Personal blogging is not for the meek… and a few other conclusions so far

(Reposted from my “journalist in retraining” blog)

(Not) just another gratuitous cat photo. When you're blogging about personal topics, sometimes you feel like the fish in an aquarium.

It’s been more than two months since I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into the blogosphere (I explained my trepidations in an earlier post) and I launched my first official blog, Sandwiched In. That doesn’t make me an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I did come up with some conclusions so far.

First of all, I can see why so many blogs are floating out there, tossed into the cyberlandfill like disposable utensils. Blogging is work, no matter if you’re writing about your cat or about the latest tech gadget — you have to put in the time, and you have to be disciplined about it.

Unless you’re an expert in a specific field, coming up with a topic is half the battle, and suddenly it makes sense why the going advice is to base the blog on something you’re passionate about. It’s hard as it is to keep up the writing unless you have nothing better to do, and if you don’t care about the topic, it’s even worse than pulling teeth.