February 22, 2008

Blogging For Fun, Fame And Fortune (Or Not)

Thanks to Kim at LP for linking to this Sarah Boxer article (yeah, that Sarah Boxer):
Bloggers are golden when they're at the bottom of the heap, kicking up. Give them a salary, a book contract, or a press credential, though, and it just isn't the same. (And this includes, for the most part, the blogs set up by magazines, companies, and newspapers.) Why? When you write for pay, you worry about lawsuits, sentence structure, and word choice. You worry about your boss, your publisher, your mother, and your superego looking over your shoulder. And that's no way to blog.

Blogging at its freest is like going to a masked ball. You can say all the spiteful, infantile things you wouldn't dream of saying if you were in print or face to face with another human being. You can flirt with anyone, or try to. You can tell the President exactly what you think of him. You can have political opinions your friends would despise you for. You can even libel people you don't like and hide behind an alias.
Well, it's not libel if it's true, is it? LOL!

I get sickened by these "safe" bloggers who worry so much about libel and being labelled a Conspiracy Theorist that they cannot even say what they really think. My philosophy is that lies and innuendo don't have legs, whereas the truth will out.

OTOH I realise that this blog is always going to remain "at the bottom of the heap, kicking up" as long as I persist in loudly articulating all my crazy ideas. It would be nice to get wads of money as a professional blogger, or even just ONE SINGLE FRICKIN' DONATION (ahem..), but it's not gonna happen. Blogs like this feed the frenzy, while the top dogs lick the froth off the top of the cream as it rises from the murky depths.

If you don't believe me, just look how much of this blogs traffic comes from Google searches. Who are these people and what do they do with the information they get from my blog? God knows none of them ever link to me with a hat-tip of thanks, but I'm pretty sure a few of them are making more money than me just by trawling through blogs and writing up more respectable versions of events.

Like Sarah Boxer, herself, even.

4 comments:

Big Dan said...

I linked to your blog. I think you have a great blog! One of the best! By far! Keep it up, please!

Big Dan said...

Actually, sometimes it's damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Once I linked to an article on a blog, which linked to another guys' blog. I received a comment, "You didn't give the ORIGINAL guy any credit!"

...and then I noticed THAT guy actually linked to ANOTHER ORIGINAL guy!

I try my best to give credit where credit is due. I linked to your blog on my blogroll...BECAUSE IT'S A FUCKING GREAT BLOG!

Big Dan said...

Rock on!

Jaraparilla said...

Thanks Dan - got the message! LOL

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