My Annual “WTF Am I Doing?” Post

If you’re a blogger, you might understand. About once a year I look at my blog and ask myself, “WTF am I doing?”

Writing is a queer thing. And I don’t mean gay. I mean queer. Weird. Odd. Unpredictable. Maybe some people have it all figured out, but I don’t. If you do, send me a message and let me in on the secret.

As a blogger, I’ve gone through many phases and changes. I’ve blogged about everything from business to minimalism to writing. I’ve posted how-to articles, poetry, and songs. I’ve attempted to create a formula that would lead me to earning money as a blogger. I’ve said fuck the formula. I’ve written like a squeaky-clean Christian, and I’ve written like a foul-mouthed sailor. And in the end there’s only one thing that really matters to me.

Authenticity Is WTF I Am Doing

Here’s the deal. I don’t care about making money from blogging. I don’t care about selling you product or services. What people think about me matters not. But I do care about being as honest and open as possible as a writer. If that authenticity strikes a chord and people choose to buy some stuff from me, great. But it ain’t a hard sell for damn sure.

For some reason it’s usually around the end of summer when I start rethinking things. I guess my brain’s working right on schedule this year. I’m making a few minor changes at danerickson.net.

First, I’m getting rid of the damn categories that I never should have used in the first place. Actually, the categories will remain internally, but you won’t see the lists of categories and recent posts at the bottoms of pages. Instead, I’m going back to my much-preferred “archives” page. It will allow you access to links back to every article I’ve ever written on this blog. And yes, I stole that idea from Zen Habits.

What about content? It’ll stay mostly the same. This blog is about life, and not just my life, but basic shit that happens to all of us. Of course creativity, productivity, and simplicity will still be the overarching themes, but I’ll take license to write about anything else I choose if I think it’s helpful life information or commentary.

Oh, and without getting too formulaic or cheesy, I may go back to writing a few more numbered “listicle-style” posts. My goal is to share information you can use, not just worthless BS.

Welcome to the Family

If you’re new to danerickson.net, welcome to the family. I’m glad you’re here. I hope you might find some shit I spout as useful, or at least entertaining.

Speaking of family, I’ll be keeping my family of blogs. The Dan Erickson blog is just a central location. There’s more:

  1. Anderhill: This blog is a place where I post new music and reflections about the musical production process. I only post a couple times a month, but you get links to a buttload of ambient electronic music.
  2. Cowboy Zen: This blog is a distraction-free poetry site. You’ll find nothing but simple words on a plain white page. I add new poetry on an occasional to regular basis.
  3. Hip Diggs: Although this blog is currently inactive, there are 500 posts about minimalism and simple living available for you to read. I might post at Hip Diggs again someday, but that time is not yet come.

So there it is: my annual WTF am I doing post. And just so you know, I really have no idea what the fuck I’m doing. I just do things as I go.

de

PS – I keep leaning toward using all original photos here, but I’m not quite there yet.