I’m finally reading my copy of Outliers and it’s completely fascinating. It discusses unexpected and seemingly inconsequential factors that actually contributed significantly to success stories like those of Bill Gates and top New York lawyers and Canadian hockey stars.
While hard work and intelligence and talent are still essential to success, they aren’t enough. The idea that any kid can become President is false; factors far outside our control narrow the pool of contenders long before they’re old enough to even take an interest in politics. What Outliers explains is that those determining factors aren’t necessarily what we’d expect them to be.
It struck me that unexpected factors also play a role in blogging success. We like to think that blogging is a meritocracy: good writing always gets noticed. We also like to think that it doesn’t matter when you started blogging, or where you live, or even whether you choose to share your real name on your site.
But all of these factors do matter.
Most of the bloggers I know best offline are those who began blogging around the same time that I did – the latter half of 2005. The first BlogHer conference, at which the call was issued “Where are the women bloggers?”, was held in July 2005. It was there that mommy blogging took root as a movement, with Alice’s declaration that “Mommy blogging is a radical act!”
The following year, many of us who were inspired by Alice and bloggers like her gathered in San Jose to meet for the first time. But we did more than drink too much wine and exchange business cards; we formed relationships that would grow into partnerships. We weren’t thrown together by a corporation with an agenda for us to fulfill; we sought each other out because of our shared passions.
Those passions weren’t for making money on our blogs either. At BlogHer06, the BlogHer ad network had just launched. A few of the most well-known bloggers had signed with Federated Media. I was thrilled to be in the inaugural BlogHer ad network group, in part for the (small) monthly check, but primarily for the opportunity to be in the company of bloggers I admired – both my contemporaries (like Kristen and Liz and Izzy) and those who inspired me to start blogging (like Eden and Tracey and Jenn).
It was the timing of our entry to blogging that allowed us to get in on the ground floor of new opportunities, and to work together to create our own opportunities that were the first of their kind.
Since anyone with an Internet connection can blog, the physical location of a blogger wouldn’t seem to play a role in success. But it’s physical proximity that facilitates relationships, and bloggers who live in the same local area as several of their counterparts form closer bonds with each other due to in-person meetings. While still perhaps somewhat infrequent, these meet-ups and tweet-ups take place more often than the once-a-year trek to BlogHer. Furthermore, as much as we all love BlogHer, it’s nearly impossible to devote a couple hours to getting to know a single person under those circumstances.
Another reason that location matters concerns the press opportunities available to bloggers. While it’s becoming more common to shuttle bloggers across the country to attend events, it’s still advantageous to live in or near a big city like New York or Los Angeles or Chicago or the San Francisco Bay Area where events are more likely to be held. Attendees don’t just get a factory tour and a free meal – we get the opportunity to network in person, particularly with influential locals whom we might never otherwise meet.
Privacy is a major discussion topic among personal bloggers: disclosure of full names, disclosure of childrens’ names, posting pictures. Many bloggers use pseudonyms – not just for their kids, but for themselves too. It’s natural to be concerned about what personal information can be found via search engines; even the most squeaky clean bloggers have people from our past whom we’d rather remain there.
But if we want to be known for our writing, we have to be able to be found. We may occasionally refer to one another by our blog names, but in a professional capacity we’re known by our real names. It allows for cross-referencing of our work (both online and off), and it makes introductions easier. We don’t attend press events – or even BlogHer – and introduce ourselves as such: “Hi, I’m Mommy Cutie Patootie.”
Obviously, none of these factors – alone or in combination – guarantees blogging success. Good writing and compelling topics and audience engagement still matter. But I’d submit that for many of us, our blogging stature has been augmented by these unexpected factors far more than we previously realized.
Conversely, none of these factors preclude blogging success. But as with the counterpoints presented in Outliers – people with intelligence and talent who worked hard but didn’t have those unexpected factors working in their favor – our blogging stature might not be what it is had we started blogging a year or two later, or if we lived outside North America, or if we did actually go by “Mommy Cutie Patootie”.
When did you start blogging? Where do you live? Do you blog under your real name?
I didn’t start blogging until two summers ago. (I have no clue what took me so long.) We live in Okinawa, so BlogHer (and all other blogging conferences) are out of reach (and budget) for now. I use my real first name, as well as my husband’s, but pseudonyms for my kiddos, and our last name isn’t mentioned, though it could be discovered with some sleuthing. Not because I’m particularly paranoid, but because my Army-employed hubby is. I don’t really blame him.
I read enough in the Blogosphere to see the relationships you’ve been talking about, and I can see that those are relationships that have been around and cultivated for not just months, but years. It is hard to break into something like that… kinda like being the new kid at school. Which is exactly what my kids will face every time we PCS. At least I’ll be able to commiserate.
I am Kelli Oliver George, I live in Kansas City and I began blogging in 2004. I blog under the name “cagey” a play on my former anonymity and my initials. I don’t hide my real name now since having been published in a book tends to put an end to all of that, no?
Oddly, when I attended BlogHer 05, I was near the end of my pregnancy. My cankles and I felt out of place because I did not know where I belonged at that time. I was not a mommyblogger, yet. And I was not NOT a mommyblogger. Know what I mean?
Your post has many valid points. I don’t want to say that luck has to do with a blog’s success, but I know several can point to specific advantageous events that launched their blogs into killer traffic numbers. And I do think that living in a what is perceived to be an awesome or interesting spot in the country lends to the mystique. For damned sure, I suspect very few of my readers are impressed with my Kansas City location. Heh.
I agree so much. I always credit being in in the right place at the right time- starting a blog late 2005, too with no idea there was even a community involved with blogging. I live near Chicago and through another blogging friend I was invited to visit Google and talk about being a Mom blogger. I connected with the other Mom bloggers there and soon we were forming the Chicago Moms Blog (sister of SV Moms.) And from there it just grew and grew. I’ve always blogged under my real name and aside from some “clueless rookie mistakes” early in blogging, I have no regrets.
Steph
I didn’t start blogging until last year, at least that was when I made myself more visible with my blogging. I’m in Minneapolis and I definitely feel the “you’re not in the right area” thing. Add to this thing called MN Nice where we don’t admit to competition, but are fierce competitors, and thus don’t network well, and I feel like an island most of the time. Despite knowing there are bloggers among me. Fear from day job backlash and other things come in to play as well when outing myself locally.
I just a fake name, but I admit it is fake. I share my real name when appropriate. It is on my business card for BlogHer. My real name is VERY unique and that is why I find it best to keep it private. Partially because of the day job, partially because of some nuts ex’s. I would like to share pictures of my daughter, but I don’t because of my husband. I use their initials when I write about them.
I have very few expectations for BlogHer, other than maybe meeting some people I’ve had the pleasure of having a business type relationship with. Which is why I wish you were going to be there. Mostly I want to say Thank You in person.
I started blogging about a year ago… only with the intention of blogging family updates for immediate family and friends. who knew other people would be interested? LOL. i have really enjoyed the unexpected audience, though, and do find that i am posting (writing would be inappropriate for me to say, since most of my posts are picture oriented) with the larger audience in mind these days. i don’t use a pseudonym, but i also don’t have our last name posted anywhere on the site. it’s easily found without much digging, but i don’t feel the need to shout it from the rooftops, either.
i live in central florida… i’ve ‘virtually’ met a few other central florida bloggers, but never in person. i’m still not entirely sure what my ultimate blogging intentions are… so i don’t know if i will ever do a meet up or conference. but i certainly won’t rule it out, either
I used to blog for my sanity. Then it was an outlet for some mental agony I was going through. Now I blog because I like to. Go figure, I never liked writing growing up, but I’ve discovered I’m not all that bad at it when I want to be…
I don’t blog under my real name, although some of my followers are friends on facebook and others certainly know who I am…and I’m from Upstate NY
I started blogging in 2003. I live in Nashville where we don’t get many awesome corporate events.
Of course I blog under my real name. My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mom, are very proud of me.
Sorry to miss you at BlogHer this year
I started in 2005, the first time at least. I blogged for almost two years and I wish more than anything that I’d gone to the 2006 conference. I used my kids real names, used my real name and posted pictures. Then my family found it. Some of them still won’t talk to me because of things I had said, assuming that I was small enough and hidden enough to be honest.
This time around, I’ve been blogging for a year. Fake names, no pictures and I’m EXTREMELY cautious about certain details. However, since I’m going to this years conference, I don’t….sigh. I don’t know, I just don’t know what happens now. Maybe nothing. Maybe I’m full of shit?
I live in Denver. But I on purpose don’t go to the blogging things here. I know that in some peoples eyes, makes me…who knows. Not worthy of being friends with? I guess that’s something I will have to live with. I need to keep blogging separate from my family life. Might not make sense to most people, but for me, right now? It’s the only way.
Living near enough to SF that I can go there for events has definitely proven to my advantage. My real name isn’t hidden, but it’s so frightfully common (Jennifer Johnston) that I’m actually more well known by my blog name, which is easier to google.
Welllll, as you know, I started around the same time as you. And, to your point, my anonymity has really meant that I had to stay under the radar. This has kept me out of the loop on certain opportunities, despite some early success with my first blog.
I was never out to make my blog my business, but it was tempting when all that stuff was first going on. I really struggled with whether to put myself out there for real. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of information about my family on the interwebs already, so blogging about them would have exposed us in a way that would not be prudent.
Even more unfortunately for me is that this lack of development has left me indifferent and lazy about blogging. I wonder if I had rode the wave a little more if I would be more committed these days.
I just started blogging about 2 months ago, so I’m a true newbie! And nobody knows me yet.
I live in St. Louis, and I do not blog under my real name. I use psuedonyms for my family and friends.
I’ve been blogging since 2006, and I live too far away from anything fun. I do think that has slowed me down a bit. I think I’m reasonably well known, but I’m not that well read. Does that make any sense?! I don’t have my real name on my blog, but I’m creeping out more into connecting my blog ID with my other online writing and, therefore, my real name. Another reason I wish I’d kept my maiden name … so much for that!
I will say, because dam it Julie I can’t stop thinking about this now; that I could probably use my real name and no one would ever find me. Because like, Miss Grace, my name is freaking common. In fact, there are three (two with the same middle as mine) who go to the same Walgreens I do. It’s my kids names being uncommon that made me easy to find the last time around.
What a lovely, on-target post. I started blogging around the same time you did, and was at BlogHer 2006, and felt that same raw, human, power of connection. It has stayed with me all along, and has sustained me through some of the hardest parenting years yet. We may not hang out at coffee shops every week, we may only see each other F2F once a year (or less), but we are friends and colleagues in the best sense of the word.
I’ll miss all of you in Chicago (alas, life) but always know there’s next year. For all of this talk about the business of blogging, and “jumping on opportunities,” there’s no time limit on friendship.
I live in St. Louis and I started blogging in 2005, but switched blogs twice, never leaving a trail as to where I was going next. I’ve obviously lost a few readers in the transitions, but that was sort of the point. I use my real name (just first name, though my last name is in my email) but I don’t use my husband’s name. That might change once we have kids because I’m not too keen on calling my child anything other than his/her name. Hope ya’ll have fun in Chicago! Unfortunately, I won’t be there.
I started in fall of 2006. I think one thing that contributes to success is having the blog name and the blogger pseudonym be the same—or at least, I find it easier to associate the person with the blog when the names are the same, and recognition leads to bonding. I think it might be a good idea to use my real name but I don’t want to; it makes me too nervous. For one thing, we’re the only family in our entire state with our surname, and we’re listed. So I use pseudonyms for the whole family.
I don’t use my real name. My reason for this is that blogging is not my job. I work in a relatively small industry, and do not want a blog post about how to function at work on next to no sleep coming up if a potential employer searched on my name. And potential employers will definitely do that search in my industry. I did want to share some of what I have learned as a working mom, though, because I desperately wanted more information about practical things when I went back to work. I also like connecting with other mothers via my blog.
Anyone who knows me could easily recognize me from my blog, though, and I’m fine with that. However, this means that I will NEVER post about specific events at work or say anything snarky about a colleague on my blog.
Since blogging is a hobby, not a business, I’ve never been bothered by the fact that I’m clearly not in the “in crowd” of successful bloggers. In fact, I might be a little freaked out if I suddenly started getting a lot of hits on my site!
I started blogging in 2006. I use my real first name and my husband’s real first name. I use my kids’ first initial only. I don’t use our last name, but I’m certain that it could be found out with little problem if anyone wanted to. Several of the people I communicate with online know my last name and I have an etsy shop that my materials have my full name on so if anyone is really curious, they could just buy some stuff from my shop!
I am in Minnesota, and as “Amelia” said, it’s not exactly a hotbed for blogging. I think it would be an outstanding place to hold BlogHer though.
I found Outliers very interesting, especially the “born in January” section and the “10,000 hours” section. I live in the SF Bay Area, so I could participate in a fair number of opportunities if I took more time to do it. For now, I’m happy to keep in touch with online friends and attend BlogHer. Sorry to miss you this year!
On the 10k hours topic, one of the reasons I started blogging was to improve my writing, so I wrote every day for the first year. I still try to write five days per week, even if it’s very short post, because I find that the practice does really help me. Thinking about areas where I’ve developed some level of mastery, I would agree that having the love of some activity be so strong that you’ll happily spend than many hours at practice would indeed make the difference.
I started blogging almost four years ago. I did it because I had been a teacher and then a professional writer, but because I live in Texas, the publishing industry isn’t as lucrative as it is in other areas. I needed to write every day or lose my mind. Unfortunately, I was “late to the party” and alliances had already been formed. Here, I had a recognizable byline, but on the internets I wrote (and still do) under a pseudonym. My parents still don’t know about my blog and it’s probably good that they don’t. Writing under a fake name is like starting over…and it still is. Every day. With the exception of someone in Houston, Texas is not known for celebrity bloggers with insane stats. No one’s calling from the “Today Show” or “Oprah”. It used to bother me that so much success was aimed at just a few individuals (several of whom just happened to be friends), but then I realized that I actually have a teaching career and blogging is just a way to stay connected with other people. If someone wants to make their car payment by blogging, I say “fine with me”. I’m not going to get starstruck over it or anything, though. Mystified by all the hoopla? Sometimes. But never starstruck.
I started blogging last year, I live in North Carolina (but I’ve lived a lot of other places), and I do use my real name—as well as my hubs’ name and my son’s name. Which is made all the more complicated by the fact that my husband is a cop. But I decided that if what I was writing about wasn’t good enough or true enough or honest enough for me to attach my real name to it, then it wouldn’t be worth it for me. I started blogging because I needed my own creative outlet (I’m a professional editor), a creative place for myself, after having my first child and my life suddenly became unrecognizable as my own. But I wouldn’t call myself a “mommy blogger.” I’m definitely a latecomer, and opportunities haven’t exactly fallen into my lap—for relationships outside the Internet as well as for making money, which has forced me to really define for myself why I’m doing this. This is especially hard for me to determine, since writing is my trade, so I naturally want to be successful doing it. But being a year or two or three behind the curve makes getting noticed and developing relationships all the more difficult. My best friend is reading Outliers right now, incidentally.
I also started in 2005 but only one blogging friend and my husband bew about my blog. I’d be all excited that Google brought 8 people to my blog in a day, even if it was on a search for “fake hickey.”
In 2007 I joined Chicago Moms Blog and attended BlogHer. I learned about blogging as a community and a conversation. Without these things to sustain me, I might have stopped.
Being part of a blog network and living near a major metro area have helped. I have a blogfriend who lives in nowheresville and she juts doesn’t get invited out all that much.
Really interesting post. I’ve read so many reviews and commentaries of Outliers, I feel like I’ve read the book. I should track down a copy.
You make such excellent points. I started blogging in 2006 and already felt like I was behind the curveball! I have also come to the conclusion that you have that if we want to be known for our writing, we have to be willing to put our real names out there in addition to our blog personas.
Great post, and great points. You know my history… but late 2005, Denver and yes, my real name but only just lately.
I started blogging in early 2006. It was actually Feb 1 but I backdated my first post to January 31 so it would fill out my archives. I have never confessed that before.
I have yet to update my about page that says that my name is Liz and I’m semi-anonymous. So it’s always funny when I see mentions of me that claim that I’m anonymous. Um…search flick’r sometime. Where I often wish I was anonymous.
And I’ve now logged 10,000 hours. So I’m waiting for those millions to start rolling in.
I started blogging six months before the last Blogher (and felt more than a bit out of place at the last BlogHer). I live in Vancouver where there are a lot of bloggers and very little organization to bring us together. It’s only recently sort of started. Since I started blogging for family and their updates, I used my real name in my URL! And while being public has it’s own advantages, it also means there’s a lot I don’t say simply because my whole family reads my blog.
I do blog under my name, Victoria Mason and I’ve been doing it since 2003. Really, that was just live journal but under The Mummy Chronicles it’s been since Oct. 2005. I live just outside the DC Metro area and that is indeed advantageous event and networking-wise. Back then I was reading Tall n Lucky, Motherhood Uncensored and Suburban Turmoil. All wonderful blogs with great writing.
Despite starting early I still feel like I’m behind but I’m getting there.
I started blogging in 2007, a little too late to be really part of anything. I do use my real name, although sometimes I wish I didn’t. I live in Tasmania, Australia and as far as I can tell, there are hardly any bloggers down here at all. I only know of 2 other blogs and one of them is a friend from school, the other? My mother. I envy bloggers who can meet up for coffee on a regular basis and get to know each other IRL.
Well, you know my story. I started blogging in 2005… Pseudonym, in the closet, real name, out of the closet
And then back in… lol
Just wanted to let you know you were missed this weekend!
xo
I started blogging in July 2004, really for myself and my family (that was all that seemed to exist back then), and I kept it up pretty regularly for a year or two. But then life got busy, and I didn’t really return to it until January this year. I hate that I missed the real “formative” period.
When I started, I was in Dallas, and when I got back into it this year, I’d moved to Austin. So… I’m in an okay place, physical location-wise. Although, again, I think it matters that I wasn’t around much the past few years. A lot of relationships have already been established. Kinda like being the new kid at school.
Also, when I started in 2004, I used initials only and didn’t post pictures (no one really posted pictures back then, though… wasn’t as easy as it is now… god, I sound like an old fart… heh). But when I started back up in January this year, I threw all that out the window. For me, it was too hard to keep up, and I felt like it made my writing too clunky (although I’ve seen others who do a good job). It’s a slight concern security-wise, but I feel like, if anyone wants to find someone these days, it’s easy enough, whether you put yourself out there or not. And I feel like using my name and pictures lends credibility. I also decided a long time ago that I’m only posting what is true for me, and I stand behind whatever I post, so I should feel comfortable associating myself with it. If I don’t feel comfortable, or if I’m worried about real-life repurcussions, I don’t post it. It’s easier to vent when your real name/picture isn’t associated, but I’m much happier now writing under my real name.
I’m not a new blogger by any means — I started in October of 2005 — but I do write under an alias. I don’t think that means my writing is any less valid. I live in a small city and have a very unusual first name. If I wrote as myself, all the kids I teach and people I meet at work could google me and read my blog. I would be extremely limited in what I say. So, yeah…I guess I’ll always be Mommy Cutie Patootie.
Never said anything about being less valid. It just narrows the field of opportunities.
i introduce myself to bloggers with my real name, but i think i’ve kept my real name out of the blog – just because i do have a full time job, and i haven’t told them (and don’t plan to).