Sincerity & Integrity in Blogging & Life

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sincerity-integrity

This is a rather unusual Thought this week. It rambled in my mind over so many areas that I decided to see how it rambled out in words. This will be about Blogging and about Life. For me the two are mostly the same. What dictates what appears on my blog is also what dictates my life.

The Reason

I don’t know about you, but I receive emails asking for tips on how to build a successful blog. They then go on to define successful by how to increase Followers, Likes, people to Comment on their blogs. Well they normally do it through the comment form on my About page but it shows up in my email.

Success is a term that is defined differently by each person. For some reason people think I  have successful blog. I am not exactly sure why. I don’t know really what measures you would look at for that. And in all honesty, I don’t concern myself with it unless I am doing tips. It’s not something I think about every day. People don’t know my numbers so I suppose they have an impression of what they must be. If you have been following me long enough you will have noticed I don’t do Follower milestones any longer. It’s just not a thing. Perhaps I should do Comment milestones but I don’t think WordPress has those.

The Secret

Anyway, here is something people might find surprising that I have done. I don’t look at my stats any longer. Well, I did once this past Thursday because of a recent hashtag movement I started and wanted to see what happened, but that was more out of curiosity than hope or gauging success because the hashtag part is secondary to what I am doing on Wednesday.

How do I know if I am doing okay with my blog in regards to reader visits? I look at ‘Likes‘ and ‘Comments‘ IF I have a desire to know. And I notice in the notifications if I have people ‘Following‘.

What does this have to do with a Sunday Thought?

“In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”~Titus2:7-8

How I write and what I write about I do with honesty, sincerity. I don’t do that intentionally most of the time. I write what I think and see what happens. If I have an opinion I write I will go and check some facts before I move on with it.

Sincerity

I can read a post by someone and tell if it’s sincere or not. Or I suppose I should say I can get a feel of sincerity or not.

How? Well there is something you have to consider, does the post match the personality that’s been displayed? There are some great posts out there but when I read them I can’t quite fall in to the grasp of them because it doesn’t fit with the regular content or the actions, or the comments of the person. There is just something missing.

Integrity

Another part mentioned above is integrity. There are just so many ways you can say something about blogging. It’s difficult to be original, however I don’t steal ideas. I experience the things I put out there and then write about them. In fact I intentionally don’t read the experts blog tips because I want to discover things on my own.

And if you really want to know the truth, those experts aren’t so expert at times. I like to give tips the real bloggers can do, not those with nothing but blogging to do in their lives.

I write novels, so I can’t blog all the time. It seems like I am around a lot but I’m not here as much as people think. Also with my health issues I am actually unconscious for more hours than I care to comment on.

Many people can read tips from me and know who wrote them when they are on another person’s blog. Imitation is not the highest form of flattery when it comes to things like that. At least not so much to me.

The Work

Sure, people notice I can write an article in 10 minutes and put out 20 of them in a day with no problem so they don’t think I work at it, the thoughts behind it.

I think all the time. It has taken time to develop my style and voice in my writing and although I don’t say anything to people that copy me, I still am not a big fan of the blatant copying. You know, if you do something, if you copy an idea, if you even copy phrasing, why not put a footnote in the post giving credit? I’ve done that. (Yeah, remember I was a History teacher that graded reports and gave a zero to a kid for taking a book and writing word for word. And yes, it was 40% of his grade.)

I wrote a poem once that was inspired by two other posts I had read. I gave the two bloggers credit and linked back to their blogs right at the beginning.

The Why

Why do people click Like or Comment on my things and perhaps not the copycat’s? Everyone that visits my blog knows that I put every ounce of heart into every sentence. Even if it might make me look bad or it means the reader doesn’t agree with me, they are fine with it because they KNOW I am for real. That’s the only reason I can think of.

Sincerity and Integrity goes a long way in your life. If you follow those two things it’s difficult to be spoken against. We all mess up, but we all should try to get back to the S&I in our lives.

I’ve messed up over time but I’m good now. I stick to what I am and don’t stray from it, even when people are angry at me for being the who I am now.

Ronovan Writes

 

 

 

 

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21 thoughts on “Sincerity & Integrity in Blogging & Life”

  3. Bravo! I, too, try to put my true self into my blog and not a fake facade. I don’t understand people who steal other’s work. Recently I read a post about it, and was shocked to learn how many do it. Sad, really, that they don’t have anything original to say themselves. The article stated that anything on one’s blog is automatically copyrighted and therefore the ‘thieves’ can be prosecuted. I’m betting many don’t realize that.

    Integrity and sincerity always shines through– good for you for making these the focus of your blogging tips, Ronovan!

    Liked by 3 people

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    • Thank you. 🙂 Love your happy picture. I follow you on Twitter as well and when I just went there my browser froze in fear at the sight of the gun. Then it realized you were a crime fiction writer and was okay. Eventually. 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

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  7. Everyone says not to concern yourself with likes and comments and site traffic. But let’s be honest…no one blogs just to talk to themselves. Numbers DO matter to some extent.

    I do not have many followers and my site traffic is modest. I simply do not have the wherewithal to promote my work heavily. I see other bloggers who post several times a week, or sometimes every day, are very active on social media, and have a lot of reader activity on their pages. I ask myself: Do these people have jobs or families? Am I missing something? How do they find the time to sit in front of a keyboard cranking out all those articles and Tweets?

    I’ve resigned myself to the idea that my blog will be low impact until and unless I find the personal resources to pump it up. I have been participating in some of the blog share hashtags on Twitter, with mixed results. I know I have good content. I just don’t have enough spare time to spread the word.

    Thanks for the insightful and honest article.

    My blog is at http://www.twentyfirstsummer,com

    Liked by 2 people

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  8. I recently wrote a post, on Keeping it real. It basically says all that you say here but in my own words.I have my style and I try to keep to it.

    My post is called the A – Z lowdown on Blogging: K is for Keeping it real.

    If you ask me this is one of the most important things and less obvious things on blogging success. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. You’re one of the good ones Ronovan. I stopped following a couple early on because it didn’t feel right, enough said. I really enjoy everyone who surrounds me now. You are so authentic, one can always count on getting the real deal when visiting here. They say you can tell much about someone by the company they keep and I have connected with some pretty spectaculicious folks via your blog. XxOo

    Liked by 1 person

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  11. I like to think that I have got inspiration from reading other blogs, rather than say I have copied an idea. I wrote two blogging tips posts last November, both which did reasonably well for me. I’d read many other posts giving blogging tips, hence the idea to do my own, but the tips I gave were what I thought rather than copied. OK, there maywell have been some overlap, but I think that can sometimes happen.

    I always remember one blogging tip so well which was, ‘write as you, and never try copy anyone else’. You are right that some readers can tell a mile off if a post is not truly what the author usually is. I think it is a gift when we can sense that.

    You’ve certainly bought out what I would consider a grey area in the world of blogging, right out into the open and I admire anybody that does that.

    Liked by 3 people

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  12. I think because your sincerity and integrity are shown in your writing and also because you are a real person…that is why you are sought after for your opinions about blogging because it does come naturally to you. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. I love this post! ❤ Absolute truth. It's true you can tell a lot about the blogger's personality in their words . . . or lack of them. I personally like to respond to all my comments, at the very least 'like' to acknowledge that I've read a response after someone has taken their valuable time to comment. Actions always trump words. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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