There are at least two kinds of writers— those who write for writing’s sake and those who write to be read. I am of the second kind.
There are at least two kinds of writers who write to be read—those who do it for the fun of it and those who would like to make some money doing the writing thing which would include those who have written a book or two and want to get the word out. Again, I am of the second kind.
Reason 1: Blogging pays my mortgage. I earn enough from my blogs to pay my sizable Silicon Valley Mortgage. And I have had a book of my blog material published to boot. See Gee I Wish I Had Been Drinking at the Time. A second book will be out next month – How Wilby Got 20 Million People to Read His Blogs and How You Can, Too.
It is estimated that there are more than 77 million blogs.
The general wisdom is that if there are that many, some of them have to be good. Why shouldn’t mine be one of the good ones? Why shouldn’t yours?
Blog is a contraction for the term “web log.†Frankly, the name is not very attractive. It sounds too much like blah, blah, blahg. I prefer to explain what I do: I keep content current and focused on one topic on an interactive website, in a log format presented in reverse chronological order.
Too often, those who don’t know what blogs can be think bloggers just blah, blah, blahg about themselves, what they ate, the breakup in their relationship, or the kind of video games they like. Some bloggers do write like this. They are the ones who blahg, that is, they write for writing’s sake.
Not all bloggers just blahg, though.
Some make it a serious effort. For example, four of the top eight online entertainment sites are blogs. More people read blogs than read People, TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly or AskMen.com online. Often, a blogger can pass on information faster than major media sources. I wrote a couple of posts about the $700 billion man, Neel Kashkari, as breaking news, and more than 5,000 people came to read it.
Reason 2: It’s fun to get an immediate response to what I write and from people who don’t know me. I should also admit that I don’t always, even usually, like the feedback I get for sure.
Blogging is a global phenomenon. I own a blog network. You can discover it starting at PanAsianBiz.
Reason 3: I have writers who blog for me who live in India, Romania, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and America. Having such a global reach is a thrill. Did I say that blogging can be fun?
Reason 4: Blogging can be profitable. For bloggers the average annual revenue is $6,000. Those who can get 100,000 unique visitors a month earn closer to $75K. That income can be generated with minimum investment and a lot of hard work. There’s the rub. Blogging is easy if all you want to do is see your work on the net. Blogging is hard work if you want to make a living at it.
Reason 5: Blogging can be an effective way of getting the word out on your book, too. In the course of blogging I have gained more than 4000 subscribers, that is, readers who want to see all the updates of my blogs.
Before I had my book, Gee I Wish I Had Been Drinking at the Time accepted by a publisher, said publisher was quite happy to know that I already had a likely audience as well as visitors in the thousands who came to my sites.
In future posts here at BB, I hope to share some lessons I have learned.
For what it’s worth, I have some 250 pages of notes I have garnered from tips by other bloggers who are on networks to which I belong.
Please come back. Better yet, please subscribe.
The next thing I will write about are some keys to making a blog successful where success is defined as getting visitors (think 1000 or more daily) to your site to read what you write and having them turn the pages = page views.
