I just started. I’ve been blogging for six months, and recently it all coalesced into a purpose.
Now, I’m working on a new design (with hot up-and-coming designer @mandalove on Twitter) for my blog, complete with a brand(y) and a manifesto.
Yes a manifesto, not a mission statement.
So you’re right: start anywhere. Find your voice. Believe.
Liane YoungBlogger
October 3rd, 2009 7:32 pm
A post I’ve been waiting to read. This is major. Brilliant. All the honesty jam-packed. My congratulations.
Backlinks
October 3rd, 2009 7:51 pm
A red shoe blogger. I got to say this one had me hooked from beginning to end. Something interesting I make a decent amount of money online, but none of it comes from my blogs really it all has come from my boring static website which I built thousands upon thousands of backlinks mainly from reading the Grizz’s blog. Backlinks run the SERPs. The only thing is I have never been happy doing what I do when it comes to my website. After reading this blog I saw that running a blog has something which running a website doesn’t and that is interaction. Interaction between me and my blog interaction between me and my audience. I love my blogs but hate the lack of money I make through them and I hate my website but love the amount of money I make. I hope one day that my blogs will overtake my website in earning power, but the money coming from the make money niche and my website is hard to beat. Anyway sorry for babling I think I am a red shoe blogger since I don’t do it for the money and can actually make more from starting another website.
Kris,
jeux virtuel
October 3rd, 2009 9:49 pm
I agree that content will make one want to bookmark or even link to the blog post. Gr8 blog. Thanks for sharing.
jules
October 3rd, 2009 10:43 pm
and to think my red shoe fetish was all about them being pretty.
I’ve always thought the world needed more red shoes – thanks for inspiring post
Pat Steer (Gaelen)
October 3rd, 2009 10:51 pm
Kelly, I could never figure out a category for my 1st blog, & now I know why: Life out Loud is a red-shoe blog. It’s abot the things important to me, a list that is broader than a single category. My food blog, my dog training blog – I’m passionate about those subjects but they’re tight-focus. LoL is all of me, unfiltered. Harder to write but, in some ways the writing comes easier because I’m on fire. Good thoughts; thank you.
Kim @ What's That Smell?
October 3rd, 2009 11:02 pm
I adore The Wizard of Oz analogy. Just watched it with my son BTW…he’s almost 6 and I was waiting for him to FLIP OUT over the flying monkeys and the wicked witch (cause you know, they STILL scare me) but he didn’t. I’m sure this means that he will have debilitating nightmares until he is a teenager…
Anyhow, you really hit home and I think every new “mommy blogger” should be required to read this before starting a blog.
Because of their misaligned expectations and misunderstanding of how to stand out and get noticed many are destined to become the wicked witch of the east…..
At least she had pretty shoes.
Tattoo Designs
October 3rd, 2009 11:04 pm
Very Interesting piece, but I especially like the red shoe pic, it got my attention as well as gave me a few ideas . Thanks
Allyn
October 3rd, 2009 11:09 pm
Sounds like a lot of useless fluff to me. You are a great constructive writer, however, I’ll give you that.
Ryan Biddulph
October 3rd, 2009 11:15 pm
Passion: The quality you must possess to ignore all false evidence which suggests that what you’re doing ‘isn’t working.’
When acting from the heart, people will find you. Money will find its way into your pocket. The universe always takes care of those who honor its calling.
RB
Edie
October 3rd, 2009 11:39 pm
I loved this post; it tapped into everything I’ve been feeling about blogging lately. I just wrote a very crabby post on my blog about how, in order to sell my book — which I’m feeling uncharacteristically confident about — I thought I was supposed to be writing lists and producing “useful” content instead of the quirky pieces from the heart that appeal to me. So thank you for giving me hope that there’s room for genuine writing, not just soulless content.
jodi
October 4th, 2009 12:12 am
Simply awesome post! Thank you.
Jill Mitchell
October 4th, 2009 12:13 am
Love this post! Thanks for the encouragement. I will come back to your writing from time to time.
Donna Cunnningham
October 4th, 2009 12:51 am
God, this is good, so very good! Great use of a metaphor, great writing, and rock bottom truth! As a writer, myself, I thrill to it. And it is absolutely relevant–as ProBlogger so often is–to where I am in my journey to a sucessful blog. I’m really not happy with the fake social networking that goes on in blog promotion.
I feel slimy when I get oily, flattering comments by people who I sense are just trolling for places to post comments as a way of promoting themselves. A typical (and real) one reads something like this: “I am so pleased to have found your blog. I can only hope one day to be as good as you are. Please visit my blog and advise me.”
Perhaps I haven’t conveyed the exact wording, but when I get a phony, insincere comment like that that is blatent self-promotion, I really want to delete it, but don’t have a valid reason to do so. Is it proper blog manners to delete something like that, or do I just swallow the bile and hope readers buy it more than I do? Donna
julie
October 4th, 2009 1:58 am
Yea for this – let’s hear it for passion & content!
Pete | The Tango Notebook
October 4th, 2009 2:10 am
Blogging is SO time-consuming, that unless you’re well off to begin with, it can be tough to keep up with it just for fun.
Someone once told me that everyone has a story, just some people tell it better…
Those are your probloggers!
Great article, thank you.
Conrad
October 4th, 2009 2:16 am
“I had mentally summoned courage this morning. I was ready for “this gives me no practical tools that I can use in my blog” sorts of comments. And it is a love fest. Wow. Thanks. But where are the contrarians and practical people???”
Okay. Let’s get practical.
Kelly, your whole post is a practical tool. And maybe even a wake-up call to the folks who are cluttering the room with push-button money-making anything.
A quick count gives me 5 links to other resources.
And it has a motivating call to action. It’s just my opinion, Kelly, but if this is stream of consciousness then you have a rare combination of talent, passion and timeliness.
I’ve even been trying to think of something I could take issue with, or offer a suggestion on. Kelly, the only thing I can think of is that you wrote it today and not sooner. This is a bucket of water that should be thrown on all the wicked witches.
Sincerely,
Conrad Hall
Derek Alvarez
October 4th, 2009 2:33 am
Great article. I must say that I aim to make money with my bog, though.
I used to think that there was something wrong with wanting money — that people were greedy for it. But then I noticed how many people hold themselves back from their true potential because they don’t want to appear greedy (either to themselves or to other people).
Money is important to me, not because of what I can buy, but because of the impact I can have on the world with it. I want to have a positive impact on people’s lives and money can empower me to do this.
Having said that, I try to write my blogs about subjects that are interesting to me or I am passionate about. I have a lot of fun writing this way!
Ray @ The Stock market Club
October 4th, 2009 2:36 am
Kelly…..Thank you for one of the most meaningful post I have read in a long, long time.
keep up the good work!
Eleazar | Entrepinoy Bank
October 4th, 2009 3:10 am
This is a great eye opener for a struggling blogger like me to take the road of a Red Shoe blogger. I love ProBlogger!
JoanneSteele
October 4th, 2009 3:54 am
I’ve spent my working life doing what I love and getting paid for it. The recession took my 12 year job, but…
I love the idea of sharing all I know via a blog – many years of experience that should be shared beyond the borders of my small town. I have felt a little “dirty” nosing around in all the “how to make money blogging” sites – I still need to make a living. Who besides ProBlogger would you suggest as good resources for new bloggers looking at how to make a living blogging with integrity?
Ron Passfield
October 4th, 2009 4:18 am
Life’s a Yellow Brick Road…and perhaps true blogging is finding ourselves through addressing the needs of others. In another way blogging is going on a journey with others to collectively find who we are and what we are capable of. Thanks Kelly for a stimulating post full of passion – without passion there is no persistence and no realization…
Fran
October 4th, 2009 5:15 am
If my memory serves me well, at the beginning of the movie, the wizard is selling the equivalent of snake oil from the back of a wagon. Am I right? (It’s been a while.)
There’s some great foreshadowing for you, Kelly.
I loved your guest post, equally for your skillful writing disguised as a stream-of-consciousness rant as for the metaphorical authenticity of quality blogging it promotes.
I’m all for more of both of those and will be reading your blog.
Thanks, Kelly, and Darren, too!
Lorian Rivers
October 4th, 2009 9:59 am
Bravo! When I go to a blog and it’s a giant “sales letter” I am istantly turned off! Give me something I can use, for free, and then if I like what I see I might consider spending some money. But PLEASE don’t make the reason for your blog TO make money! Like MLM….the “pie in the sky” types are what ruined it for the regular people!
Holly Jahangiri
October 4th, 2009 1:48 pm
Thank you for that, Darren! Now I can just click my heels and say, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…”
Turn-key blogging. Isn’t that just deadly dull? I’d rather hang out with the Lollipop Guild, writing fun books for them to read, and watch the flying monkeys do aerobatics. Eventually, my Ruby Red Slippers will pick up a little gold dust off the Yellow Brick Road.
David Stillwagon
October 4th, 2009 1:52 pm
very clever analogy and also very true, without great content all the other machination are a waste of time
Nicci Redfearn
October 4th, 2009 7:13 pm
What a wonderful blog post. I love the passion in it.
What’s interesting is that the original manuscript for the Wizard of Oz was rejected by publishers for ‘not making sense’ and now it is so much part of our culture that everyone recognises the references.
Dorothy kept plugging away and promoting her magical journey.
(OT: I didn’t realise at first that it was a guest post and thought Darren was revealing a certain fondness for wearing red stilettos!)
jennifer888 @ Negotiation Board
October 5th, 2009 2:35 am
Kelly, Iove your voice! The story you told was great!
Although I do disagree with you on one major point. I don’t think it is wrong to provide your readers with something great while trying to make money at the same time. The idea that you want nothing for providing something of value is a little too idealistic for me personally.
Jan Middleton
October 5th, 2009 3:20 am
Excellent way to give us your artistic views on Dorothy and her story. You went around the block with your opinion on The Wizard of Oz and I, thoroughly mezmerized, went with you. Do I totally agree with all of it? Nah, but you blow me away with your talent.
Do I totally agree with your on the parallels of Dorothy and marketing? Yes.
Really brill, Jan
Carma Spence-Pothitt
October 5th, 2009 4:03 am
Love this post! Not only was it a joy to read with all the wonderful playing around with words, but it was informative and inspiring. I now so much want to be a Red Shoe Blogger that I can feel it welling up in my soul. It makes me want to join the Lolly Pop Guild. It makes me want to grab a basket and put a dog in it! It makes me … oh, well, you get the picture. ;-)
Kelly Diels
October 5th, 2009 8:34 am
@y’all. I want to make money too. I’m figuring out business models as we speak. I just want to marry The Purpose with The Cash. I don’t think it has to be one or the other but it seems like bloggers are in one camp or the other. How about we do both? Have fantastic, amazing, breath-taking, creative content AND market and monetize the flying monkeys out of it?
hokya
October 5th, 2009 9:28 am
however, individual blogs may ever “out of topic” about they main idea
Michael
October 5th, 2009 5:09 pm
Wizard of Oz has long been one of my favourite modern fables. The most powerful part of the story for me is the fact that not until the various yellow brick road walking companions form a little community are they able to start solving each other problems. We tend to be rather blind to our own strengths and of course the biggest lesson of all if we need to look further than our own backyard for our blogging home well then we’ve got no real need to hit the yellow brick road in the first place.
Cynthia
October 7th, 2009 1:41 am
So true…it is all about passion and keeping at it. It will pay off, all hard work does!
Spokane Carpet Cleaning
October 7th, 2009 5:32 am
Sometimes we just need to get home to start the journey all over again. I love the analogies here.
Sam
Janet
October 8th, 2009 1:33 am
So… what exactly was your point? Nothing you’ve written above is even half as magical as the REAL wizard of oz. So are you borrowing someone else’s ideas to do what exactly? Write prettily? Tell us to promote the hell out of something so as NOT to make any money, but just feel like we are “home” because we have a big ol platform called our blog to spew from?? Huh?
I am really really really really tired of bloggers thinking that the medium IS the message. But they aren’t. Without a message blogs suck. Worse – they are a BORE. You can have really cute metaphors all you want but without any depth or meaning or something NEW there is no there there. (PS Another writer’s work you might consider glomming off of.)
You sound like a nice person. You pick out pretty words. But one of these days I hope we find some substance somewhere, oh please oh please oh please!!
I’ve read about Dorothy and you are No Dorothy! L. Frank is rolling in his grave.
J. Money
October 9th, 2009 2:16 am
I just wanted to say that I totally love your style here. So refreshing!!!
Leah Rubin
October 10th, 2009 11:19 am
You know, you really know how to ferret out that kernel of grit that creates the pearl– you write with a depth and an understand that astound me. I love this, and not only because I totally agree with it, but because you want to get everyone to do better. (Karmically, not monetarily.)
Loved it.
umar
October 11th, 2009 7:16 am
First time listen about these
Kat Weitzel
October 14th, 2009 7:56 am
Thank you for posting this. It makes me feel like if I really care about something and spend the time researching and blogging… pouring my heart into something that I’m passionate about that somebody does care if it is a real person behind the curtain. I wasn’t sure if anyone noticed anymore. Muah. Kat
Jo Guerra
October 18th, 2009 8:01 am
Loved it and just shared it with someone on LinkedIn Answers that was wondering why no one was buying his new product. Yes, I agree with the one person that said it was quirky and you interpreted this as creative – way creative writing in my opinion. I have been writing my new blog from passion – not enough attention to strategic keywords. However I’ve noticed that my old blogs still get a lot of hits because I optimized them for keywords. I did not stuff the entries with keywords, just used perhaps one or two that had low competition and and received a lot of hits on Wordtracker. So, perhaps a combination of passion and a bit of keyword selection is better for me anyway – although I prefer writing from the heart.
Stephanie Smith
October 22nd, 2009 12:08 am
Kelly,
You are TOTALLY a Red Shoe Blogger. This is where fantasy meets truth and passion is the fuel which feeds our souls. Bloggers like you feed your readers – you infuse them with inspiration because your writing is alive and carrys the promise of truth, not just keyword repition.
It doesn’t hurt that red happens to be my favorite color, so I already know Dorothy had great taste!
Ciprian Rusen
October 23rd, 2009 6:37 am
I would say just:
“The home address of success is passion.”
If you are passionate about something it’s because you love doing it and have a talent for it. If you’ve got passion you create, contribute, collaborated with similar minded people.
If you’ve got passion and create something, you will start conversations and you will gather your own community.
For me, it comes only to this: “The home address of success is passion.”
Anne
October 23rd, 2009 11:22 am
Loved, loved, loved this. What a fun post. “Red-shoe bloggers.” Love it. (BTW, I don’t have any red shoes I can spare; I only have one pair that I purposely had dyed to match a dress I only wore twice because then I got pregnant with my fourth child at the age of 39 and somehow the body has not come all the way back but I am holding on to those shoes JUST IN CASE.)
Again, just a totally fun, and true, post.
Anne @alivenkickin
ecommerce73
October 24th, 2009 10:45 pm
What a post!!thanks a ton.Liked the way you presented your point.Without planning it’s difficult to succeed.I have bookmarked this page for future requirement.
Carlos Velez
November 30th, 2009 2:54 am
I could make some ruby red slippers looks sexy. thanks, great post.
Anderson Bode
December 25th, 2009 2:02 am
I always say that to succeed in the internet, your post should either be useful or entertaining. This post passed that test! Thanks.
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