so why bother keeping it if no visitors click on the ads? both dooce and her husband blurb have quit their "real" jobs and can now live off the revenue generated from the ads placed on their blogs. how? it doesn't seem possible. now, i'm not doubting it, but i'm just intrigued by the possibility of blogs being able to put your kids through school or fund a vacation to an exotic island for two.maybe i didn't set it up correctly. or maybe people just don't want to click on the ads. or worse, maybe i don't have a large enough audience that would generate an income for me...no matter how large.
and that brings me to the weirdness that is blogs as well. i recently told Julie and Lucas that i admire their open honesty on their blogs. they seem to think that i'm pretty open and honest here, too. but the truth is, i'm so conscious of who reads this (hi mom-in-law) that i censor myself. there are things that i just will not discuss here, and things that i'm too embarrassed to admit or talk about. so i keep those things to myself, whereas others are spilling their guts to the world. and i totally do not think that's a bad thing. i just wish i weren't so aware of my audience.
what do you think? do you think bloggers should use this medium for themselves, not taking into account who may be reading? or should they always be conscious of their audience and blog accordingly?
i'm interested to know. so leave a comment.
oh, and make sure you click an ad before you leave, will ya?
8 comments:
HB- I totally censor myself. I'd guess most bloggers do in one way or another. It just may be that what I feel comfortable blabbing about, you don't and what you feel comfortable blabbing about, I don't. So we blab about different things, which makes our blogs different from one another which is a good thing.
Oh, I TOTALLY censor, even though I blog for me. Just 'cause I seem open and honest about some things, doesn't mean I'm ready to be naked to the world.
I think people who don't censor themselves haven't learned how to live in the world of grown-ups yet. What we say can be very powerful. We can hurt people. We can potentially damage our relationships or our own image.
I think it's hard not to censor. I think, after awhile we get an 'idea' (real or imagined) of our so-called audience, and whether we like it or not, or even mean it, we begin to write to the audience.
For instance, I have a blog (and these days, who doesn't?) and it's pretty much anonymous, and no one in my 'real' life knows I keep it. In the beginning it was a place to let it go, just to crap on about my shitty life, hit post, and move on.
Then I got involved in an area of the blog world, and started to 'focus' my blog a little more - and now I feel so pigeon holed by this, because some days I really just want to write:
"I'm supposed to be a vegetarian, but my husband's interstate travelling at the moment, and I went to KFC and bought a lot of FRIED CHICKEN and ate it all. And enjoyed it."
But I can't, or more truthfully won't write this because I want my blog to have a particular 'look and feel' and I wonder if posts like that would ruin it, or my 'readers' (hahaha) would be alienated by this.
So now my blog has become a facet of me, rather than a place to download all the bits of my life - good and bad.
Oh My Gosh - I just wrote a NOVEL in your comments page. sorry. feel free to delete at will.
I agree that it's hard not to censor when you know who your audience is. Only one real life person knows about my blog, so I have a lot of liberty to talk about everything but him. I think the only way you can be 100% forthright without offending anyone, including yourself, is to blog completely anonymously, unfortunately.
what audience? you have no audience! lol.
oh... and you still look like a p.o.s. with no writing ability! lol
lose the goddamn ads. been telling you that now for what? months?
HB, I vote you start to delete this person's comments. He/she is clearly "not our people." I'd rather move to simply not recognizing him/her than to have him/her leave this icky residue in our blog space.
I trust your judgment, though, HB. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow at Lit 6??
A. Noni -
You should not point fingers. Your writing ability hasn't surpassed that of a five year old. Or, are you being ironic?
LOL! LOL! LOL! LOL! LOL!
Sorry, HB... Just trying to put this loser in his place.
I think you should write what you feel and feel what you write. Just be yourself. You seem to be doing a good job, so just continue. And I couldn't care less about the ads. I just ignore it (no offense).
hey julie-
the a. noni guy is an infant. i just ignore his moronic comments. i'm sure he gets a boner waiting for me to respond, but i won't even give him the satisfaction.
other anonymous person-
no offense taken!
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