It spoke to me


So my blog woke me up last night.

It had been cranky all day, whining and muttering to itself in that low menacing growl that blogs have.

It’s still a very young blog. 352 posts as of today. 108 without a miss so far this year.

At approximately 500 words per post that’s 54,000 words this year. So my blog is well kept, well fed and should be happy.

Last night it made sure I knew it was not. It kept up it’s infernal, internal dialogue until I gave up and let it have it’s say.

“All the other blogs are making fun of me,” it started out.

I said that I doubted that could possibly be. First of all how could my little ankle-biter of a blog know “all the other blogs?”
And why would they be poking fun?

“All the other blogs have…” and here my blog began to wail, “TOPICS!” it sobbed out.

Topics? I said. What do you mean?

The little blog started to sniffle and with a hitch in it’s voice said: “They all have a regular subject. A focus. They come back to the same TOPIC every post.”

So? I cleverly said.

“I want a TOPIC!!!” my blog wailed.

So I tried to reason with my blog. I wanted to know: if all the other blogs wanted to jump off the server would he join them?

No answer. Just an electronic shrug and a sniffle.

All right, I wanted to know. What brought this on?

“Well, I was Goggling myself..”

I thought I told you not to do that, I said. It’s worse than masturbation. Go wash your interface. Bad Blog!

When the somewhat chastened blog returned we drilled down to the root problem.

The blog had seen the higher ranking blogs all had a regular subject that they dealt with.

“I’m just all random. You post whatever is in your head,” it said.

Well, that’s what I want, I replied. This was getting ridiculous. I was dialoguing with a WordPress theme.

“Yeah, but if I’m ever gonna get lotsa views and grow up to be a real blog you gotta give me a TOPIC!”

I told my blog that I wasn’t so sure that was the goal but it just turned it’s pixels down low and stopped responding. Even a cold reboot wouldn’t bring it out of it’s shell.

Needless to say it got me to thinking. What is the goal here? Originally I wanted to find some way to get my writing career jump started. At least in the sense that possibly I could make some money from it.

I do make some income from my writing. Can it ever be enough to support me and the long-suffering wife? Doubtful. Chances: Slim and none. Slim left town.

So the way to make money blogging? I have to figure out a niche. Write about that in an SEO friendly manner. Link to other blogs. Get other blogs to link me.

The problem is that I have the attention span of a gnat. I LIKE writing about lots of different subjects. I enjoy research and exploring new topics.

But I get bored with the same ones.

Do I become a hired gun to research, write and sell diverse content? Is there a market, a niche for that?

All I know is that I have only temporarily silenced my young blog. It will be tugging at my keyboard soon enough, wanting those big Google rushes.

To be continued.

The Rant D’Jour is about going to the movies. Oddly enough the first thing I ever wrote for the WEEKENDER was about annoying people at the movie theater.

-30-

I hate the cynical old fart I have become. It’s not a pleasure to constantly see things that I feel need…more

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About James Rising

A recovering radio addict wrestles with the written word.
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