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There was a point in time, just a few years ago, that a blogger could say whatever he wanted, about anything and anyone, and unless he was literally shouting from the rooftops promoting the URL no one ever stopped by to read it and he had little to worry about. There was a point in time where you could blog, without ever having to think about whether or not you would receive any compensation for your time and effort, you were something of a sell out if you ran ads, even worse if anyone was pushing their own agenda behind the scenes and you were getting paid for it and everyone found out. Those days are behind us, blogging, while just a few years ago everyone called us pundits and armchair warriors, is very real, there is a lot a stake, and your reputation is on the line, particularly if your real name and identity is ever discovered.

Those who want to bring revenue into their site must play by the rules, and find an intelligent way to include their promotional efforts into what they normally talk about in a way that won't put off their readers where they're too cheesy and have lost all integrity. Those who aren't interested in revenue at all, or are only interested in promoting other sites similar to theirs or the services of advertisers that only cater to their demographic can't go that far to the left or right of what those partners are speaking about either. Chances are, if you are blogging, for the sake of writing and ranting, and aren't, and refuse to, develop a relationship with anyone; other readers, businesses, other publishers and writers, you'll write yourself into a corner and your blog isn't worth the space of the server that it sits on.

In the beginning it was all about saying what you wanted to say and getting something off of your chest. Yet these days, even if you have done absolutely nothing to promote your work whatsoever chances are there are at least tens, if not hundreds of people, who have read what you have to say, and are either helping to increase your exposure by telling others about it or are helping to defeat your efforts and running your site into the ground. I've been linked to, referenced, and talked about in sites that appear to have nothing to do with what I'm talking about, visitors in remote parts of the world and promoted on sites I never even knew existed. The vacuum no longer exists, and your provider, whomever it may be, isn't interested in your blog just sitting there without them getting anything out of the courtesy for allowing you to store your thoughts and dreams on their equipment. These days you have to opt out of using tools that can help you gain traffic and earn revenue.

Whatever you do with your blog, do not compromise yourself, your ethics, your beliefs, for money, for popularity, for buzz, for anything you can't live with at the end of the day. Write the posts that you want to have and create the blog that you want your presence on the Internet to reflect, regardless of what the trends are, or how much traffic and revenue you can bring into the site. If you want to make money, by all means do so, but don't lie or try to hide the fact from your readers that is what it is truly about. Readers can respect your efforts if they're getting something in return, and you're not putting something out there that is questionable or suspect. If you want to debate an issue, or are behind a candidate or have a political agenda then let us know, don't hold anything back from us give it to us exactly the way that it is, precisely, how you see it to be for yourself. Or perhaps you're a centrist, and like to do different things at different times, as I often do, whatever floats your boat, just be real about what you're doing ...

Learn more about this author, Christopher Kendalls.
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