Who will read this blog?

With the goal of starting my new website and its blog off well, I signed up for the self-study version of “Blog Triage” with Alyson Stanfield (http://artbizblog.com) and Cynthia Morris (http://originalimpulse.com/blog).  The first assignment is to describe the people I want to visit and read my blog.  But please do not go running for the delete button if you, dear reader, do not believe you fit the following description!

My ideal reader is either female or otherwise well in touch with his feminine side.  I am writing about a craft and an art that encompasses activities more associated with creation, feeling, values, and expressiveness than with thinking, logic, or getting a task accomplished.  I visualize my reader sitting with laptop or tablet and a cup of tea, using the ideas within my blog to stimulate her own creative spirit.  There are many reasons for owning and using a hand-bound book and so my reader is someone who is actively engaged with the world as well.  She expresses that engagement through travel, reading, learning, and/or conversations.  Busy, active, engaged people enjoy stimulating their brains and souls through the ideas and words of others.

My typical reader is likely to be over 40 also.  It is sometime in one's 40s that one’s attention shifts from actively making the future happen – building long-term relationships,  having children, getting the bulk of one’s formal education, and building one’s career – to living in the present.  My reader is someone who has made that shift in attention and realizes that relationships and experiences matter more than things; that paying for quality is usually worth it; and that getting a little philosophical about life is a good thing. 

Last – at least in this particular list – my ideal reader is someone who is willing to engage with me in conversation over these blog entries.  I recognize that I have to be willing and able to write concepts that are worth reading, while I hope that readers will then let me know what their reactions, challenges, and creative responses are to what I write.  I find that when I read other blogs, I often gain as much value from the ensuing commentary as from the original post itself.  So I am hopeful that my readers will create discussion that expands my own thoughts such that I and other readers will obtain increased value.

So let’s begin the conversation by letting me know how well I described you, dear reader.  Will you let me know something about you?