Before I finished working on this blog post, I accidentally hit the Publish button instead of Preview. I immediately took it back down, but those of you who subscribe received the earlier version via email. Oops. Here is the real post.
April 15 will be the tenth anniversary of this blog. That is TEN YEARS of writing five days a week about the business of being a Central California artist.
As far as I can discover, NO ONE ELSE DOES THIS. More accurately, no one I know or have encountered on the World Wide Web has posted five days a week for ten years.
Lots of people start blogs. Lots of people quit blogging.
Many started their blogs with daily posts; as life sped up, bloggery wisdom changed. Five days a week used to be seen as the best method; now posting less often, perhaps once a week, is considered better..
I ignored the advice, because I have too much to say and blogging is just plain fun.
More grow-your-blog advice was to read and comment on other blogs. I did this, and in the process, I made 2 good blogger friends that I stay in touch with, along with some nice virtual acquaintances. This increased my readership by two.
Other bloggery wisdom advised doing guest posts on other people’s blogs; I did that a few times, and while it was fun, it increased my non-art-producing work without increasing my readership.
Another piece of advice is to “monetize” one’s blog. (Since when did “monetize” become a word?) What this weird word means is to sell ad space on one’s blog and to talk about products and books that one uses and likes, in hopes of getting people to click on the links and buy the products. This method is called using “affiliate links”. Feels pushy and sellsy and a little trashy to me. By “trashy”, I mean it clutters up the site and distracts the reader, inviting them to leave the page.
Not my style, although I have tinkered around with this too. Never earned more than about 15¢.
My readership is low, few readers comment, blogs are considered old-fashioned (gimme a break!!), I don’t have many subscribers, it costs money, and it takes time. Why do I continue to blog?
BECAUSE IT IS FUN, I LOVE TO DO IT, AND IT IS NOW A DEEPLY INGRAINED HABIT!
Besides, I know most of my readers in real life; we have real friendships and real interaction, not just “virtual” stuff, where people “hang out on social media”. Authenticity is one of my core values in life. I need realism in art, in friendships and in life.
Thank you for reading. Here, have a nice picture as a thank you for listening.
P.S. If you enjoy my blog and know other people who might like reading about earning a living as an artist in a poor uneducated rural area, people who are interested in Tulare County, people who love Mineral King, people who like realism in art and life, then send them the link to my blog.
There. That’s about as sellsy and pushy as I care to be. A bit too sellsy, but I guess it never hurts to ask.
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