Burst Blog

Recently, the BlogBurst team spoke with renowned blogger and BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins about her thoughts on the blogging revolution and the social impact and significance of blogs and female bloggers, specifically:

What was your mission in launching BlogHer?

BlogHer was conceived in what I consider to be a petri dish of change for women online. There were a number of instigating factors: those controversial remarks by Harvard President Larry Summers about women’s natural competencies not being in the sciences, a Newsweek article that raised the question of whether the Blogosphere was being dominated by techy white

men, and a proliferation of blogging conferences where the few women who attended could count on one hand the other women in the room. None of these factors were inherently wrong; however, considering women made up anywhere between 43% and 56% of bloggers in early 2005 (depending on the study), one had to wonder why there weren’t more opportunities for women to connect and discuss aspects of social media that mattered most to them. Women are connectors, and many prioritize the quality of their relationships with readers over the number of readers. My Co-Founder, Lisa Stone, wondered, what if there was a blogging conference that was tailored to women? What would that look like? She and Elisa Camahort began to round out a vision of an event that addressed issues pertinent to women online, and that allowed women bloggers to network and help build each other’s platforms. I joined them shortly afterward, and the three of us watched BlogHer grow organically. Last year the question we sought to answer was, “Where are the women bloggers?” This year, we know where they are, and now we want to empower them to get their message across. This year our conference theme is, “How is your blog changing your world?”

What are the first blogs you check in the morning? How many blogs do you read during the day?

Ironically, since I’ve become so connected to promoting blogging, not just writing and reading blogs, I’m finding it harder to stay on top of my blogroll. There’s only so many hours in a day. But I do spend an 1-2 hours every morning to catch what I can. I use several feed readers, online news sites, and blog aggregators that have done much of the sifting for me such as BlogHer, MediaBistro, Gawker, and Memeorandum, and then I’ll drill down.

In your opinion, what makes a great blogger?

Funny you ask this: I just wrote a post about how there’s so much pressure for bloggers in the middle of the Long Tail curve (who get decent but not mortgage-paying traffic) to make their blogs linky, and to write content that catches Google traffic. “Mention sex, add images, and tag, tag, tag!” While all of these techniques are used in varying degrees by successful bloggers, my favorites simply provide good, thoughtful content. Tell me something that I didn’t know, or tell it to me in a unique way, and I’ll read you. I think that’s why Seth Godin is such a popular blogger. He gives you substance–original, inspired thought, and you don’t even have to wait for his book to come out. Or, if the content is not your own, point me to content that shows your take on the world. One of my favorite bloggers, Jeremy over at Lifestylism is what I call a “Referring Blogger,” he doesn’t write original content but rather points you to his favorite posts and articles. But all of his choices are filtered through his very unique lens of living well and purposefully. I buy his take on things, so I end up clicking where he points me. And rarely does he point to breaking news or anything in the DayPop Top 40. He digs for what he considers relevant, not what he guesses is relevant to the majority of readers in the Blogosphere.

Why did you start Pause? Why do you blog?

I started Pause in 2004 while in a bit of a career crisis. I realized I’d been making very safe decisions after leaving my first love–writing–which I’d quit doing professionally years before because I could never write anything enjoyable to me. I wrote what I knew I could get paid to write; certainly nothing based on my opinions, or on my personal experience. Writers tend to fall into categories depending on chance or circumstances. I found I was a business and career writer primarily, and yet I suspected I was a bit of a hybrid. I was fascinated by the business world, but I saw it through a lens of personal narrative. Pause was my outlet for getting my most inspired work out there. None of my blog readers ever said, “Hey, you can’t do that–combine personal narrative with business writing!” I was allowed to experiment and was accepted–even appreciated–for it. I felt expressed. Pause has helped me become comfortable with the sound of my own voice. Blogging offers me my fantasy of publishing what matters most to me, even if its considered ridiculous by a mainstream publication. The point is, the right people find it. I’ve been able to grow my writing with people who can relate to it.

How has your writing grown and matured with your blog?

I’ve become much more open to format. I read some of my older work recently and saw that I was very tied to a beginning, middle, and end. I still like to have posts go somewhere–to hopefully have a point–however, I don’t let that get in the way anymore of getting my word out. Sometimes I’ve posted content that, in effect, says, Don’t know why I’m writing this, exactly, but this is on my mind. And readers will respond, and then I’ll see that I don’t always have to have the neat and happy ending to have blogworthy material; in fact, the best blog posts evolve as readers interact with them. I suppose that means I’ve learned that I don’t need to have all the answers to be able to make a solid contribution and start really good conversations. I’ve learned to value of the process of figuring things out. I’ve stopped declaring laws from on-high, like I thought I needed to. Just describing an experience has value.

Do you ever experience blog burn-out? How do you get yourself back in the blogging groove?

Blogging for me is therapeutic, so I don’t experience burn out. However, I do experience overload–when there’s too much on my plate for me to really delve in at a level that I am satisfied with on my blog. When this happens, I forgive myself for not being brilliant on-demand. Then I take a morning to zone out and really extract my best thoughts. For me, burn-out is not so much an issue as falling into an obligatory relationship with my blog and trying to force inspired, authentic content every day when I really just want to sleep.

What advice would you give to other women who blog?

Take it easy on yourself! Don’t assume that if the numbers or the comments aren’t there that you aren’t impacting other people, and don’t discount the impact that blogging has on you. I feel much more expressed and able to share myself as a result of doing so on my blog. The blog keeps me honest, in this sense. When my mother started her blog she wondered whether she would get readers, or be able to generate content regularly. I reminded her that just her comments on my blog alone generated a community of people who were interested in what she had to say. Just her willingness to connect and offer up her true self on her own blog got her readers. Now I visit her blog and it’s like a convention over there. Seriously, there are lids for every pot.