Memoirs of a Single Dad is having a contest for bloggers to answer the age old (well, not really) question of what motives you to blog. Is it for the love of blogging or for the money?
For me, it's both. Having not been allowed to voice any sort of opinion while growing up, I really took to blogging like a duck to water. I did it for a couple years in a different niche and under a different pen name, and then stopped for a couple years. In October, I started my Prairie Patch blog after having been stifled in my creativity. While it's true I make a living solely through freelance writing, I feel uncreative. That's because I have to write within specific parameters, i.e., using certain SEO keywords, writing about certain subjects, and having a set word count. Zzzzzzzz.... I'm not knocking it; it's just that it stifles creativity if you have to work within such rigid guidelines.
Being artistic as a child, I started to gravitate towards crafting and wanting to make prim things; hence, the Prairie Patch. But I found the prim decor community to be very stifling as a whole; either you were prim or you weren't. My tastes were too eclectic, and that's why I started the All Thumbs Crafts blog. These two blogs (as well as my several others) are my way of scratching my eclectic itch. I get to explore, share with others, and finally get my voice heard.
Thus I blog for the love of it. Then again...
I blog also with my eye on a future income. When I blogged a couple years ago and ran a couple forums (with 75,000 members), I made quite a bit of money. I miss that income, but it wasn't in a niche I cared to be in any longer. By being involved in that community, I wasn't being true to myself because I no longer related to it.
Now, I'm blogging about things I love. Am I afraid that I'll lose interest in this field and stop blogging? Not really. I've been creative all my life; it's just been stifled for far too long. Hell, I even get inspired by a cottage cheese container, and I don't mind sharing what I do with said cottage cheese containers - lol!
So if the money comes, great, but it's not my sole reason for blogging. It's to get my voice heard, to share my hair brained ideas, and to connect with others. After all, I have nothing in common with penal colony inbred stock mutants I live amongst (my son being the exception), so I have to "talk" somewhere!
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Make Money Online and/or Through Blogging
I read an interesting post today entitled Mommy Bloggers and Money: A Tangled Web. It's a dicey topic, that's for sure.
I have no problems with anyone making money online. What an inspiration they are if they can! Why are people derogatory or gossipy about women who make money online? (At least they're not flat on their backs in Vegas, right)? Apparently there are women who make judgments of other bloggers - how they shouldn't be making money, how they're riding the coattails of other more successful blogs, how certain blogs don't add anything except frivolous stuff and fluff. Judgment all around, but if the blog is making money for someone, obviously they have enough of a readership to generate funds through advertising and affiliate marketing. As to the "riding the coattails," sure, I imagine there are some people who do that. (I can't say definitively since I'm not enough "in the know" to hear the gossip). If, however, someone is profiting from their associations, I don't know if I'm comfortable not giving them any credit. They saw an opportunity and took it. In the corporate world, isn't that how men get ahead? Isn't that how talent agents work? Isn't that how publishers work? How networks work...? You get the idea.
I used to be the sole admin and moderator of two forums that had around 75,000 members. They were founded to discuss certain niche subjects, but soon business people came in and tried to constantly spam the site. As an admin/mod, it was tricky. While I appreciated more members, some of them were turning the forums into just one big advertising place. I certainly don't begrudge anyone making money online; I've been doing it since 2003, but I had to maintain the integrity of the forums. I received death threats from some of the business people and some of the members who liked having the forums turned into one big infomercial.
How does this relate to blogging? Well, many of us bloggers are trying to find a balance between providing real life and/or helpful content and making money. Sometimes it may seem like a tightrope walk every time you write a blog post. I'm caught in that balancing act myself. I want to talk about real, every day stuff, but yet I kinda painted myself in the corner by naming this blog "All Thumbs Crafts." I guess you could say I was all thumbs when it came to naming it - lol!
For the past few days, I've been networking with other women bloggers from the Ultimate Blog Party from 5 Minutes for Mom. Tonight there was an awesome MomTV webcast, and it made me realize I should just be myself on this blog. I fleetingly thought of starting yet another blog (I already have seven and contribute regularly to another one), but that's probably kinda silly...I think...
Anyway, I'm going to be real here, although it will have a heavy emphasis on simple crafting. If I happen to make money writing here, all the better. If not, I'm having a whole lotta fun challenging myself to make at least one craft a week and sharing it with others who are all thumbs when it comes to making crafts. :)
Do what you love and maybe, just maybe, the money will come. If not, let the joy in doing make you feel rich.
(I hope this made sense. Wrote this in about 10 minutes cuz Craig Ferguson is just starting - lol)!
I have no problems with anyone making money online. What an inspiration they are if they can! Why are people derogatory or gossipy about women who make money online? (At least they're not flat on their backs in Vegas, right)? Apparently there are women who make judgments of other bloggers - how they shouldn't be making money, how they're riding the coattails of other more successful blogs, how certain blogs don't add anything except frivolous stuff and fluff. Judgment all around, but if the blog is making money for someone, obviously they have enough of a readership to generate funds through advertising and affiliate marketing. As to the "riding the coattails," sure, I imagine there are some people who do that. (I can't say definitively since I'm not enough "in the know" to hear the gossip). If, however, someone is profiting from their associations, I don't know if I'm comfortable not giving them any credit. They saw an opportunity and took it. In the corporate world, isn't that how men get ahead? Isn't that how talent agents work? Isn't that how publishers work? How networks work...? You get the idea.
I used to be the sole admin and moderator of two forums that had around 75,000 members. They were founded to discuss certain niche subjects, but soon business people came in and tried to constantly spam the site. As an admin/mod, it was tricky. While I appreciated more members, some of them were turning the forums into just one big advertising place. I certainly don't begrudge anyone making money online; I've been doing it since 2003, but I had to maintain the integrity of the forums. I received death threats from some of the business people and some of the members who liked having the forums turned into one big infomercial.
How does this relate to blogging? Well, many of us bloggers are trying to find a balance between providing real life and/or helpful content and making money. Sometimes it may seem like a tightrope walk every time you write a blog post. I'm caught in that balancing act myself. I want to talk about real, every day stuff, but yet I kinda painted myself in the corner by naming this blog "All Thumbs Crafts." I guess you could say I was all thumbs when it came to naming it - lol!
For the past few days, I've been networking with other women bloggers from the Ultimate Blog Party from 5 Minutes for Mom. Tonight there was an awesome MomTV webcast, and it made me realize I should just be myself on this blog. I fleetingly thought of starting yet another blog (I already have seven and contribute regularly to another one), but that's probably kinda silly...I think...
Anyway, I'm going to be real here, although it will have a heavy emphasis on simple crafting. If I happen to make money writing here, all the better. If not, I'm having a whole lotta fun challenging myself to make at least one craft a week and sharing it with others who are all thumbs when it comes to making crafts. :)
Do what you love and maybe, just maybe, the money will come. If not, let the joy in doing make you feel rich.
(I hope this made sense. Wrote this in about 10 minutes cuz Craig Ferguson is just starting - lol)!
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