by Stushie

Created on: January 30, 2008   Last Updated: June 30, 2010

In years to come, perhaps there will be a new saying: "Those who can, write; those who can't, blog."

I've been blogging for a couple of years and have found that unless you specialize in certain popular areas, you can't really make much money from blogging. Too many blogs have become cyber hangars for Youtube videos, newspaper clips, and meaningless rants about pet projects. People are communicating what is in their hearts, but they're not using their minds to convey their messages.

Being a religious blogger (several times a day, mainly on faith issues), I've discovered that thousands of people from all over the world hit my blog page for different reasons. Take this month, for instance. I wrote a few pieces on loneliness and because we're in the post-Christmas depression cycle, hundreds of people have hit the site. I added Google Adsense to the blog about a month ago and so far, despite having two thousand hits this months, I've only managed to generate $6. Giving up my day job to keep blogging is nowhere in sight.

Now perhaps you may think that a religious site isn't going to make many connections, but I also have a political cartoon blog called "Pushing the Envelope". It also gets about 2500 hits per month, and yesterday I drew a Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton cartoon. It generated about 200 hits today, but I only managed to make fifty cents off the Google ads. I guess I won't be seeing any of the millions of dollars that the Presidential Campaigners have raised either.

My point is this: blogging is mainly a leisure pursuit that we all enjoy because it provides us with a vehicle to get our ideas out into the world. I don't look for compensation or financial rewards. Knowing that other people from many nations across the earth are reading my blogs, just makes my day.

And how do I know this?

Firstly, I've got a free counter from Statcounter.com. They offer a lot of statistics and information for bloggers. One of my favorite programs from Statcounter.com involves looking at the flags from all over the world, showing where readers of my blog live. It's fascinating to see a Saudi Arabian flag next to a Canadian one; or an Irish flag beside a Philippine one. I even had one the other day from the Holy See, in the Vatican City! The laugh was on me though, because the reader weren't looking at my religious blog; someone in the Vatican was viewing my political cartoons!

Secondly, I've placed the Babel fish widget on my blog pages, which allows people from all over the world who speak Spanish, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Korean to instantly translate my blog articles into their languages. Whenever I get feedback from them, I have to put their comments through the same translator.

Blogging is a great hobby and I love the way it promotes connectionalism throughout the world. I may never make millions by blogging, but I feel that my life has been enriched knowing that many people each day read my blog. Money isn't everything; but being connected to the world is priceless.

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