Blogging responsibly can be tricky, especially when you’re firing away on all cylinders and your readers are absolutely eating up everything you publish. One of the most important elements to being a successful blogger and internet publisher is having a filter that separates your professional and private life.
Blogging has allowed writers and creative minds to share their passions, while marketing themselves as trail-blazers within a specific niche. Although many bloggers seek financial outcomes for their time behind the keyboard, there’s a separate and equally driven community of lifestyle bloggers who simply enjoy posting their thoughts and building community around things that they love.
If you find yourself in that category, whether you’re blogging about staying fit and healthy or chronicling your travels across the globe, it’s important that some of your brilliant thoughts stay in your brain rather than on the web.
To help ensure you’re not leaking unnecessary information from the pipes of your blog, check out our tips for protecting your lifestyle blog.
Check – and Filter – Yo’self Before You Wreck Yo’self
Once you start producing engaging content, your readers may start asking questions and requesting new topics and ideas. This is great. It means you’re building community and that is one of the hardest things to do as a blogger. As your community grows and you connect more with readers, be sure to keep certain information away from the tangled webs of the internet. At this stage of your blogging game, it’s important that you check in with your own internal filter to be sure you’re not oversharing with your audience. Honesty and authenticity as a blogger is important in creating your online identity – but how much of yourself do you – and should you – share with your readers?
If you’re blogging about fashion, stay away from taking pictures of your daughter’s daily outfit or posting where you shop on certain days. If you’re a travel blogger, don’t give exact specifics to where you’re headed next. If you love staying fit, keep the healthy recommendations coming, but stay away from posting photos of your favorite grocery store or even your kitchen.
Little things like this can help keep you and your family safe. As a lifestyle blogger, you thrive off your community and the readers that you inspire, but keep that filter in mind. While most netizens are genuinely nice folks, unfortunately, the internet harvests a bizarre world of stalkers and hackers, so keep this in mind to help you keep your piece of mind when fiddling the keys.
Keep It Simple, Stupid
Although posting consistent content is good for the sake of growth, it’s important to start simple when creating your lifestyle blog. If your blog focuses on healthy eating, you may want to become a reputable voice within that little blogosphere.
The first step towards making that possible is introducing yourself; letting your readers know your background and why your ideas are worth reading. When introducing yourself, your family, your thoughts and your background, keep the detailed information at a minimum and really just keep it simple. Readers want to get to know you, but they aren’t interested in your seventh grade crush or where you attended summer camp in the late ’90s. Keep your first few blog posts super simple – more about your topic and less about you — and you’ll find that your readers may enjoy a tad of mystery behind exactly who you are and where you come from.
Forging Forward With Anonymity
Every type of blogger, from seasoned vets to rookies, follows a few blogs for ongoing inspiration, ideas, and overall enjoyment. It’s a great idea to grow your blog-roll so that you have consistent writers and styles to reference when pivoting the focus of your blog. Because you’re immersed within the blogosphere already, you may be aware that many bloggers operate under pseudonyms, or fictitious names specifically used for authors and publishers. By doing this, bloggers are able to voice their expertise and opinions on a specific subject matter, while also protecting their privacy.
Whether you know it or not, some of your favorite bloggers may be operating their blogs under completely made-up names. But remember, it’s only for the sake of their privacy and safety and you can now understand since you’re “one of them.”
Because you’re one of the many soldiers lining up for blogging battle each and every day, it’s worth weighing the pros and cons of publishing your content with anonymity. In most cases, bloggers do so to ensure their digital life doesn’t conflict with potential job opportunities or work in the future. In our progressive age of all things social media and technology, employers often conduct online background checks and will take detailed looks at how you represent yourself online. That said, it could be worth exploring a pseudonym to protect your past, present, and future endeavors.
Protecting your privacy has always been important as it confirms that we can walk the streets and peck the keys with peace of mind. It allows you to blog and create freely without having to watch your back for hackers and creeps. Being a blogger is both exciting and nerve-wrecking, as you publish thoughts and ideas for the world to read and remember. Your most popular blog post could turn into your most critiqued, but as a blogger we all understand the ebbs and flows of digital soap-box power.
So, the next time you hit the keys to relinquish your innovative thoughts and one-of-a-kind opinions, be sure to keep it simple with your details and put a filter in place for your thoughts. The web is everyone’s oyster, so if it makes sense for you to operate your blog under a pseudonym, do just that. It all comes down to your safety, which, in turn, will give you the freedom to let your blog take full flight!
