Ignore the drama and crack on

It's been a tempestuous few weeks here in blogland. We've all become immersed in vexed questions like:

Who was right or wrong in the GPL / Thesis theme debate
The fact that Chris Brogan has switched themes on his blog
Is the blog platform dead?
Is Twitter fading as a business platform?
How unfair is Facebook?
Should we be creating art?

I've been pondering all of these as I pace the garden or drift to sleep each night, and I dare say you have too.

But just now I looked across the office at my wife. None of this has bothered her. Apart from knowing that Chris Brogan is someone I know and admire, she'd have no opinion or view on any of the above.

She doesn't know what GPL is, or even what the Thesis theme is
She uses Twitter and Facebook every day, and has fun and creates business opportunities from both
Art is what she buys from Dominic when she can afford to

And yet, she is a hugely successful blogger.

By any measure. She posts every day, sometimes several times a day. Her blog (although her readers would call it a website) breaks traffic and income records every month, she has an incredibly responsive email list, and she has a thriving paid membership community.

In short, she provides the perfect example that you can find a good niche, work hard at it, and create a solid, sustainable and growing income from blogging. In fact you can read the whole story in the case study I wrote about her first year.

So what's my point?

It's that while we invest time and energy debating and stressing about what we're doing and why we're doing it, most of the world's bloggers are simply getting on with what they do, and many are making decent money out of doing so.

The readers of Lanzarote Information or Digital Photography School don't even notice what theme it's based on, how many comments each post gets, or even (dare I say it?) how good the writing is. They want information, answers to questions and some great images.

Keep giving them that and they will keep coming back. And when you offer them stuff to buy, many of them will do so.

Ignore the drama and crack on with giving your readers what they want.