I realize that a post like this
will tend to make me even less popular than I already am in the blogging world
(whatever the fuck that is) but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for as
long as I have read blogs.If you would like me to link your blog here just email me. All I ask is that you update fairly regularly.
1) No one really gives a big shit that you haven’t posted in a while so
stop writing a post to apologize “to your readers” for the fact that you haven’t
written anything in months. Either write
more or shut up about not writing because I’m pretty sure that nobody really
cares whether you write something or not.
2) Does anyone ever make money on blog ads? Why would you pollute your
blog with advertisements when you are only going to make a few pennies? If you
are making decent money then go on but I doubt that there are many bloggers
that can say this. So just write for the
joy of writing and throw Google’s pennies back in their fat faces.
That's all I can think of, just two things. I still read lots of blogs and I'm always looking for something good. My only advice to bloggers is to
keep writing even if no one else is reading. You will never get actual advice on writing from me because that would be like me talking about astrology or tarot cards reading. If you can monetize your writing
then good for you. I actually make a very modest sum from writing but that’s
hardly my motivation. I do it for me.
P.S. I just thought of something else: excessive comment moderation procedures. Do you want people to leave comments or not? I've simply given up trying to comment on most blogs because it's just too much trouble. I could understand this on blogs that get hundreds of comments, but if you only get a handful why not just allow comments with no hoops to jump through, and then just moderate them yourself? I moderate comments that are from posts more than two weeks old because those are all spam comments, or almost all of them. And what an odd marketing strategy for a company, "I'll just post comments in blog posts from three years ago. Business will go through the roof!"
P.S. I just thought of something else: excessive comment moderation procedures. Do you want people to leave comments or not? I've simply given up trying to comment on most blogs because it's just too much trouble. I could understand this on blogs that get hundreds of comments, but if you only get a handful why not just allow comments with no hoops to jump through, and then just moderate them yourself? I moderate comments that are from posts more than two weeks old because those are all spam comments, or almost all of them. And what an odd marketing strategy for a company, "I'll just post comments in blog posts from three years ago. Business will go through the roof!"
As far as writing stuff on one's blog, I try to keep going as best I can, worried that someone might come back and say, well, he's nor written anything new, so I'm outta here. Second, is my conceit that I know lots about Spain/politics/being stung by a scorpion, or whatever happens to be the plât du jour and readers will be refreshed by my input. Also, I want to score one over the Spaniards, who, of course, have never heard of my various blogs anyway. Besides which, I'm too old for wanking so I write for kicks. As far as adding a 'press here for a donation button', I've just removed the one on my main blog, which, after two and a half years, has produced precisely zilch. A number of google ads, not in evidence on my copy thanks to some mozilla app, sends a small sum to a grateful grandchild in Oklahoma, Bless Her.
ReplyDeleteThe comments stuff. Most of the time, they miss the point, are frankly selling some shite of their own, or are in Chinese. It should be harder to answer these things.
We must meet up for a horchata one day (a Frenchman was telling me yesterday that there is a recipe for 'orgeat' with Pastis, which might bear research).
I set my comments to moderate anything from posts older than two weeks which is where most spam comments go. I very occasionally have to remove a spam comment from current posts. I get few comments (as do most blogs) so it's not a big deal sorting through a bit of spam which is better than making readers jump through a bunch of hoops to post a comment. As for ads, as I said, if you are making money then more power to you. I'm sure than I wouldn't make enough for a cup of coffee with my blog so why pollute it with ads? Horchata with pastis sounds like a big improvement to me.
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