subs

LINK: subs

Every once in a while, someone will ask questions about subs and TBH, IDK if I’m the right person to ask but I do my best to answer them.

Thank you, Nnamdi O. Johnson, for the question.

At its core, this blog is about… just me. Hence, just rojie. My thoughts, my life, and of course the people who are in it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s a living diary that happens to be public for everyone to read. I want people to know that I’m human and that I make mistakes. I’m not perfect and no matter how much I try to be, it’ll never happen.

I believe that people are curious. Some are more nosy than others, I know I am. It’s a significant reason why I started reading peoples blogs in the first place. There’s something about reading peoples struggles, triumphs, exciting and mundane lives that make it feel real. I don’t watch reality TV but personal blogs scratch that itch for me… it’s like a crude version of reality literature, if you will… and I’m here for it.

I never try to be an authority on anything, including my own specialty. I might offer a nudge or share what’s worked for me, but I’m not writing to lecture anyone. There are plenty of blogs on WordPress that do that and plus, if needed, I can ask Claude (AI agent).

I write about a lot of different things and it’s not some sort of calculated attempt to cast a wide net, it’s just how I am, what can I say? I’m a Gemini, I like a variety of shit. Good shit, hot shit, dumb shit, and of course shit on a stick. I’ve been exposed to a lot since I’ve moved over 20 times and I’m almost always down to try something new at least once.

Y’all know that I love music, considering that I was a concert pianist. But that doesn’t mean that I only listen to classical music. I listen to all sorts of genres, some more than others. Music to me is a universal language, which is why BTS is able to transcend every culture + language barrier imaginable and still pack stadiums worldwide. I write about whatever I’m listening to in the moment, the concerts that I go to, or the songs that get stuck in a loop in my head. I thoroughly enjoy reading about someone else’s playlist because they often times introduce me to more music than any algorithm ever could. I especially enjoy reading about how the songs or albums pertain to their own personal lives or how it resonates for them.

There’s a lot of drama and things poppin’ off at work but that’s what happens when you work in health care. And because I live in California, there’s always somewhere to go, something to eat, a concert or an event that popped up in the city. I try to take advantage of that whenever I can. It doesn’t help that my boujie friends enable me.

I’m consistently trying to reinvent myself. I dislike being stagnant and with the world constantly changing, I feel like I need to evolve as well. I’ve got that FOMO (fear of missing out) because life is short and I want as much as I can. This is partly why I’ve been going back through my old posts and reformatting them to match the current aesthetic (I switched from classic editor to Gutenberg). It’s tedious AF but I also like things to be uniform.

I used to be heavily influenced by trends. I did it on Instagram and initially, it worked for a minute. I found myself spending more time trying to predict what was going to be trending than actually creating anything that I cared about. I had to eventually ask myself what the point was. I know what I like and what I don’t like. Eventually, I decided that I wasn’t going to contort myself for an algorithm anymore.

Just like everyone else on WP, for the most part, people want to be read and validated. There are bloggers who pour hours into a single post and I gotta respect that. My own process can vary, there are days when a photo says it all and I barely write anything. Other days, I’ll spend over an hour to get the emotion just right, trying to make sure whoever is reading can feel what I felt… as if they were experiencing it from my POV.

But these are the things that I’ve discovered about WordPress:

• tags are important. I tend to use #dailyprompt because it’s more likely to show up on other bloggers’ feed.
• the more consistent you are with posting, the more you’re going to show up in people’s feed.
• just like social media, bloggers love the likes, comments, and follows (as long as it’s not derogatory or stupid ass bots).
• I have yet to see a blogger’s post go viral on WP. Is that even a thing? I mean that would be cool but I fear that people will try to copy the original post, making it less authentic.
• the socials like TikTok, X, Threads, and Instagram are king right now. It’s all about that high-volume, short-form content consumption life. People want that constant dopamine hit, unfortunately it can hinder the brain’s ability to focus and reduce a person’s attention span. So to be able to sit down and read lengthy posts can be difficult. I hate to say it, but I am guilty of this, as I’m currently writing this über long post. I know, make it make sense? I do see that Boomers and Gen-X are more apt to reading longer posts than Millennials and Gen Z.
• I try my very best to read and engage everyone’s posts with likes and/or comments.
• I also check out the discover section on WP to find new blogs to read.
• collaborating with other bloggers helps garner more views. I have enjoyed interviewing Matt and Info-Man, using a picture from Hazel in a post, singing along with Nico, and sharing prompts with others. I dislike gatekeeping because things are so much better when we’re able to share.

And as you can see, I had a major dip in subscribers. I went from 1,540 to 1,485 in one day. Maybe it was a bot sweep? Maybe people didn’t like what I wrote and hit unsubscribe. I don’t know for sure but I’m okay not knowing. The number of people subscribing isn’t the reason why I write… so I just keep on going.