John's World: My Blog

"Traveling down this road Watching the signs as I go I think I'll follow the sun Isn't everyone just Traveling down their own road Watching the signs as they go I think I'll follow my heart It's a very good place to start" - Madonna

A few short years ago, not long after I started writing for what was then called Associated Content, I also started a blog. At the time I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I felt that I just needed to have one. I didn't really understand what blogging was and I'm still not so sure I do today, but I'm really enjoying what I'm doing and having a blog is starting to become addicting.

When I first started John's World, I thought I was just going to use it as a way to promote my writing on other sites. To my own detriment, I never really kept up with it on a regular basis for almost three years and the page views to it were abysmal. Earlier this year, though, something happened in my life that made me turn to my long-neglected blog and things really started to take off. Much of the stuff that I first posted there is about personal experiences, things that I would have normally written here, but writing for the new Yahoo Contributor Network and its changing landscape made me want to turn elsewhere for these types of pieces.

In the past, I've written many a articles on the Yahoo Contributor Network concerning my personal life experiences. It all began with a series on the breakup of my 20-year relationship and continued on with other such works on my life as a single gay man, family stories and the like. As the network changed, however, I am no longer too comfortable with putting such pieces on here any longer. I feel that it's no longer the direction that Yahoo would like to go and so now I have another outlet for my writing.

Towards the end of last year I met a guy I thought would become an enduring relationship. When that relationship faltered, I felt the need to get it out through writing, but I didn't feel comfortable doing it the way I had done it on Associated Content with my previous breakup. I did write a couple of pieces here, which were in a much different style than I used to do. The Soundtrack of a Relationship is a piece that I'm very proud of and I loved writing it because it interweaves the personal with my love of music, something I'd never done before yet hope to do again. The One That Got Away was another shot at poetry, another one I'm proud to have written.

I saved the nitty gritty stuff, though, for my blog, and that was the catalyst for what John's World has become: my own little space where I can share my entire self, with memoirs and photos, music and whatever else floats my boat.

Of course John's World is not all about me moaning and groaning about that relationship. That was only the catalyst of what got me going. My blog, even though it earns me no money, has become quite popular and I'm getting between 300 and 700 hits per day, much more than I get at the Yahoo Contributor Network. The most popular feature on my blog is my daily "Song of the Day," which allows me to share some of my favorite songs with personal commentary. I've gotten many complements on it from my Facebook and Twitter friends and followers and it makes me happy to know that people really enjoy it.

So if you've enjoyed reading some of my personal stuff in the past, then click on any of the links here and check out my blog. And feel free to follow me and leave a comment or two. I'll see you there!