March 1, 2010 was when my first writing blog opened to absolutely no fanfare. Obviously I haven't really kept track of the time very well. That first year I tried gamely much of the time but there wasn't much in traffic or comments.
In February 2011 was when I joined the "Platform Building Crusade," which is where I bumped into people like Michael Offutt and Rusty Webb. So while I think stuff like that or the A to Z Challenge are pretty lame, some good came out of it.
Traffic and comments then were definitely higher, but I've never really liked Wordpress, so in October 2011 I moved to Blogger for the relatively short-lived Grumpy Bulldog Blog. I thought that was fun with topics like "Grumpy Bulldog vs. the Gathering Darkness" and "Grumpy Bulldog Saves America!"
With A Hero's Journey about to be published by what I thought then was not a completely shitty publisher, I thought I needed digs that were a little more professional. So that's when I moved here, though at first it was www.ptdilloway.com since I really wanted to be all professional.
Back then I really tried to use the blog as a promotional tool with all the entries tied into the book: Two-Fer Tuesday with samples, Practical Superheroism, Everyday Heroes, and so forth. But after a while it seemed pointless since there wasn't a huge spike in traffic and the same people were commenting as before.
And then I tried some different things. Remember Box Office Blitz? That was pretty fun, though I don't miss the hassle of managing it. Then about this time in 2014 I chronicled my trip out west on the blog with lots of crappy pictures taken from my car.
After that it's really just been random blog posts except for the A to Z Challenge posts. Then the Andrew Leon fiasco took about half my commenting audience with it, so there haven't been that many comments on most posts since then.
Recently Tony Laplume rambled about illegal immigration and was none too pleased when I ripped him a new asshole in the comments. His whining about what a meanie I am and how I should just go away begged the question: why are you blogging about controversial topics if you don't want anyone to disagree with you? Why are you blogging, period, if you're going to be a whiny little bitch about comments you receive? You might as well delete all negative comments like Andrew Leon or just turn off comments in general if you want to post your mini-manifestos with no discussion.
But why blog in general? Six and a half years of blogging and has it really accomplished much? I know some people I wouldn't otherwise (like Tony Laplume, to his chagrin) but certainly it hasn't made the world a better place. I doubt it's really done a lot for my book sales. I don't think it helps my writing at all. I don't get paid to do it. About the only positive is it gives me a soapbox to vent some of the angry/crazy/wacky thoughts from my brain that would otherwise be mired there until forgotten. So there's that.
Here's to another 6-and-a-half years!
2 comments:
If you get some enjoyment out of blogging, then it's worth it. For sales, it's useless.
Sorry you got so much blogging negativity. I've been on the receiving end a number of times and it sucks. Over the years of blogging I've learned that its more important to write what you love. My concept art blog was really popular because I was (am) passionate about it. When I started focusing on traffic and comments it took away the fun and slowly died into ignominy (though you never know). When I started getting paid to blog about Superman it was fun and got lots of traffic, but took away my passion because I'm not the biggest Superman fan on the planet. About.com dropped all the single focus blogs and I haven't been able to muster up my passion for general blogging since then. So that's one (of many reasons) Geek Twins is by the way side for me. I guess my long rambling point is that blogging isn't about selling books. It's about the love of your subject. If the traffic and comments don't come, at least you have something you love. That's always worth it.
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