Saturday, May 22, 2021

The Saturday Morning Post - Blogging


This summer I will pass 16 years as a blogger.  I started as a guest blogger for someone who was on vacation for a couple of weeks, didn't know how to update from the road, and didn't want two weeks to pass without an update.  It was fun.  I created Travel Penguin and moved forward.  There were a few lean years.  Then 6 or 7 years ago I decided to get serious and post something every day.  

I wanted my writing to get better, to be easier, to be more readable.  Writing is a challenge for me, based on how my brain works, things I have worked on since first grade. Yet no one had said, to get better at writing, practice, practice, practice.  Making a commitment to posting something everyday to the blog, forces me to write often.  

I don't do this everyday, most of my posts are created on Saturday mornings, and Sunday afternoons.  Some are in draft form for months or even years.  Once a week I make sure I have 10 days of postable content ahead of me. Nearly every post, goes up at midnight eastern time, because they are written ahead of time and scheduled.  (This post is being written on Saturday May 15th, to post on Saturday May 22nd.)  This avoids me needing to find time during a sometimes hectic work week to create content.  If something comes up, I can put something up right away, ether by rescheduling or by posting more than one per day. 

I recently uploaded my photo archive to a new cloud backup, it loaded about 70,000 images.  I love taking photos.  I love that the blog gives me a place to share them with world.  Most are average, a few are really great.  All of them are tied to a memory for me.  

I get questions about advertising on the blog. I use Google Adsense. No I am not getting rich, it has grown very slowly, and generates about $10 a month.  

Why do I do it?  Google makes money from blogspot. Blogs generate content, images, photos, for Google to link to and index.  They use my content to target ads to me.  They use your visits and comments to target ads to you. If they don't have ads on on the blog you visit, they use what they learn about you when you visit to target ads on any site that you visit, that allows Adsense ads. 

By allowing explicit advertising on the blog, I get a tiny fraction of the money.  If you click on the ads linked on the blog, a tiny bit more, if you buy from some vendors even a bit more.  If they do a good job of targeting the ads to you, they should be for things you are interested in.  

Online advertising is different than print, in that the ads you see on this post, are different than the ads the next person will see on the same post.  The ads are targeted either based on what Google knows about you, or if they know nothing about you, based on what the post is about to the extent they can figure that out. Google (Amazon, Facebook and others) are going to do this, if I am a part of it or not.  I think content creators should be compensated.  It is not much, but it is something to confirm that I helped feed the machine. Everytime Google makes another billion, I get another couple of dollars for my part of it.

Compensated or not, please keep creating content, I love reading it, I love reading your comments, even just saying Hi in a comment, lets me know someone has read what I created.     

 

17 comments:

  1. So glad you're still blogging. I love your old photos, the stories about your life, and your questions that make me think.

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    1. Thank you, I do enjoy doing this.

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  2. Anonymous5/22/2021

    Now I going to take notice of the ads, to see how well they are targeted. Today's was about marketing social media. I am not really interested. Ads don't worry me but I have others say they would never read a blog with ads. While Google harvests information about me for marketing, I don't consider anything I get from Google as being free. Hey, maybe one day there will be a share (stock) issue for bloggers who receive money for ads and you will be rich!

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    1. Rich with friends I have made through blogging already

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    2. Anonymous5/23/2021

      Aww.

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  3. I hand it to you. When I get real busy or on vacation...I'm on vacation, and go two to three weeks without posting. I have got to clear the mind. And you know I hate pictures, lmao! I had two issues with blogger this week and came very close to either moving or just ending the blog.

    The ads I see generally don't show what I'm intresting in. Like right now it's apply for free grants and another for make your own labels. I don't even notice ads most of the time...Im very good at blocking ads out blog, or otherwise. Unless it is smack in the middle of one of your post which disrupts your sentences.

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    1. The middle of the post was something new in the past year. Below is an add for best buy, not for what I need to go buy, I wonder if I type that I need to go buy a new printer, scanner, copier if adds will start to pop up?

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  4. I see 3 ads: web hosting, shoes, website creator. not my cuppa tea.

    there will never be ads on my blog. there will never be any ABBA music either.

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  5. Sixteen years is a long time, and this from someone who was late to Travel Penguin, but I like the spot and the photos and the questions.
    The ads? I have just one when I visited today, and it's for Manly Bands, rings and such.
    I'm good at skimming past.

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    1. Thanks for being a part of this adventure. Ads have become so common, we skip most of them, there is one below for a neat looking shoe!!

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  6. I came, I read, I commented! Sixteen years is three years longer than me. I love doing this and yes, there are times when life gets so hectic that my blog post might be a very quick, short one. Still I love doing it.

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    1. A photo and caption, makes contact,

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  7. I am quite grateful for your blog and friendship; may there be 16 years and more of it.

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  8. Practice makes perfect! Congrats on the blogging milestone!

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