If a Blog Falls in the Forest…

And no one’s there to read it should you bother blogging anymore?

I had one of those days on Monday.  The ones where you feel like you’re running in quicksand…you know….the day when you’re working hard but to no avail.   And for me that led to a crisis of confidence.

I left my job over a year ago with an idea.  I took time to think it through, I’ve been careful not to rush things along so I get them to be pretty good before you see them, and I feel like I’m plugging away.   But does anyone care, but me?

Version 2 of the site was released last week and to the naked eye the only difference is the forums on the front page.  I think they are important as another way for people to interact and connect, but it appears I may be the only one to think they are important.

And connecting in cyberspace is great.  I have very vibrant conversations regarding this site and the resources it provides and the questions it asks on twitter.  They are quite satisfying.  But I do need more sometimes.  So I attended a business “connecting” event.  That was truly the purpose of the event…to get others to connect and to talk about what a great city Boston is.  The thought is that if there are enough people talking about how great Boston is to live and work in, then others will want to know more, and the city will have resources in place to tell more and more business will come.  It’s a pretty innovative way to use community as a private/public partnership to foster business growth in a city.  The fact that the event was “sold out” and the room full tells me people are intrigued.  I am intrigued. (And I truly do love living in the city of Boston!)

It was a nice end to my day of slogging in quicksand, even nicer after my conversation with Rachel Happe.  We have met before, she is big in the community building arena of Boston Twitterati (at least in my book) and I was lamenting how nobody cares about my forums.  She reminded me that quality not quantity is what needs to count.  One really great conversation is worth a lot more than 25 bad ones.  And I agree.  On twitter I don’t want a million followers, I want followers who want to “listen” to the things I have to say and want to engage in interesting conversations.  On this blog I try very hard not to write just because it is time to write again.  There are weeks when my blog entries are fewer and farther between because I want to be sure to have something to say…that I hope may help others.  And I am not willing to write a “controversial” blog post that I don’t necessarily believe in just to get people to subscribe to my RSS feed.  It was a good reminder…and one I sorely needed.

Also when I got home from the event and was processing what I learned (which will take even more time), I had a chance to get to some of the work I had not accomplished earlier in the day.  And I’m glad I did because I read this blog post from Lance Haun reminding me that yes, if a blog falls in the forest and no one is there to read it…maybe someone actually is reading it and you’re just not aware of them…quite yet.

(And for those of you who are already my regulars…no worries I will have the news of the week up on Tuesday – Monday was “one of those days.”)