The World's Common Tater

One of my blog friends posted this morning about why she blogs. She also discussed the prospect of making money blogging She correctly pointed out that it takes a lot of work and a specific type of blog to make money doing this. I would love to be able to make money blogging, but I know that will never happen for a few reasons:

1. Work – She correctly points out that you can’t make money blogging if you are spending a few minutes a day on the blog. You need to take a lot of time thinking about what you will write, writing it, editing it, tailoring it to your audience, etc. I have a full-time job. Some days I barely have time to spend the 15 minutes or so I spend churning out my mediocre posts. I could probably spend more time on it at night, but after work I’m tired and just want to watch TV or read.  Maybe in August when my daughter leaves for college I can spend a little more time on it, but I will never have the time it takes to build a money-making blog.
2. Specific blog type – I want to write about what I want to write about when I want to write about it. Most of the experts say that to build a following you really need to narrow the focus of your blog. I can’t do that. Partly because I want to write about everything and partly because I have no specific expertise. My blog will always be a meandering, confused mess. Me in blog form.
3. Me no write good – I’m just not a good enough writer to inspire thousands of people to follow me and that is what it takes to make money. I could probably be better if I spent more time on my posts, but see #1.

So, why do I blog if I know I will never make money doing it? Why do I blog when I’m lucky to get 20 views a day? Why do I blog when I have struggled to get over 200 followers and others have thousands after blogging for a year? I blog for the same reason I still post a lot on Facebook. I have things to say(on Facebook it’s more trying to be funny) and I want people to read it.  I blog because it feels good to see those 20 people read my post. I blog because I enjoy the writing process, even though my process is 15 minutes of vomiting my thoughts on a page and posting.  Honestly, there is always the small thought that if I keep it up and send more time with it I might eventually get a post that gets shared by more famous people and the thousands will follow me.

So, I will keep posting and being read by a handful of people. I might work harder on it in the fall and see if I can get two handfuls of people.

Speaking of money – My periodic sharing of my link if you would like to support my blogging habit or buy me a cup of coffee – click here

Many thanks to my to my two friends who actually did donate. I appreciate the support.