I've been thinking a bit lately about why people blog.
Particularly, why crafty people blog.
The past few months, I've started following more and more quilty bloggers and I think they fall into 4 overlapping categories.
1. The Communicators: The biggest category seems to be those people with a desire to communicate with (and vent to) the outside world. Most of us want a place where we can let our hair down and just be honest. We want to have adult interaction with people who have similar passions and interests.
2. The Tutorialists: I totally just made that word up. This category of crafters tends to want to spread their knowledge in detail by telling step-by-step how they made something. They want to give tips and they want others to learn from their experiences. Some tutorialists want recognition for their creativity while others seem to want followers and fans.
3. The Documenters: These people want to keep a visual record of their creativity.
4. The Sellers: These are the ones that want to promote their Etsy shops or themselves so that they can make cash by selling or speaking to support their fabric addictions.
I fit into category 1 and category 3. Not so much category 2 or 4. Sometimes people tell me that I should make a tutorial of this or that. That's nice and all, but I'd imagine it'd take some time to document how I do things step-by-step. That would take time away from sewing. For me, another reason I'm not so keen about making tutorials or being specific about how I do things is because part of the fun of making things is to be innovative: to be inspired and to make something your own. I don't have enough time to make stuff to sell, much less time to go around giving lectures and stuff. Time. There's never enough time.
What category do you fit into, oh, fellow bloggers? Have I left any categories out? Talk to me, people... talk to me...
4 comments:
I'm a 1 and 3 as well... I'm not a fan of fans/followings --- I visit bookmarked blogs but I never "join" them. I dislike self-promotion and much of what is contained in #4. I like tutorials for certain projects, but I don't like tutorials for the sake of developing a following. I've been blogging since 2005 and up until the last year or so, my blog was about life and all that goes with. I started adding my sewing projects as a record for me, but also as a way to connect with people who share similar interests. The most fun I've had has been through Flickr --- to me, Flickr is all about sharing and connecting, more so than what I achieve through my blog.
Thanks for responding, Valerie. :) It seems you and I are like-minded in many ways.
I have a little more time to write, now.
I've been thinking more about this post, specifically about those people in the #4 category.
Valerie, you mention disliking self-promotion and my knee jerk reaction is to completely agree with you, but realistically, I can see that with something like quilting, if you want people to follow you (or if you want to profit from your hobby), you've gotta promote yourself because nobody else is going to do it for you. Blogs and Flickr and Esty are all pretty good ways to go about it. With all 3 of these sites, viewers don't have to look at something if they don't want to.
With that being said, I tend to enjoy the blogs that aren't supported with ads. The whole giveaway trend that I'm seeing lately is not something I'll likely do on my blog. Don't get me wrong, it'd be fun to win some free stuff, but I really enjoy less commercial blogs who focus on sharing their passion for their crafts, their families and who let me see a bit of their day-to-day life.
It makes me feel like I'm not alone when I see candid pictures of someone else's sewing room and it's upside down (like mine). I feel slightly less guilt when I read about how tired another mom is and how she's popped in a 2 hour cartoon for the kiddos so that she can just veg on the couch for a bit.
I don't think anyone's necessarily in just one of these 4 categories. There's a lot of overlap. Don't you think?
Yep, 1 and 3 for me! i don't have the time or the energy to document all the steps and mess in making. But i WISH i did! all i've ever wanted to be was a martha stewart. and i wish i was creative enough to come up with original ideas and write patterns, etc. but seriously, i barely get anything done with a pattern.
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