Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Million readers
Anyone who watches light comedies produced in Hollywood these days will be quickly tipped off to the fact that there is a fortune to be made in blogging. Usually there's a couple with kids. One of them has a regular job testing rollercoasters, or listening to music, or owning an amazing restaurant, or something perfectly normal, while their partner keeps a blog, for kicks, at home because, what the hell, one fun job is plenty to support a family in comfortable style. But then, usually as a modest portion of the movie's plot, the other partner's blog is bought like it's a valuable company, or a vast advertising resource, or the blogger, happily toddling along with a few hundred thousand dedicated readers, suddenly writes something so good that the New York Times is interested, or Publishers, or TV, and then there are millions of readers because everyone out there is just ravenously reading blogs all the time. I mean, what else is there to do on the Internet?
But you may be surprised to find that the movies badly understate it. Blogging is an absolute goldmine. I'm not afraid to let the cat out of the bag. I hate cats being in bags. And the truth is that when it comes to blogs there is enough here for everyone. Really! Ask me how much I make for writing a high quality blog post like this one. Or ask me how much I made writing that hilarious post the other day about the Pope and the Atheist. No, really, go ahead and ask me. I will not hold back. Cards on the table. No harm no foul. So don't be shy, just go ahead and ask.
Anyone? It's really interesting. You're going to want to know, so speak right up. I'm ready for your question.
No one? Hello?
Hello?
Oh, I get it. Don't panic. There's an explanation.
So here's the thing: people can read a blog any time of the day, so, like, even if I regularly have, let's say, roughly a million regular readers, it's statistically inevitable the every once in awhile no one much is reading my blog. It seems odd to think there can be a million fervent readers and yet several days can roll by with pretty much no one reading my blog at all, but it's merely one of those funny statistical quirks, like the one about birthdays. You know the one about birthdays, don't you? If there are 23 people in a room there's a 50-50 chance that two of them have the same birthday. That is entirely true, believe it or not. And that seems far more counter intuitive than having a million regular readers but sometimes going several days without hardly anyone reading my blog. Don't you think?
I said, don't you think?
Hello?
Hello?
8 comments:
If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.
I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!
One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.
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1. Hello
ReplyDelete2. Happy New Year and Congratulations on completing 365 posts in 2015. That is such an accomplishment, with an admirable aura of old fashioned duty and commitment glowing around it, and must have involved a lot of trudging forward, inspiration or no. It should be celebrated!
3. I came in late, but if I remember right, some favorites were Winter birds, Chocolate Covered Bitterness, Falling is Better than Despair, The End of Reading, Fall of the House.
4. Here is a less-dutiful blog by my parents' friend. I love it, tho you may find the post-processing heavy-handed. Anyway, recent entries concern a trip to Rome, and one particularly lovely Pantheon shot. http://naturallightimages.zenfolio.com/blog/2015/11/the-coolest-building-in-rome
Hello Caroline, I will respond to your points on their numbered basis.
Delete1. Oh, right, hello. I feel this really affirms my contention about the million readers.
2. That makes me sound so dogged! I don't feel dogged, but maybe I am. I will say that I set my bar for inspiration pretty low so that I'm pretty much never out, rather I more commonly suffer from too much inspiration and sometimes have to bury the extra in the backyard.
3. I tried to alert everyone in the world to my blog, but I'm afraid a few must have gone to the wrong address or something, so I'm relieved you finally found your way here. My delight in your naming favorites is borderline unseemly so I'm just going to pretend this sort of thing happens all the time.
4. I am reluctant to call anything else on the Internet a "Blog". Sometimes I am even reluctant to call this a blog, but I liked the photo journal. Partly I'm just a sucker for Rome in any way of course, but they were really pretty pictures. I like the heavy handed post-processing to be honest- I find it suitably dramatic and baroque! I just have a tiny quibble with your parent's friend's blog: the coolest building in Rome, and probably the world, is not the Pantheon, it is Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. I mean, just to be scientifically objective.
2. I sense you have a talent for sniffing out an insult inside a pile o' compliments. But, perhaps I am projecting (both this talent, which I possess, and the dutifulness, which I strive to find/create).
ReplyDelete3. I've been dropped into this rabbit-hole to let you know that your thoughts have wings enough to travel 20 years into the future, across 3,000 miles of sky. The least I can do is stop back now and then; enjoy the enjoyable parts; say so, a few times, but not too many; and, at a minimum, make sure comments on posts entitled "I used to be disgusted" have "but now I try to be amused" neatly woven in, for Chrissakes.
4. I was going to say something self-pitying, like 'I'll have to take your word for it, never having visited Rome,' but instead I'll look it up. Never having been to the Hagia Sophia hasn't stopped me from worshiping inside it, after all.
I'm sorry, I'm afraid my glibness got a little out of hand. Honestly I'm just glad you found and like the blog, and think it's very nice of you to say so, more than once, and in very nice ways.
DeleteI'm sorry in a different way that you haven't been to Rome. I love it. This might work for a picture of sapienza and includes bonus Pantheon in background: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/135/319445470_31d108d208_b.jpg
Thanks! That angle made me chuckle: towering gelato next to a bran muffin! Yes, I made it as far south as Florence in my 21yo backpacking, never thinking it might be my last chance. I enjoy living vicariously through Gregory Peck, though.
ReplyDeleteA very nice description: towering gelato. Was gelato a natural response to Baroque architecture? Is the Pantheon the bran muffin? I watched Roman Holiday recently. I worried about how broke Gregory Peck was at the end.
Delete>> No, not natural, as clearly originated from your earlier post on same.
Delete>> Yes
>> I think he ended up just fine. Before all that, I hear he attended both my high school and college.
Okay then.
DeleteYou're probably right he was fine, as he was sort of scrappy.