Every blogger's nightmare

I long debated whether I should write about this or not...
After all, not my typical blog post... but, I think it may be useful to new bloggers out there or people thinking of starting up a blog.

There is an "every blogger's nightmare" out there.
And it is not whether or not you will be successful, the number of readers you will have and if you can ever make money out if it!

It is: Internet trolls!

They are actual real people who spend hours reading blogs every day and post comments. Nasty comments. Hurtful comments. Anonymously of course. Their sole purpose is to engage you in a virtual fight or argument. They feed of your response.

I am not talking about people expressing their opinion with an open mind and wanting to discuss things openly with you or questioning your own opinion. And using their identity to do so. I am talking about  the random person, expressing themselves with not so nice words and anonymously.

The type of comments that just hurt. With no positive side to it whatsoever.

For example: "you blog is boring, you talk about "x" all the time, you are obsessed with "y", you have no background in "z", you need help... those kinds of comment.

We all experience them at one point.
They hurt. They make you question whether you should write or not.

But just like in the picture, let them go up in smoke!

Fortunately, you can screen them. On every blog you have the option to approve comments before they get published... at first I didn't use that option because my crowd is a "silent " one who'd rather sent me private messages than publicly comment. Until I got my first troll visit...

Unfortunately, using this feature,you still read them, see their content and it hurts. Be the nicer one and just hit "delete", ignore and DO NOT REPLY. They feed off your reply and if you do publish or reply there will be more of it...

Ignore... move on. Let it go up into smoke.

Remember that blogs are personal... it is your voice, your opinion, your experience that you share. It is helpful to some, and at a bare minimum to you if you take time to do it, so keep on writing. You will find your crowd. And what matters most is the benefit you get from it: be it just that you love writing or that it clears up your mind.

And of course you will write about the same "thing" all, the time... your blog as an objective, it is a life process, something you care about... whether it is nutrition, health, finance, minimalism, frugal living, yoga, hockey, chest, board games, fashion, game console, books, camping... you will talk about what matters to YOU. It is your blog.  No one has to read it. If they don't like it, they can read the next one.

Internet is an amazing place that can fit everyone's need and allow free speech. Use it. To help others, not to hurt people.

Just ignore the trolls.
Be the bigger person.
Own your shit.
Do you.
Amazing you.

In the end, that is all that really matters. 💜

Please share to people who you think might benefit from that...

Chloe 💜&✌