how personal is your blog?

[Ecobota]

Those of you who blog for your business: how much of your posting is business stuff and how much is personal "human interest" stories?

I've been reading a some of those "be the best blogger" books and they all seem to suggest that you need to appeal to your readers as a person with a story to tell, not just an computer twitter client hawking sales which makes perfect sense to me!

The thing is, my craft is actually pretty boring. I've tried starting a blog for my business a few different times and every time it is so lame that *I* don't even want to read it anymore, let alone strangers on the internet. I mean, i'm a plant nerd, and I know people like photos of pretty flowers so those sorts of things are OK, but every post ends up being "today i collected pretty flowers" because who really wants to hear about the 2 weeks the specimens stay in the press? Not me, and I'm the one DOING it.

So I was thinking about expanding into a slightly more personal realm: writing about the hardships and triumphs of working for yourself and the transition of quitting working for "the man" and working from home. I feel like it is 100% part of the story, but I'm afraid it might... I don t' know, come off as unfavorable to buyers?

Would you be interested in something like that or would it scare you away?

If all goes according to plan my self hosted website will be launching in 2 weeks and I want to link the blog from it, so I want to make sure I'm not going to scare away potential buyers when I start promoting the website.

I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions. Thanks!

[iNKthePRINT]

We have a blog and I'd say it's about 40% business and 60% personal. I think buyers like to see the behind the scenes and learn about the people who created their item :-) I say do it! Post what you feel like and just be genuine.

[dorsetclothing]

My online presence is probably 70% personal and 30% business, I promote my work on each site I post my personal things on. I found a large portion of my market by getting to know them personally, before I started my business, so I feel that many of my customers are used to my personal stories and views (and some could be seen as a bit contentious!), so I stick with posting such things.
I think it doesn't hurt to post personal thoughts on running a business, you might be surprised at how many people find it interesting after all!