Year of the Blog

On 16 Nov 2006 I became a blogger by uploading ‘The World’s Ugliest Toolbox’

http://bobhooversblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/ugliest-toolbox.html

...in response to Google’s offer of free blogging space. Since then I’ve uploaded 264 others from a file of a thousand or so digitalized articles accumulated since about 1992. The material covers a broad range of interest and includes articles submitted for publication, successfully in a few cases but mostly rejected, especially so for the aviation-related material.

To provide this ‘free’ service Google attaches advertising to your material. When someone clicks on one of the ads, the advertiser pays Google, who shares a bit of the wealth with you. You are allowed to limit the number of ads and to block ads from companies you deem unsuitable. Of course, the more restrictions you impose on your site, the lower its potential income. And the thing has to generate SOME income or Google will simply kick you off.

Over the past year the blog has been visited 97,305 times. Those visitors clicked on 862 of the ads, for which Google paid me $292. That’s about 266 visitors a day and two clicks worth eighty cents, a tad shy of Minimum Wage even for a writer :-)

As soon as my blog appeared I got a few friendly jabs from fellow writers about getting rich through blogging. This message should lay their fears to rest :-) At the same time, a number of other folks asked if creating a blog was worth their time. I didn’t know. I said I would give it a year and tell them how things were going, which is what I’m doing here.

Over the course of the last year the blog has generated a fair number of comments, some of which I’ve posted. A lot of people have urged me to submit a particular article to various magazines, unaware that in most cases, I already have. If you want to see a particular type of article in your favorite magazine the person to talk to is the editor, not the writer.

Has the effort been worth-while? If you mean financially, no. But as a means of disseminating information, I think the blog has been a success.

-R.S.Hoover
-18 Nov 2007