Comments on: Finding my Footing http://aaroneiche.com/2009/06/18/finding-my-footing/ Electronics, Tech, Software, Hardware... and anything else that ends up here. Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:59:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Bun http://aaroneiche.com/2009/06/18/finding-my-footing/comment-page-1/#comment-74 Bun Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:01:34 +0000 http://aaroneiche.com/?p=324#comment-74 You should listen to your wife more often. She's a smart girl. ;) You should listen to your wife more often. She’s a smart girl. ;)

]]> By: Aaron Eiche http://aaroneiche.com/2009/06/18/finding-my-footing/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Aaron Eiche Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:49:06 +0000 http://aaroneiche.com/?p=324#comment-73 Yeah, I had a couple of flags that popped up early on that ought to have let me know a little sooner. The first was that I didn't actually like writing most of what I was writing. It was a struggle and I would push myself through it arguing that I needed to have more content to get indexed info to get readers... and it turns out almost none of my readers come from search engines, they come from places where what I'm doing is interesting, and linked. The other flag is that I would avoid posting about a lot of things I care about because I was afraid of branding myself or not catering to a particular crowd. There's a time and a place for some things, and I admit that I still will probably stay away from my strong opinions about economics and politics in my blog, but now I don't have to worry about scaring away readership. If they want to read my stuff, cool. If they don't, cool. The pressure isn't there to be popular... just to be me. :) "And you have more than just one fan, for the record." Thanks! Yeah, I had a couple of flags that popped up early on that ought to have let me know a little sooner. The first was that I didn’t actually like writing most of what I was writing. It was a struggle and I would push myself through it arguing that I needed to have more content to get indexed info to get readers… and it turns out almost none of my readers come from search engines, they come from places where what I’m doing is interesting, and linked.

The other flag is that I would avoid posting about a lot of things I care about because I was afraid of branding myself or not catering to a particular crowd. There’s a time and a place for some things, and I admit that I still will probably stay away from my strong opinions about economics and politics in my blog, but now I don’t have to worry about scaring away readership. If they want to read my stuff, cool. If they don’t, cool. The pressure isn’t there to be popular… just to be me. :)

“And you have more than just one fan, for the record.”
Thanks!

]]> By: Josh Bancroft http://aaroneiche.com/2009/06/18/finding-my-footing/comment-page-1/#comment-72 Josh Bancroft Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:20:57 +0000 http://aaroneiche.com/?p=324#comment-72 I've been through the same struggles with my blog. I wanted to be a witty tech news writer, and when I started it years ago, that's what I tried to do. I go back and read those posts now and laugh. How come no one told me it was so apparent that I was trying too hard? :-) I switched to the "my blog is about me, and what I'm doing/thinking" a long time ago, and it's been great. I still have Google ads on the site, but I only check them once every few weeks, and they don't make more than about a buck a day (mostly from some older posts I wrote that have incredibly high Google juice and still bring in a lot of traffic). As a very wise person once told me, don't try to make money *with* your blog, try to make money *because* of your blog. It's where you show off what you know and how awesome you are. Blogs are the new resumes. So have fun with it. And you have more than just one fan, for the record. :-) I’ve been through the same struggles with my blog. I wanted to be a witty tech news writer, and when I started it years ago, that’s what I tried to do. I go back and read those posts now and laugh. How come no one told me it was so apparent that I was trying too hard? :-)

I switched to the “my blog is about me, and what I’m doing/thinking” a long time ago, and it’s been great. I still have Google ads on the site, but I only check them once every few weeks, and they don’t make more than about a buck a day (mostly from some older posts I wrote that have incredibly high Google juice and still bring in a lot of traffic).

As a very wise person once told me, don’t try to make money *with* your blog, try to make money *because* of your blog. It’s where you show off what you know and how awesome you are. Blogs are the new resumes. So have fun with it.

And you have more than just one fan, for the record. :-)

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