T.B.N.T. (Thanks, but no thanks)

This is something I find myself writing over and over again to people these days… A day in the life of five year old blog (journal)…

I have to say, “No thank you” to everyone, because first of all, this is my wine journal.

Secondly, while it would seem like a great opportunity for me to be able to pull back from non-billable hour writing, it’s not, I’ve found.

I’ve thought about this for a few years now… Giving up most of my weekends is still a conscious choice I’m making, to hammer out journaling. Sometimes I question my own sanity about this; but I’ve given in, realizing that I’ll always have a need to write something…Even if it segues away from wine, I will be writing something. I’ve been writing since I picked up my first pencil and was told to write about anything… Just write. What freedom and what fun. I was published early on, and realized back then that I’m able to write persuasively. So could all of the lawyers in my family, too, ahead of me. It’s in our DNA, to be able to articulate and to champion for underdogs.

So, why not have others contributing to this blog and get some free time on weekends?

Because I tried it, and it didn’t work. It personally worked for me. I became more free, while I only formatted text. But, it’s not how this blog got started. I didn’t start out with a talented group of people. A great example of how that’s working well is Catavino. They’ve got an extensive list of authors, but it’s also mainly led by wine blogging friends Ryan and Gabriella Opaz. On their site, if a guest blogger pops up, there’s no surprise. On my site, however, if a guest blogger pops up with any regularity (like I tried), my back end numbers begin to tank. With any website, there’s a front end, which we all see and read, and there’s a person behind the curtain – like in the land of Oz – that takes care of business behind the scenes. On these pages, authors can see how many visitors we have to our sites, where they come from, what their interests are, what they click to next, etc.

Watching my numbers tank, because people didn’t want to mess around with “Is it Jo today or someone else?” made me reevaluate my position on guest authors. The decline was sharp after a few weeks of this new way of running Wine-blog.

So, I had to make that decision… “Love you guys being part of my blog, but…” … because it didn’t work for those who were actually reading my blog.

My advice to anyone who wants to write for someone else’s blog, including this one ~ Start your own blog. If you have one, continuing writing on it… There are many reasons to do this, including some of these opinions:

• Your own thoughts matter.
• If you’re a good writer, cream always rises to the top and so will your blog.
• There’s no quick journey to a place that it’s taken me (or anyone else) five years of trial and error to find.
• Don’t be in anyone else’s shadow… Backup singers don’t have a lead voice, even though they have a voice.

The best part of having this now written is that I can come back to this blog posting and just cut and paste a standard answer… as I must now do, to go answer what just came in.

The last request inspired me to write this, and now that it’s complete, I already need to answer the next one. It’s amazing… Who saw this one coming.