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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder who why people blog

58 replies

Nevertooearlyforcake · 27/03/2012 13:08

And who reads them? I know noone is forced to read them and I can completely understand it when people are living aboard and want to keep friends and family in touch with their lives. But the "I wearing these shoes" today ones - why? I've clicked on a couple of links fron time to time and it just felt a bit narcissistic to me - am I missing something?

OP posts:
Ragwort · 27/03/2012 21:56

wordfactory - how do you blog for profit - genuine question

thickemoticon

cakewench · 27/03/2012 22:05

I started a blog when I moved overseas, so my family and friends back home could keep up with my exploits. It felt less invasive than sending emails to them as a group, as those feel both impersonal and demanding of a response. The blog is impersonal to a certain degree, but people can reply, and others can see their responses and my responses to them, etc, if they want to. Friends of friends of mine have now gotten to know each other online where they definitely wouldn't have done otherwise. My ex co-workers actually printed out the story of my trip across Australia, kept it for people to read in the office, then presented it to me when I came back.

That having been said, my blog slowed down quite a bit once I settled down (still overseas, in this country now) and had my son. I do try to keep notes there from time to time, for my own benefit.

I like blogs. Not all blogs, of course. Like with everything, some are better than others.

emsyj · 27/03/2012 22:08

Ragwort, you can sell advertising space on your blog (which I do), and some bloggers will charge for sponsored posts - so you will blog about a particular company or product and they pay you to do so for publicity. I don't believe in sponsored posts - to me, it just goes against everything blogging is about - but I do sell advertising space on my blog site.

There are some prominent wedding bloggers who make around £7k a month just from selling ad space on their blogs...

(I'm not one of them, my figures are nowhere near that level!)

OhdearNigel · 27/03/2012 22:09

I blog, a food/baking blog. It's a business tool but also a bit of vanity. I don't have a website so my blog is my "sales window"

OhdearNigel · 27/03/2012 22:10

I also love reading other food blogs (esp cake decorating and bakery) and craft blogs
I would have no interest in a "diary" blog unless it was by a really interesting celebrity.

lesley33 · 27/03/2012 22:11

emsyj - How many hits a day do you need to be getting to sell space. Wondering whether I should resurrect my blog?

ballroompink · 27/03/2012 22:12

It's not just about writing about yourself or your life, though. I blog about 'issues', politics etc and started doing so because my job did not involve writing, yet it was something I wanted to do. My blogging and the sites I have contributed to as a result helped get me the job I wanted. So it does have some uses.

LucyManga · 27/03/2012 22:13

Dont get it.

Have never found a blog I find interesting enough to want to read regularly.

emsyj · 27/03/2012 22:15

Last month I got over 42,000 unique visitors a month lesley33 and my figures are pretty steady in that they increase by about 3,000 visitors a month - all my advertisers are people who have approached me to ask for ad space. Some of the big bloggers get about treble my visitors, but they are charging ten times what I do for advertising.

TheFarSide · 27/03/2012 22:18

For me, blogs are for when you have something to say. After experiencing redundancy and six months of unemployment, I started a blog about being a middle aged woman looking for work. I had plenty to say about ageism and sexism and the inadequacies of the job centre ... but then I got a job, so I've pretty much stopped. I never got many hits.

When I'm going through something, I do like to read about other people going through the same thing, so blogs have their place, but there are too many of them and many of them are dull and contrived (and I include my own in that criticism!).

ballroompink · 27/03/2012 22:20

I would agree though, that blogs from people who have nothing to say, or people who have decided they're going to post every day even if they don't have anything to talk about, are tedious and pointless.

blubberyboo · 27/03/2012 22:21

i have no idea how to blog >>feeling rather old at 32

lesley33 · 27/03/2012 22:28

emsyj - I only had software to tell me how many visits so I never did know how many unique visitors I got - but not as many as you. How many were you getting when you first got approached? Just wondering as although I haven't posted on my blog for about a year I am still getting quite a few hits.

Firawla · 27/03/2012 22:36

I have a blog, its not an "oh look at me" type of one, its more a collection of islamic quotes, poetry etc - just because i wanted to keep them all in one place for easy reference and so others can benefit too.
I get about 10-13k views per month but i hardly update it these days

LittleWhiteMice · 28/03/2012 08:34

so links to anyones blogs so we can spy

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 28/03/2012 08:48

I blog because people kept telling me, "You ought to write a blog", and I sort of liked the whole showy-offy nature of it.

I suspect my collection of book reviews, recipes, domestic arguments, funny stuff in shops and the odd piece about my published fiction is never going to win me a book deal, though. :)

emsyj · 28/03/2012 09:20

lesley33 do you not have a google analytics account? You really need that to show you where your visits come from, how many you get, how many pages they view, where they are in the world/country... I don't know how you set it up as DH did it for me but I don't think it's hard.

I would say 20,000 visitors before ad approaches.

lesley33 · 28/03/2012 10:31

No, just what wordpress told me. As I was only really doing it for myself I wasn't too bothered about this. Thanks for this. I was getting about 10-15k visitors a month, but probably much less unique visitors and still getting about half that although I haven't blogged for over a year.

But I wasn't doing anything special to try and boost my numbers, so will think about whether I can be bothered restarting this and looking at it as a way of making money? Thanks.

AIBUqatada · 28/03/2012 10:39

Blogging is an astonishingly pointless thing to do. I have almost never read a blog post that turned out to be worth reading.

I blog sometimes.Grin

The value of it for me is that it gives me an opportunity to get my thoughts clear on a subject. I find that I can only clarify my thoughts by imagining that I am presenting them to somebody else. And the best way of imagining that I am presenting them to somebody else is to make them publicly available. Whether anyone actually reads them is another matter!

wordfactory · 28/03/2012 11:06

As emysj says, you can sell advertising space or you can accept sponsorship.

Also if you run a blog that reviews stuff, you get oodles of product sent to you.
I have a book review one and by God our house is graoning under the weight. Publishers send me all the new releases by the box load!

lesley33 · 28/03/2012 11:12

Mine is NOT something anyone would send me stuff for. Its about how awful a particular body is - slightly more low level exposee stuff that the local paper used to regularly pick up on. So I guess much less attractive to advertisers.

Firawla · 28/03/2012 12:11

wordfactory how long were you doing the reviewing blog before they started sending you things?

i wonder if i should do a review blog i like reviewing stuff especially when it gets sent free Grin i do know of someone that seems to get sent so many toys for her kids to review so always felt tempted

porcamiseria · 28/03/2012 12:12

I really wanted to post something a very VERY BITCHY about one of the MN blogs I read

I mean JESUS

then I thought no, spread the love, not hate

but fxxk me, what a twat she was

yanbu

NettoSuperstar · 28/03/2012 12:13

I love reading food blogs, and would really like one of my own but my camera is crap, and my home isn't that nice to have photos of it on a blog.
I do put them on FB though.

SpottedGurnard · 28/03/2012 12:34

There are some very good blogs out there. Some people just have a way with words and can make even a boring subject interesting. But fucking hell there is some crap out there. There's one I like to have a snigger at. I can't believe companies will advertise and sponsor posts on a blog where the blogger can't even distinguish between their and there.

There are so many good writers out there, they must feel pig sick when they see the shit some people make money from.