diary: every forty two seconds

I think it’s general internet fatigue. The reality of needing more time away from the screen is finally setting in, the illusion that we could possibly keep up with all our friends/relatives/colleagues’ online information streams is over.

Thank god.

So it only makes sense to keep blogging if you’re getting some kind of valuable result from it, have an actual purpose in your endeavor for which a blog is just one aspect, one tool.

I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a blog, but simply don’t choose to make the time. Call me interested in other things (true), total chickensh*t for not putting my ideas and experiences out there (partially true), or simply scared (not true).

If you’re a hobbyist, do you need to “get it right” and “make a living?” This is a highly personal question, but it’s worth asking since the topic is hobbyists.

I’ve followed MacLeod since his blog was an infrequent unadorned blog post of a scanned card. That was pre-bluemonster, pre-cubegrenade, pre-newsletter, pre-commissionedprint…and I like that stuff too. Because he never set out to do those things for themselves. But even a hobbyist has to eat…so he figured out ways to promote and sell the talent.

And that is seriously cool. I wish that success to every hobbyist. Yet way too many hobbyist blogs are filled with ads because the point was to make money, not to blog. And that is seriously sad.

Totally agree with that.
All people are too busy to do blogging. Lately I lost interests in tweeter, because something we talk about looks like meaningless.

Who ever said that everyone had to blog, or tweet, or contribute to Wikipedia etc?

I run 3 or 4 blogs at the moment because it’s something I enjoy, it rewards me with contacts and discussion, and it may bring in a little cash from time to time.

But I don’t necessarily think everyone should be blogging – the important thing is that the options were opened up to everyone, not that suddenly everyone had to do it…

What percentage of small business fail or have the owners give up in the first year? From memory it’s pretty high…

I believe, years ago, the idea of a blog brought with it visions of “fame” (small “f”). Now there is so much noise in social media (Facebook and Twitter have taken the “social” parts and over done them to the point of 140 character dribble). People are looking at blogging and realize it is no longer unique, and thus they fear their ideas being a tree falling in a forest.

Interestingly the people who are dedicated and consistent bloggers (regardless of if they make money or do it to pontificate ideas) are still going strong. Those who were just there to play have moved onto easier toys.