Grab a Beer and Muse With Me A Minute on the State of Blogging

Don Surber quit his blog this week.  After seven years of blogging, he's done.  "Exhausted."  Oh, he's still writing at the Charleston Daily Mail and he's posting on Facebook but he's done with the blog.

Andy quit his blog, too.  (Again).   He's still around, commenting and posting on Facebook, but blogging?  Done.

I've only been blogging since August 2008.  When I began this blog it was not political.  I started it because it looked like fun.  When I first started posting (dumb) stuff about iced tea and my dog's aversion to rain I was thrilled if I got 30 hits a day.  Most of those were probably accidental finds via Google.  My expectations were low.

I was drawn into political blogging because of the election.  "Somehow," I thought, "I have to be able to make a difference!"  I could not believe that so many people were bedazzled by Barack Obama's "hip" and "cool" campaign.  I was terrified he might really get elected.  So I started political blogging to try to make a difference.

He won anyway.

I'm doing all this "navel gazing" because another election is upon us.  While trying not to obsess too much about stats and blog hits, if you're writing to educate and inform (no matter the subject) then ideally you want someone to read your work.

A few years ago, in an attempt to get my audience up I tried Stacy McCain's legendary "How to Get a Million Hits...".  I even tried Rule 5 (something akin to putting sexy pictures of celebrities on the blog) but I abandoned that technique.  I got tired of going to other blogs and finding near naked pictures of anorexic swimsuit models or porn actresses sprawled across the page.

Some of Stacy's techniques worked, sort of.  I got linked by Michelle Malkin a couple of times because of Rule 2 though I am uncomfortable "pimping" my blog and blast mailing posts out to people.  I was Instalanched a couple of times though.  Ann Coulter linked me once.  Sometimes the comments were rolling in as fast as I could push them through.  Now I'm doing good to get six or eight on a post.  I like the feedback and the discussion.

Oddly, the posts I've worked the hardest on, did the most research for, and am most proud of, got the fewest hits or comments.  I've never understood those blogs that just post snips from news stories or other blogs and just write a snarky word or two as commentary survive, but they do.  In fact, they get a lot more hits than I ever did.   You've read them: there's often a picture and a big block quote from some other source.  Little to no analysis.  I guess that's a different niche.

Even still, though, after almost four years of blogging, I still haven't hit 300,000 hits.  So much for "a million hits in less than a year."

Through the years I've come across some really great bloggers.  Stacy McCain is one of those, but he's also a professional writer.  (He's not so great at thank you notes though: the last two times I've hit his tip jar I never got a thank you in return and you know how those of us in the South feel about thank you notes. )

I've come across some really nice people and some really wise people in the blogosphere.  I've made some real blog-friends who link diligently in return.  There are lots of good people doing this.

But some of the great bloggers I've "met" have quit.  Like Don Surber.  And while Andy didn't do much political blogging, he was still a great blogger because he was fun to read.  He brought a smile to my day.  I'd read one of Andy's posts or watch one of his infamous v-logs and laugh out loud.  "He's just not right; he's not all there!" I'd say with great fondness.  I miss his voice in the blogosphere.

Some have quit and come back.  No Sheeples Here was one of my favorite blogs.  For various reasons, she quit the blog; not quit quit but took the whole damn thing down.  Gone.  Like it never existed.  (There's another blog called No Sheeples Here now, but it's not the same one.)  All those great PhotoShop pieces and content just gone.

But she came back.  Under a new name:  Political Clown Parade.  Fortunately we can still hear the Curmudgeon's voice and see her great PhotoShop work.  I'm glad she came back.

Jules Crittenden didn't come back - as far as I know.  Lucky for us he left his content in place though.  He has some great reading lists and did some beautiful military themed posts.  But still, it's another voice quieted.

Another favorite blog, Caught Him With a Corndog, has been sporadic.  Red has been a faithful reader and commenter on conservative blogs and generous in her tip jar giving. (I hope I always wrote you a thank you note, Red).  But she got busy with real life, a move, school, and blogging got difficult.

Critical Narrative, Yukio Ngaby's blog, has more or less gone dark.  Yukio was a diligent commenter here and I could always count on him to beat back the trolls with wise and informed comments.  But, as is prone to happen, real life took precedence over the blog and Yukio is silent.

Don't misunderstand - there are lots of great blogs out there and new ones pop up all the time (or if not new, then new to me).

I've given lots of thought lately to this blog.  I noticed that when I quit blogging mostly about politics then the hits got low.  That makes sense: the bulk of my regular readers came for political commentary, not for pictures of depression glass.  But I like writing about a variety of things so that's what I'll continue to do.  I get down in the dumps about my lack of traffic sometimes and think about quitting the thing.  Surber is right:  blogging is hard work if you do it right.  It's exhausting to keep it going and discouraging when you think nobody is listening.

Summer is three weeks away for me.  I blog a lot more during the summer and with the campaign season intensifying I expect my political posting will increase too.  And probably my stats.  At any rate, the adage is that you're supposed to blog because you love it, not for the money or the hits.  As far as money goes, I've never cashed one Amazon Associates check or Google AdSense check in four years so this will never replace my day job.

I'm really sorry to see Don Surber go.  And while I'll probably still flirt with the idea of pulling the plug here one day I don't really think I can do it.  At least, not yet.  As long as there are such serious issues confronting this country and as long as the mainstream media continues to report from a bias, I don't think I can be quiet.  I may only reach thirty people a day, but that's thirty people.  Don Surber had a much bigger audience and his voice will be missed.

Meanwhile, at SIGIS, I'll keep plugging away.  I'm rested and ready for the presidential campaign ahead.  As far as the Sunday quiz earlier, I appreciate the feedback and the input.  It lets me know what you want to see.

As Andy would say, "I love y'all.  I mean it."

Update:
Thanks Stacy, for the link.
Thank you, Professor Jacobson, for the link; you're steady as a rock.  That "quick, newsy" thing?  So sorry.
Fishersville Mike is hanging on, too.  Thanks for your comments!