Monday, December 07, 2009

Some reasons why I won't be blogging for dollars

1. I'd have to switch to Wordpress, and I can't figure out how to get all those "categories" off my Wordpress blog. I really, really like Wordpress, but I don't enjoy seeing hundreds of categories listed on the sidebar.

2. I'd have to try and be interesting all the time. Impossible! I'm sixty-five years old, I live in the boonies, and I don't drive. How many interesting things do you think I could come up with?

3. OK, here's one that I can do just fine: I'd have to do at least one entry every day. If you want a big following, folks, you're going to have to update your blog often enough to keep people's interest. Actually, I do too many entries; I imagine my readers see me in their sidebars and say to themselves, "Oh no, not her again."

Tough.

4. I'd have to be plain silly sometimes, because readers seem to like that; yes, I can be silly, but it's usually accidental.

5. I would need a $1,500 camera. None of this point-and-shoot stuff. Then I'd have to learn to change all those settings. No thanks.

6. I would have to learn how to use Photoshop, which would probably cost me another $1,500. (Maybe you've figured out I'm too lazy to learn new things and too broke to buy new things.)

7. I'd need a proofreader. I tend to type up an entry and publish it without going over it thoroughly (because I'm lazy). So a day or two later, Cliff will be reading my blog on the laptop and say something like this: "Hey, why did you call Bonnie-the-cow Dolly?"

And I say, "Oh, I did that?"

Then I go back and change it, after practically everybody has already read it.

The entry below about the deep freeze was so confusing when I first read it after posting that I practically did it over from scratch, and even now I wonder if it makes sense in some places. I'll probably find a half-dozen things about this entry that I'll have to come back and clear up, too.

8. I don't take criticism well. Pioneer Woman has thousands of readers, so you know she is much-loved. But there is one blogger with quite a large following who is a critic of PW. Her complaints are many: Ree's rich (that's a crime?); she only blogs good things about her family, and we all know everybody has family problems at times (yes, but do we want to read about that?); she makes money from her blog (so?); her recipes are fattening, so she is contributing to the health problems in America (give me a break).

The woman gets lots of comments from people who agree with her, which proves something I learned a long time ago: Everybody isn't going to like you. Sometimes you're lucky if anybody does.

But really, if you objected so much to a blog, why wouldn't you just stop reading it?

To those of you who are able to earn huge amounts of money with your blogs, I salute you. But I won't be joining you.

I should mention that one little ad on the sidebar that got me $100 for a year's advertising, and my Google Adsense that is 3/4 of the way to netting me $100 in another year or so. I just don't see myself ever earning the big bucks

13 comments:

  1. I don't think all your reasons are valid. Some blogs totally exploded without any of these. Like PostSecret is still on blogger,etc.It's all about the idea.I use wordpress and it's not hard.In about a year I made about $100 from my google ads in a year or so.Not a lot since I costs me money for the host and my URL,but I still made few dollars profit. You don't have to post every day and your photos are fine.I make all mine with a point and shoot and some of them I even like.With all that you have more readers than I ever had,so you must be doing something right.

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  2. Money for blogging is one thing I never thought of doing. No way...I barely have any readers and I write every day but I'm not doing it for them either...I'm doing it for my frieds, my family and myself too.

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  3. Meesha, I do have that one little ad on here that I was paid $100 to run for a year. And eventually I'll get $100 from Adsense; I'm up to $76 now. I guess I meant I'd never blog for BIG bucks.

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  4. You are so right about Ree. I don't care if she's rich and I LIKE reading the good things about her family. She can share what she chooses and I enjoy it all. I particularly like that (unlike some other popular bloggers) she keeps it all clean. I don't want to read about people's sex lives or profanity. I went to her book signing at Unity Temple in Kansas City and was thrilled to see her husband and little boys there. I think her critics are mostly just jealous.

    P.S. I think you *could* blog for money with just what you do now. You post enough and it's been interesting enough to me that I've been a regular reader for over a year.

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  5. There's nothing wrong with just wanting to blog for the sake of it, or to interact with folks - that is definitely why I do it! I am just not interested in the bargains you have to make - the *need* for more traffic for money - to go that route. I'll reach who I reach and hopefully learn a lot.

    And if you've found a platform you like, there's nothing wrong with sticking with that too, as someone above said, lots of popular blogs are on blogger or what-not. :)

    Hi, I'm a newbie but I am enjoying your blog! Thanks for posting.

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  6. Anonymous9:38 AM

    First of all, I think your pictures are fine ! Some are absolutely gorgeous! Secondly, I agree about Ree. Her detractors should just not read her or not make her recipes. They should realize her family is VERY active and can afford the calories! And she has a tremendous amount of giveaways with the money her blog takes in. (never won any myself!)

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  7. With just your adsense and your one ad you already have made more than I ever will with my blog. LOL!

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  8. You don't need the full version of Photoshop... Photoshop Elements sells for around $99 and it will do all you ever needed. As far as that goes... iPhoto will do all you might need.

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  9. Anonymous10:50 AM

    I was wanting a cheap form of Photoshop, I'll look into Photoshop Element. Thanks for the info.

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  10. I have the Elements but use Picasa about 99% of the time.It's free, comes with online storage and I am pretty sure has a version for Mac

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  11. My point is, really, that I'm too lazy to mess with photo-editing. It takes time I don't want to spend.

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  12. I noticed you mention Dolly in one of your entries but I just thought maybe you had a cow I didn't remember you writing about before. I enjoy reading your entries and your photo's look fine to me. I'm the worlds worst when it comes to having to go back and straighten out the messes I've made in an entry.

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  13. I won't be joining them, either. And I find all those between-entry-and-down-the-sidebar ads an annoyance. I usually quit reading a blog if they have them. Too distracting. I was born poor, I'll die poor. Oh well.

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