I have been blogging since before the term ‘blog’ existed. Some things I have learned:

1) The amount of positive compliments always significantly outweighs the negativity. You must be doing something right.

2) Getting upset is precisely what they want. Don’t give it to them, and don’t waste any energy on them.

3) When approaching a touchy subject, expect there will be people who disagree with you. Don’t take anything they say personally.

Keep up the good work.

Yeah, to heck with that. We’re really staying true to ourselves and what we believe, and that shows in everything we write, in all our videos we’re posting now, etc.

And our audience is growing very fast – subscribers, RSS subscribers, daily visitors, repeat visitors, etc.

I think a large part of the fascination with blogs is the human curiosity about others, how they tick, etc… it’s voyeuristic in a large part too.

And I’ve found that the more expressive you are and follow your path, the more of a strong committed following you get – a win/win.

Have an awesome day!
Dan

On the one hand it is really good to know who’s reading your blog.

On the other hand, there’s occasionally an odd temptation (for me anyway) to try to write for a particular person in the audience, playing up to what you know they will like.

On occasion I have refrained from posting something because I thought that one or two of my known readers (in particular) might take it personally or in the wrong way.

Don’t let stuff like that bug you. Follow your heart and stay the course. The people who are meant to hear your message will hear it. Your message will resonate with some and will repel others.

We write on lot of controversial topics for our blog, which is a dating / relationship advice column. For a colorful example, check out the across the spectrum comments / perspectives on this article we published not long ago on Swinging and Polyamory:

http://www.askdanandjennifer.com/sex-and-intimacy/my-best-friends-a-swinger-will-she-burn-in-hell/

Some people will be unhappy and stop reading your stuff, and many others will be drawn to you and your message.

It’s just like with relationships – people enter and leave our lives at just the right time, we just don’t always see the perfection in it and the reasons at the time.

Have an awesome day!
Dan

Great post. I really do think this is a large hump that you have to get over when you move from casual blogging to taking it seriously. I was so upset after my first few emails telling me that I was covering something too much or too little and that I needed to focus on a certain topic or I’d loose readership, etc.

However, as bloggers (and individuals) we (hopefully) come to the realization that blogging is a personal platform and we’re allowed to discuss whatever we feel like. That might mean losing a reader or three, but in the end, it makes for a stronger blog, and I would argue it makes for a stronger person.

As you know, I’m a huge Twitter fan as well. There’s something wonderful to be said about the community there, as you point out. I really do think platforms like Twitter will be the next generation of “blogs” where we hammer out ideas and express our own identities.

Great site, so keep up the posting. I skim through a lot of feeds everyday, but yours is one that I always pause at to read in-depth.

Sam