In trying to work out who my ideal reader could be I first had to work out who I was writing for. It turned out to be myself . My blog is not intended to be a commercial operation. I am not blogging to make money from it. I am not even hoping to make money from it. I know there are bloggers out there who do at least supplement their income from blogging, but I’m not one of them.

As I wrote in my introductory post I started this blog (under the name johnm55) in the hope of influencing a few people to vote yes to electoral reform back in 2010. I still hope that what I write will have some influence on my readers but that is no longer why I blog. I blog because I enjoy it. I blog because the act of writing for someone else to read helps me to clarify my thoughts in a way that putting them down in a journal for my consumption does not. That means that I write about what interests me today. It could be a piece about politics but it could equally be a review of an art exhibition or sharing a recipe that I have made and liked. Other subjects that often feature are cycling, especially road racing, but not exclusively, I like all forms of cycling. I also have an occasional feature called “Songs I Love”, where I take a You Tube video of a song that I really love and explain why. Most of the music featured tends to be either Folk or the music that gets listed under the title “Americana”. I also post the occasional photo essay, mainly if I have been off on my travels.

As I said, I think that I am probably my ideal reader. However I bit of interaction on a blog, or even knowing that someone other than your partner is reading it is nice. So the person I am writing for probably shares at least some of my characteristics. They are probably interested in politics but not obsessed. They will read books, listen to music and have opinions on what they read and listen to. They will enjoy food, both eating and probably cooking it. They will probably enjoy traveling and exploring new places, close to home and further afield. They will appreciate that a bicycle is one of the best ways to travel. They will probably also be interested in the sporting aspects of the bicycle even if, like me they don’t race.

If my reader is ultra-interested in any of those topics my blog probably won’t satisfy completely. It will hopefully point him or her towards people whose knowledge of politics, art, music, food or cycling is more extensive than my own.

One characteristic of my ideal reader that I haven’t mentioned yet is this;

My ideal reader brings something to the blog by adding his or her comments. I welcome constructive criticism, but agreeing with me is even better.