The Silent Blogger

Everyone has different reasons for blogging. It could be for professional development, knowledge exchange, documenting a personal journey, or just as a form of self-expression. My motive for blogging includes a small portion of each of these reasons, with one major difference: you have to find me.

I don't go out of my way to promote this small portion of the internet web-sphere that I own. In the past, I experimented with syndicating articles to more prominent blogging media platforms and communities, but it didn't fulfil my expectations or bring any further benefits.

I've observed that my demeanour mirrors an approach to blogging in that I don't feel the need to go to excessive lengths to disclose my accomplishments or a problems I've solved. This could be due to my age, as I am more comfortable just being myself. I have nothing to prove to anyone.

A 13th century poet, Rumi, once said:

In silence, there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.

This quote implies that silence is the source of clarity that allows thoughts to develop naturally and emerge.

Ever since I stopped the pursuit of recognition and a somewhat futile attempt to force my written words onto others, the natural order has allowed this blog to grow organically. Those who have found me from keyword searches has resulted in better interaction and monetisation (through my Buy Me A Coffee page). Fortunately, since I've made an effort to make this blog as SEO-friendly as possible, my posts appear to perform fairly well across search engines.

No longer do I stress over feeling the need to write blog posts using the "carrot and stick" approach just to garner more readership. I found I benefit from blogging about the things of interest. It's quality over quantity.

If you have got this far in this very random admission of silent blogging, you're probably thinking: So what's your point?

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it's okay to blog without the expectation of having to promote every single post out to the world in hopes for some recognition. Previously, this was my way of thinking, and I've since realised that I was blogging (for the most part) for the wrong reasons. In one of my posts written in 2019 I was in pursuit to be in the same league as the great bloggers I idolised:

I look at my blogging heroes like Scott Hanselman, Troy Hunt, Mosh Hamedani and Iris Classon (to name a few) and at times ponder if I will have the ability to churn out great posts on a regular basis with such ease and critical acclaim as they do.

I've learnt not to be so hard on myself and lessen expectations. When you trade your expectations for appreciation, your whole world changes; even though a sense of achievement feels great, it's far more important to enjoy what you're doing (roughly para-phrasing Tony Robbins here).

This new perspective has reaffirmed my belief that I have always enjoyed blogging, but being a silent blogger provides a sense of freedom.