I’m always pleasantly surprised by the effect that a thoughtful blog post can have on my whole week. I love when bloggers get real. It might be one of my favorite things ever. Hope you’ll love these inspiring articles just as much as I do.

1. Talk to Your Readers – I love this post by Breanna Rose about connecting with readers through comments. I’ll be the first to say that I’m terrible at replying to comments (sorry!). Whenever a blog post receives a new comment, I smile and get all warm and fuzzy and then I forget to write back. Whoops. Commenting in general is becoming a lost art, I believe, because it’s easy to feel like one tiny human in a sea of other readers. Also, it’s easy to get distracted when scrolling through a never ending blog feed. I’m trying to get better at commenting on blog posts I think are amazing.

2. I Blog vs I am a Blogger – Upon reading this title on Allyssa Barnes’s blog, I thought the post was going to be about something completely different. It’s all about the way we identify ourselves in the blogging community. Are we bloggers or are we creatives/designers/crafters/pretty-picture-appreciaters who blog? I don’t think it’s entirely necessary to choose either statement, but it sure is interesting to think about!

3. How to Talk About Your Blog in Real Life – Erika’s description of what it’s like to talk about your blog in real life is spot on. Bringing up blogging requires answering a ton of crazy questions like, “Oh blogging, you mean like Tumblr?” and “How will that ever make you money?”. Ahhh. It’s rough!

4. What’s in a Name? – In her post On Creatives and Titles, Amber writes about the confidence it requires to describe oneself as a “creative” or any other similar title. Even if everyone knows you as a photographer, designer, blogger, etc., it can still be difficult to call yourself one.

Do any of these topics particularly resonate with you?

Thanks to the ladies above for inspiring me this week with your genuine thoughts on blogging.