Thoughts from the outside

I've been catching up on blog reading and have thorougly enjoyed a lot of the recap posts from the Type A Mom conference...recap AND fallout, based on some of the posts I've come across. It sounds like there were a lot of valuable lessons to be learned, and I'm sorry I missed them firsthand, but appreciate to all the bloggers who are willing to share their experiences and let me live vicariously through you!

Creating PR relationships seems to have been a pretty hot topic, one I've spent too many hours turning over in my own fledgeling blogger brain. I fall into the trap of comparing myself to those I'd consider "successful" blogs, wondering what I'm doing wrong. Sometimes it puts me in a "why bother" mood. But then I come across posts like the one over at Frugal Dad about "how not to suck at.." and it reminds me of a few important things.

1. I will be the victim (or victor) of self-fulfilling prophecy. If I convince myself I'm not as good as XYZ blogger, or that I'll never be as big as Doo..whatshername, then I won't be. I'm going to reach as high as I'm willing to set my own bar. If I want the Dyson vaccum, the SodaStream fizzy drinkmaker, or the gen-yoo-wine set of Ginsu knives, I can haz that. Dammit.

2. I have a voice that is as valuable as others that are out there. In MY voice. Trisha at MomDot wrote a post today about PR Professonalism (or lack thereof), and mentioned how a particular Type A Panelist suggested certain bloggers have "earned" the right to be themselves in the blogosphere. Hah. I'm pretty sure I earned the right to be me LOOONG before any PR person knew me. I'm already made of awesome, buddy.

3. Others have valuable insight that I can learn from. If someone isn't better/faster/smarter than me, I never learn how much higher I can reach! I don't have to be sour just because I'm not blazing the trail at that moment.

4. I don't need to measure my blog's success by how many product reviews I'm doing. Heck, I don't even really need to measure it by how many hits I'm getting. I've met some pretty awesome people just because I started blogging, and learned more from them than I ever could have on my own. That makes this a pretty successful venture. (of course, if Dyson comes calling...then I MUST be a rockstar, right?)

5. I have WAY too much fun blogging to suck that bad :) Isn't that why we got in the game to begin with?






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