To Blog or Not To Blog

[steve s]

I've blogged on and off for years. I would imagine if this SNL blog had a decent text editor interface, you could attract some articles. Bloggers like to post their work in different places, to attact different groups of readers.

A blog aggregator that gets viewed by more than about 50 people runs the risk of attracting trolls and spam -adding some babysitting time for whomever is responsible.

My favorite blogging anecdote; One of my posts on Open Salon was picked up by a popular websight and viewed by 53,000. That earned about $6 from Google Ads. woohoo.

[Spartana]

Not a blogger but i like HKPassey's view of giving each a chance to explore blogging - that I might try doing for the fun of it. Imagine a blog about learning to train a dog and its psychology or watching some robins hatch etc. I'm game to do this.

Yeah I liked HK Passeys suggestion too as I have also thought of doing an ultra low budget travel blog of some of my trips but have no idea how to even start. This might be a good forum in which to practice. You guys will be my guinea pigs :-)! Of course then I'll be able to tell you how I skiied in Mammoth mountain (Sierras) and only paid $15/night for lodging - the same place goes for $5/night in summers! It's a dorm style chalet belonging to a ski club. Sweet!!!!!!!

[Mighty Frugal]

Yeah I liked HK Passeys suggestion too as I have also thought of doing an ultra low budget travel blog of some of my trips but have no idea how to even start. This might be a good forum in which to practice. You guys will be my guinea pigs :-)! Of course then I'll be able to tell you how I skiied in Mammoth mountain (Sierras) and only paid $15/night for lodging - the same place goes for $5/night in summers! It's a dorm style chalet belonging to a ski club. Sweet!!!!!!!

I think you should absolutely go for it! This is something many people will be interested in!!! And you have such a strong voice and a lot of character! Besides, you know how to handle a gun...you is one cool ladeeee

[catherine]

I agree that it's a great way for "maybe bloggers" to try it out--and I'd love to hear Spartana's insights on her experiences!

At a very basic level, how about an annotated blogroll? We could all list our blogs and the listings could include a description of the blog so that people could just choose to read the blogs that interest them. Maybe the bloggers could index their best 5 "simple living" articles or something like that.

[Spartana]

Thanks Mighty Frugal and Catherine. I might give blogging a try on my next long trip (and if I get a tablet computer). But just something simple to keep family and friends updated on my whereabouts and some photos and little tidbits of info about budget travel. Probably pretty boring to anyone here ("This is a picture of a rock. This is a picture of a flower. This is a lizard. I slept at this campground and only paid $5/night") kind of thing. If they do put up something on this site where people can list their blogs (maybe under the "community" section like we have albums) then I'll list it there.

ETA: Mighty Frugal, I just read your blog and it totally cracked me up!! Frogs and snails and rotweiller tails :-)!

[Wildflower]

I would enjoy reading others' blogs here, but I personally would not want to blog.

[ljevtich]

I blog and have been doing it for at least 6 years. I have my own website, my own domain, and tons of pages. I have tried many different avenues before I came to the conclusion that having my own would work better for me rather than having it hosted by someone else, some other company etc. It is about control. The trouble with having a blog on a FORUM site is just that you do not get the same number of folks coming to see your blog. I typically get at least 300-500 hits a day, and at least $100 a year in Google ads and usually ~ $100 in Amazon (if folks buy off of Amazon). That would not happen on a site hosted by another company. IF people had to be members to blog or had to be members to see the blog, then that would not work as you would not get many hits. A blog usually languishes too, if the blogger is not active. There are 1000s of blogs that people may have posted one or two posts and then that was it. Or they did that last year.

It usually means hard work to keep blogging day after day. I know a guy that does it, pretty much puts up a paragraph and a picture and gets tons of hits. But he has been doing it for over 11 years! He wrote articles (hasn't lately) has ads on every page (to give him money) has a donate page (again, don't think that has earned him much). Trouble is, most folks think that blogging will earn lots of money but it just does not. People do not click on Ads as much as they used to, and you do not earn as much from each click. And trying to sell on a blog is tough too, tried it with T-shirts and other sundries, and that was a mess. I didn't even buy the stuff.

Anyway, I like the forums, I think they are really good. I like learning what other people talk about, and try to learn from them.

But if my words showed up in someone else's blog post, I think I would NOT be happy.