Spill the Tea: Blogging

Spill the Tea is a new series on this blog where I spill my honest and unfiltered thoughts about a specific topic. Topics can be about tropes, issues, themes, or even random Internet debates like the whole ‘do pineapples belong on pizza’ topic. Who knows?

Since it’s the first post on this blog, I thought it would be fitting to talk about what I feel about blogging, the motivations behind it, the ‘real’ reason why I started one.

I touched on this in a tagged post before, but I only mentioned that I started blogging to ease my stress, which is true.

I’ve tried starting multiple blogs in the past, but I never had a specific theme. I don’t even think this blog has a theme either.

It’s a mix of all of my interests, which is why I don’t consider myself to fit into any niche. My previous blogs were all platforms to post my creative works because that was what I enjoyed: writing creatively.

But that died pretty quickly. I managed to attract a small audience, but I still had no idea what I really wanted to do with this online space. So, I ended up dropping it.

A year into grad school, I needed an outlet to express my thoughts, feelings or just stop living inside my head.

I enjoy talking to myself, and as strange as that may sound, it helped me get through some frustrating times. It was a spontaneous decision to just post my conversations on the Internet.

I started off doing Japanese drama reviews because that was what I was into at the time. But I noticed that it was barely getting any traffic.

So, I left for a while. Since I wasn’t dedicated enough to this craft anyway. It was just for fun, something that I didn’t see as any real commitment.

Numbers matter to me. Traffic numbers, comments, and likes all really mattered to me. They still do, but I’ve come to terms to look past the numbers and focus on what kind of content I want to create.

I started to get more creative. If you’ve read my old posts, you’ll notice I just started branching off into random areas of my interests: sports anime, Japanese actors and actresses, and more.

Looking back, I’ve noticed what really influenced me to blog. It was comments and likes. I don’t think this comes as a surprise to anyone, but consistent likes and comments on posts are incredibly motivating. It also beats page numbers.

When I noticed what content boosted numbers, I started deviating towards making more of those posts. And my stats went up pretty fast.

But, it was like one day, I had a revelation. I don’t want to continue writing similar things. So, I started going back to ‘my roots.’ I started doing more reviews, but I went to anime, manga, dramas, and other posts. It made more blogging more… colourful.

Anyway, I think I came full circle. I started writing for myself, for others (slightly exaggerated because I still enjoyed it), and back to writing for myself.

And I think that’s what blogging means. Blogging is for yourself. Creating is for yourself. It’s your space, and you can decide what you want to do with it. Everyone has different motivations behind blogging.

Some do it as a hobby, and others want to make money. But at the end of the day, it’s your space, and you call the shots on what you want to do with the space given to you.

Hopefully I made some sense in this post. Thanks for reading!