it’s something i asked myself over and over while at the Influence Conference.
can I blog for Jesus and for my business?
AND do them both well?
can the two coexist without me getting too concerned with stats and revenue and SELF..
and “growing the blog….?”
ugh, that term puts a bad taste in my mouth, and yet excites me at the same time. right?, because if we are growing in readership, then we are expanding our reach for influence for Him….maybe. hopefully.
i think it’s about being humble and patient and waiting on His will for my work.
there’s this tension between “you don’t just become an overnight success–you have to be intentional about growing your readership” & “God took this little blog and blew it up with me just showing up each day in obedience.” everybody has their own story.
i’m searching my heart about the true reasons i blog and write and have a passion for the women who read it. i want to always do what i’m doing to bring glory to the Lord, and i’m torn that the “business side” might sidetrack me from that purpose. blogging with the purpose to share the Gospel and how it is poured into my life seems selfless in many regards while attracting advertisers and new readers seems selfish. that said, i want to do both. i want to blog to share the gospel and i want to blog to help support my family and to help others.
maybe i’m, personally, struggling with this because i know deep down, i don’t totally want to give it all up to Him. i want to control. but i don’t want to let the lies of “I can do it better than Him” control me any longer. i’m not going to “try” to be better, but i am going to wake up each morning with the fresh knowledge that His grace is sufficient for me and His guidance is my best.
it’s a process, but i’m seeking Him and his plans for it all. that may be at least, the first steps.
open hands……more of You and less of me.
*note: i’d love your insight on this topic and if you have opinions on if or how you can blog for both purposes, leave a comment. let’s start the conversation!*
Shoot Andi, are you reading my mind? (And my Influence Conference notes?)
This has been my thought over and over again, and I thought about it all throughout the conference. I don’t have any advice…but I am right there with you 
I am excessively new to the blogging world (as a blogger, anyway… I have been following many blogs for a long time but have just started my own blog, so, yeah.. lol) and so “growing the blog” has been on my mind alot lately.. and while I think we should try to expand our “territory,” I think the main thing HAS to be trust in God to bring who HE wants to your blog. (Okay, as of right now I only have 6 followers.. but they’re dear ones!
)
I am also just now attempting to start up a “business” of sorts, selling my photography…. so again, “growing the business” is big right now, BUT again.. trusting God HAS to be the top thing on the priority list for expanding. It is so hard to know how much we should “advertise” and how much we should just “let go and let God,” you know? Good to know I’m not the only one struggling with this right now:)
I’ve been thinking about this all week and in my last three blog posts. I totally want God to have control of my blog (just started this blogging adventure) but I keep thinking about the blog followers and the friendships that could be made in this online community. So amazing to know that I’m not the only one struggling with this line between wanting to please/gain the approval of God but wanting followers/friendships with other bloggers.
Hi Rebecca! First, welcome to the “blog world” there are truly so many wonderful things about the community that you can find here. Thanks for your genuine comment and just know that God already approves of you. He loves you so so much no matter what you blog about. Thankfully, He loves us in the midst of our struggling and messy lives. I know for me, at least, that is really great news! Thanks for stopping by and I’m hoping to get to know you better as a writer and friend.
Hugs,
Andi
this is my heartbeat–so, you’ll hear more from me about this in the coming months. here’s my first thought–be with the Lord in prayer about what He deems a success for you and your blog. then, go after that. don’t be concerned about high stats for stats sake…just listen to the Lord, set your plan (for the quarter, for the year…whatever length of season you feel called to), and then just show up in obedience to that plan. i suggest that you not look at your stats much during that time unless you need to. i give my sponsors an average of my stats over the past quarter and don’t look at them in between. it’s not important to my ministry and it’s not particularly important to my business. i’m sure i could grow quicker and better if i tested a ton and changed things up…but i’m just looking for enough people listening to do what the Lord wants to do in this particular season. i’d love to talk more about this with you sometime.
xo.
Wow. SUCH great words there. Just what I needed to hear:) … I love the suggestion to avoid looking at your stats often.. Unfortunately, with Blogger they pretty much have my stats plastered all over the place xD but I do try not to focus on them too much; will definitely try to focus on them even LESS and focus more on what my Lord wants me to be doing. Thanks so much for the words of advice:) I may have to check out your blog and see what else you have to say about this!!
:)
Love in Jesus,
Traci (Miss Mae)
Such good words–words that resonate so much with me. It’s hard! I’ve been thinking a lot about this as well. You definitely gave me some ideas to think about
Hey Hollie, is it bad to say that I’m encouraged to hear that I’m not the only one who struggles with this? =) I know that it can be so frustrating. Yes there is the need for constant surrender of our live (and blogging lives) to Jesus, and that is really hard to do. But I don’t think it is bad for the tension to exsist. The Christain walk is full of tension. On so many issues it seems like there is a constant pull and never a quite perfectly balanced. Like the Trinity- one God, three persons. Like rebuking in love, yet walking in humility. like being in the work and not of it Like grace and works. I know that there is a perfect balance and harmony, but in life it is so challenging to keep the constant right mind set of grace spurring us on to good works. Jesus is the perfect balance and I can’t wait till heaven when “we shall be like Him”. But until then, I think these tensions that exsist in life between our sin nature and our new nature are okay. They pull us closer to Jesus as we battle and fail. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. But god allows these opposites for our sanctification. When we fail He is there to remind us that we can’t do it and to pull us back even closer to Himself. Idk if this makes sense or helps, but this is where I am at right now.
Alesha <3
Great post. I think we all struggle with this when we are honest with ourselves. In a way, blogging can be a bit narcissistic – I am admitting to this myself right now. We all want an audience – we are screaming from our little laptops “Come look at me! Come look at the pie I made and how cute these bows are that I made for my little girl..blah blah blah.” And sometimes what we are really looking for is validation.
There are other parts of blogging that bring light to HIS glory…like helping others or connecting with others through struggles, etc. I have been touched and encouraged by so many in the blogging world. And at times when I feel that no one is reading, I will be blessed by someone messaging me to tell me that something I wrote encouraged them in their faith. And isn’t that what it is all about?
I think the Lord has given blogging to me as an avenue for creativity and a platform to point to his Son. If I am doing it for any other reason, I must stop. I have to constantly question my motives for blogging. A good way to do this is to look back at the blog posts I have published in the last month and ask the following question: “Are these posts glorifying me or HIM?” I don’t always like the answer. I can tell a lot about where I am spiritually by completing this exercise…
Andi, you have been such an encouragement to me. You are the one who really inspired me to start blogging. You are the one that showed me that blogging could be done in Jesus’ name. You truly want to help others and it shows. How many times have you promoted a post of mine or helped me with a technological issue with NOTHING in return. And I know you do this for so many in the blogging community and everyday life. Thank you for being you and for doing what you do.
xoxoxo
hi andi. first let me say how fun it was to meet you at Influence =) i am so blessed to know you in this little blog world. and you are so sweet. and 2nd, while i dont own a shop, i have contemplated a similar thing with ad space on my blog, ive even contemplated my content, fashion, etc… in the end, ive come to the conclusion that God wants us happy and blessed, and if we are in fact being an influence for him, there is no reason why he wouldnt want us successful at the other things we do in life. he says that if we delight ourselves in him, he will give us the desires of our heart. im a pretty firm believer that he has placed those desires there to begin with, since he created us. Business, creativity, blog, whatever..he gave us the abilities to manage business, etc and there are plenty of business ppl in the world who work “in the world” yet still manage to set a Godly example. I think there is no difference for a blogger/shop owner. =) thats my 2 cents
Such a great conversation Andi! I am reading every response because I am struggling with the same thing! Love that you started this conversation!
We all go around and around in our heads about this, don’t we? Is it audacious to work hard on our art or business? Is it self-centered to try and draw new readers/participants/clients? Influence was helpful…but on top of that, I love what Dorothy Sayers (an English writer from C.S. Lewis’ era) had to say about all this.
For one thing, she said good work done well is an important starting point for ministry: “She [the Church] has lost all sense of the fact that the living and eternal truth is expressed in work only so far as that work is true in itself, to itself, to the standards of its own technique. She has forgotten that the secular vocation is sacred. Forgotten that a building must be good architecture before it can be a good church; that a painting must be well painted before it can be a good sacred picture; that work must be good work before it can call itself God’s work.”
Also, Sayers thought it was important to focus more on the work than the community. What?!! That feels a little weird to me, but when I read the details of her reasoning it makes more sense: “There is, in fact, a paradox about working to serve the community, and it is this: that to aim directly at serving the community is to falsify the work; the only way to serve the community is to forget the community and serve the work. There are three very good reasons for this: The first is that you cannot do good work if you take your mind off the work to see how the community is taking it… The second reason is that the moment you think of serving other people, you begin to have a notion that other people owe you something for your pains; you begin to think that you have a claim on the community… And thirdly, if you set out to serve the community, you will probably end by merely fulfilling a public demand–and you may not even do that… The only true way of serving the community is to be truly in sympathy with the community, to be oneself part of the community, and then to serve the work, without giving the community another thought.”
I guess what I get out of it is that I need to do my work well and not feel pressured to put a Christian stamp on it unless God directs (Mine often ends up that way without me trying though!). Exquisite work in itself brings Him glory (i.e., your embroidered necklaces…love them!). Also, I need to truly care about my community and be an interactive part of it, not to use the people around me to get a following as if I’m above them but to share together and look at ideas and beautiful things alongside each other and have a peer relationship rather than one that reeks of celebrity status, and to work within that community while not allowing human opinions to change what my art or work is meant to be.
Hope her words are as helpful to you as they’ve been to me. I think I got the award for the longest comment. Kudos to you if you’re still reading.
wow, yes, long, but full of wisdom. Thank you for taking the time to join the conversation. I will need some time to process, but love that we can consider different dimensions of the same topic.
I am right there with ya and something that was on my heart and mind all weekend during Influence. After the week to process it all, I finally brought it back to the “why” I started blogging in the first place. For me, I started because I wanted a place to tell my story, encourage women, and use it for good. A few blogs I stumbled across last year seriously were my lifeline during a hard year. I thought that if God used those women to speak to me, maybe he can use me to speak to someone else. I never started it with the intention to have it as a business. But slowly, I found myself getting caught up in that state of mind. I started comparing and then had a drive to figure out how to “grow my blog.” I lost focus. I am by no means saying that blogging for business is wrong, it’s just not what my reason for starting was. I may eventually go that direction. I just want to make sure it happens in His time and not because I want it to happen….which is always a battle for me. “Surrender” is my word for this year. So i think that if you surrender your will, your blog (which is soooo hard for me!!!!) and allow him to use you, use your blog for His good, He will grow it and take it to where he wants it to be. So glad to know so many other women are thinking about this topic too!
this sounds so much like my thoughts as well– my phrase lately is “open hands”—with the blog, the business, my kids, my new house…everything. He is doing a work in me though it is a process for this stubborn girl
. thanks for the beautiful comment!
hugs
Love this post so much. And YOU.
You know I’ve thought a lot about this this summer and the conclusion I’ve come up with is if I am HONESTLY praying about how my blog should be going/evolving and I consistently keep Him in mind while I’m doing anything blog related then it will naturally go where God wants it. I think like anything it will ebb and flow and have highs and lows but with Him at its core we can’t be wrong no matter what we do.
whoa, hello! just read this post on 6 Things Every Christian Blogger Needs to Remember: answers some questions for us, ladies! http://www.incourage.me/2010/11/six-things-every-christian-blogger-needs-to-know.html love your hearts!
Love this post! This is something I struggle with often. I think that the more we incorporate our faith into our everyday life, the more it will show up in our business – naturally, without seeming forced or ‘preachy’. And like you’ve stated, the way to begin is to invite more of him and less of us. Thank you for sharing!