why don't you suggest weekly root canals while you're at it?

as we all know from the preponderance of posts since blogher, there are a lot of folks who go to the conference because they're interested in growing their readership, or monetizing their blog, or getting more ads, or optimizing their search engine stats or whatever. which are all completely valid, just not anything i'm personally interested in. i'm sort of terrified to have many more people read my blog, honestly, because:

a) i'm really bad at confrontation, and even with the limited readership i have now it's sparked some, uh, interpersonal issues with Real Life people;

b) i only have a few trolls, but i don't like them very much, and i'd rather not gain any more; and

c) i feel like if i had a "readership," i'd feel compelled to write every day, and i don't want my blog to feel like a commitment. it's sporadic for a reason (read: i'm lazy), and i think i'd feel guilty if i thought i had a large audience waiting for me to produce more posts.

so! anyway, my point is that i had my own reasons for going to blogher, they just weren't to get a book deal or gain 1000 new readers.

which is why it was all the more disconcerting when i found myself talking to a guy my very first night there - at the people's party on thursday night, before blogher even officially started - who brought up partnering with a site like match and how much i could expand my own site that way.

it started because he asked what kind of a blog i wrote - and incidentally, this is a point that nilsa covered very well: dude, come up with a blurb about your blog before you go, because saying "oh! um, well, it's just kind of, uh, about my.. like... life..?" sounds pretty freaking stupid - and in trying to explain what "blogging about my life" meant, i said "oh, you know, like regaling people with tales of all my bad dates."

he then suggested contacting match, or any of the other sites, and maybe set up a partnership where i wrote humorously about all my bad dates, like as a column or something - they'd provide me with an unlimited supply of bad dates, and i'd have an unlimited amount of fodder to share with my readers.

sounds hilarious, right? except oh my god, also HORRIFYING. as i explained to this guy (who, it turns out, was affiliated with one of the sponsors and was not a fellow blogger), i go on all these bad dates so that, with luck, i can one day STOP going on bad dates. for good. i sacrifice my sanity and dignity and pin my slighly battered hopes on that fact that one of these dates, one day, will be good. and will lead to an END of crappy dates.

going on bad dates, like as a job? FOREVER? .....holy sardines on toast. no. going on bad dates is a necessary evil, not a life choice.

(...i hope.)