Social Networking: When Does it Become Too Much?

Seems I've stumbled into a lot of conversations lately that begin the same way.

"I can't keep up with all I have to do. The frustration paralyzes me."

Last week I blogged about it in a post titled "Stuck in a Rut?" It wasn't long before AJ picked up on it at her Always Juggling blog too, in a post that addresses social networking, and how hard it is to keep up with what we perceive as commitments.

Well, this week I'm determined to sort through my commitments. I'm slicing and dicing them to see what's critical and what has become nothing more than a fun way to waste time. So far, I've concluded that I can live without most social networking tools except LinkedIn and Twitter. For now, at least, I plan to pull back from the others.

I haven't taken the Facebook leap yet and I'm glad I didn't. It sounds like something that I would end up liking way too much. I might forget that I have real work to accomplish.

It's interesting how basic it is to take a step back and just breathe. Who knows, I might even find time for gardening this week. Sort of reminds me of a tv commercial I love, where a twenty-something guy is describing an awesome sight--this gold and pink explosion of color across the sky--as if he'd never seen such a thing before. The older guy with him throws him this little smirk and says, "Yeah. It's called morning."

Backing off of social networking feels a little like seeing my first sunrise. I plan to enjoy it.

How to Blog - Block One.

The kid on the block formerly known as "new" is, well - "newer" than ever.

The Blog - don't go into cyberspace without it!

Ideal scenario #1: you find a focused niche (your expertise) to write about on a fairly regular basis, 3-5 times a week. You utilize various techniques (more about this later) to promote your blog and build your subscriber list. Within 12-18 months, you have a solid readership of, let's say 1,ooo followers, and your posts attract a few hundred visitors per day. And, you're growing...

Corporations take notice and approach you for valuable ad space on your pages. You're in business - maybe "big bidness". Maybe - you make a living with blogging! How cool is that!

Ideal scenario #2: Double the numbers above.

These are realistic scenarios. More people than ever make good money from blogging. More corporations than ever wake up to the power of social media, viral videos, blogging, etc.

This blog post quotes the Technorati 2008 State of the Blogosphere report:

"Bloggers create 900,000 blog posts a day worldwide, and some of them are actually making money. Blogs with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year..."

Guess what? Yesterday I read a post from an Austrian blogger about the fact that "social media interaction", as we know it in America, is still a brand new concept in his part of the "old country". Wow! What if we honed our skills and then offered our services to European clients? I wonder what our resident Netherlands connection, Katinka (spirituality), has to say about this...

O.k., let's leave our dream land of online riches and focus on "the path". I've discovered tremendous resources for better blogging on, well, other people's blogs. The pros are generous.

Here's my first batch of must-read sites. I feature some choice posts on our topic, but there is much more to be found in their blogs' archives.

7 Common Mistakes When Starting a Blog

The Winnie the Pooh Guide to Blogging

What Makes A Blog Post Anyhow?

21 Ways to Write Posts that Are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog

How I Made $220.64 from One Short Blog Post

The tip of the proverbial iceberg - but many hours of free and invaluable education for you.

3, 2, 1, - Go!

(...to be continued)