I subscribe to BookBub, and what BookBub does is send you emails when there are discounted ebooks on Amazon. You can set up the categories you’re interested in like Fiction, Non-Fiction, Historical, Poetry, Horror, Zombie Horror, De Voss, etc., and everyday you will receive an email with anywhere between 2 to 8 different ebooks ranging in price from free to usually no more than $5.
Monday’s email featured the ebook, How to Blog for Profit by Ruth Soukup. It normally costs $4.99 but was on sale for $.99. I usually just stick to the free zombie books, but due to recent life altering events, it seemed like it was a sign for me to buy.
I’m not expecting to make money off of this blog. I think the other blog I’m part of has a chance to make a couple of pennies. It has a lot of talented writers behind it. I’m not one of them, but I can ride coattails really well.
I mean I can really cling…like balled up saran wrap…
I’m just happy they include me because I kind of bring the intelligence quotient down over there, but every village has to have an idiot.
I bought the book for the marketing chapters, but decided to read it from cover to cover. It basically starts off from the aspect that you do not have a blog…
or you have a blog but don’t know what to do with it…
or you have a blog and you have about three readers…
two of them being your pet cats and the other your weird Uncle Stan…
or you saw my blog and thought;
“What? Do they give these blog things to any idiot who knows 23 of the 26 letters of the alphabet?”
Yes. Yes they do…and they are free…and you only need to know fifteen letters as long as ‘E’ is one of them.
My favorite advice from the book is, and I’m paraphrasing here; “If you want a great blog, have great content.”
Which is like saying; “If you want to win the sporting event you’re playing, score more than the other team.”
Or
“If you want to win the war, have your side die less.”
Or
“If you want to be a millionaire, get a million dollars.”
Side Note: I would like a million dollars.
What I read of the book isn’t bad, I’m not putting it down the ideas in it, but…
Hello!
Now, to be fair to the book, so far I have only read two chapters.
But the other thing that kind of hit me in the face like a dead sea bass wearing a hulu skirt was this paraphrased statement,
Side Note: I just looked up what paraphrased means, so I’m planning on using it a lot.
“You need a clear direction. Randomness will turn off your readership.”
Well…that chaps both of my blogs like the inside of a slightly overweight teenage girl’s sweaty thigh on the 4th of July while waiting for Junior Barnes from down the street, who promised to kiss her during the finale of the Farmer’s Day Firework Spectacular, but has yet to show up…and it’s getting close to finale time…and now she is suspecting that he just said that…and that he had no intention of kissing her during the finale or at any time of her life…which is really sad because she has liked Junior Barnes since Kindergarten when he first fell over a block tower she was making and he started to cry of embarrassment…but she didn’t think it was embarrassing, she thought he was cute.
Side Note: I tend to be random.
Ruth Soukup writes a blog about being thrifty while maintaining a family and a room full of assistants to help her maintain her blog.
Side Note: I want a room full of assistants to help me with my blog.
I think this book is more geared to help craft or recipe or mommy bloggers. There are a lot of those type of blogs out there, and I guess they are easier to sponsor since they are so specific in their content.
I personally read blogs that make me laugh or are random like mine.
So are random blogs marketable?
Probably…not.
I’m sure the rest of the book is very helpful, I’ll let you know when I find time to finish reading it, or my randomness gets sponsored.
.
Christopher De Voss 
I think it all goes back to purpose. My blog is random, or, “consistently inconsistent” ™. It’s a personal blog and I am personally consistently inconsistent. Sometimes I’m serious Sometimes not. I’m actually uncomfortable when my readership rises because it feels like strangers are reading my life. It’s just this thing. . . .
It’s important to remember that if your (the generic ‘you’) goal is to make money from your blog, the rules are different. Good content is indeed crucial, but if you have a commercial interest or if you are lucky enough to accidentally develop one, your (again, generic ‘you’) content will be scrutinized more carefully for originality. Instead of giving general credit for images or where you read something that generated your interest, you’ll need to obtain permission to use or cite that content. Just like any other hobby that turns to a for-profit enterprise, it becomes a business with all the hassles thereto.
I’m off to set up my “De Voss” searches on Amazon.
Good luck, whatever direction you go. 🙂
I’m not really trying to make money…like I said, I think Long Awkward Pause has a shot of becoming something big…will it make money? I don’t know. I know that the blogs that do make money tend to be really specific in their content. I do like the freedom of doing whatever I want such as posting a piece of fiction one day and then a commentary the next and I do think their is an audience for that.
As I used to sign my students’ yearbooks, “Write on.”
I thought about this more on my drive to work, and as often happens when this topic comes up, it came back to a song lyric that compares music to sex, which translates easily to comparing writing to sex:
“First, you do it for love.
Then, you do it with friends,
But when you do it for money,
Right there’s where the innocence ends.”
(David Wilcox, the American)
Or that I hate my job and love this…I think you can do it for money and keep your soul.
Do your own, delightful, random-y thing, Mr. De Voss…. because we’re all a little bit of random inside.
We are…thank goodness…
Reblogged this on KMSRAJ51-Always Positive Thinker.
We’re all doomed to (continue being) poor.
Most great artists were!
In my head, I had all the parentheses worked out.
(I know.)
Random is comfortable for me. My blog is random and inconsistent. It was random and inconsistent before my head injury and it hasn’t changed and it doubt it will. I read bloggers who are also random and inconsistent because they don’t bore me to tears and they don’t make me feel bad about my randomness and inconsistency.
Most of all they (see Christopher De Voss) are brilliantly funny and entertaining, talented writers.
Thanks for saving me the $.99.
Thank you and your welcome and I agree!
My blog is random at the moment-I do need to get back on track with my Jillarooing. You say that you don’t think that you could make money from this?…but I think you could…you are entertaining,knowledgeable and funny..you probably are already famous-I’m just naive..and wot? De Voss is a thing now? Yeh, he’s pretty great, and after almost a year of not blogging, he still tuned into a silly old post of mine? Thanks Christopher you are one of my favorites, very clever, very articulate, and you have a very comprehensive understanding of zombies. xxJen
Thank you. You are in my reader for a reason. Of course I’m going to check it out!
That is really lovely of ou to say. Hopefully I wil get back to the stuff that brought you here soon. Hey! I’m doing a degree in psychology…I’m not sure if Zombie 101 is on the agenda but if it is, I am there. But yes, there is more to you and me, and all of us than that.
You are fantasticChristopher, and I really appreciate that you are still with me on here. xx
*blush*
cute
I like random too. That’s great advice, just have great content…see how easy, everyone can have a blog to book deal. I think your writing is funny and entertaining, and that’s why I’ll read whatever you have to say.
Congrats on being chosen as featured humor blog at Long Awkward Pause. Love the collaboration.
(I think the writing section on Amazon needs a book on how to market random and make it profitable).
Thank you. I love your blog too! You are the very first person I ever followed!
I didn’t realize I was the first person you followed. That is pretty cool. There is something awesome about those first connections and friendships you make here, and while I haven’t been great at commenting lately, just know I’ll always be a fan of what you do. Which is usually make me spit coffee out of my nose at your sense of humor.
Yay!
You have 2500 followers. You have a wonderfully quirky sense of humor. You used to get up on a stage and improv, poking fun at yourself.
Have you thought about vlogging – doing a YouTube thing? You seem like you might be a personable enough fellow and likely to come across well on the small (smartphone size) screen.
I agree with you about random, though. I kind of feel sorry for people who subscribe to my blog looking for a submissive lifestyle POV because I’m so not THAT woman anymore. That was fun – NEXT!
Unpredictable R us.
🙂
The problem with YouTube is that it already has it’s stand out stars. My project right now is to give LAP more exposure. And it’s OK to grow in your blog, I’m still reading.
Good point. I spend most of my time at YouTube doing very eclectic things, so I’m not up on the ‘local celebs’. But then, I’m probably not anyone’s target audience, being a poor grad student with little disposable income and lots of debt.
Thank you for reading. I always smile to see your ‘like’. You always make me laugh when I visit.
You never know, your videos could take off. You should promote them on your blog.
I hardly think so. That’s the very vanilla side of my life – the lady-who-lunches and volunteers and is on committees. She doesn’t get to live over here.
“…never the twain shall meet.”
Gotcha
:-p
“but every village has to have an idiot”—That made me laugh, but it’s so not true. (Then again, how would I know? 😉 )
It makes sense that if a blogger has a very specific niche, he/she might have a chance of making money off the site, but I suspect it becomes almost like a full-time job, requiring frequent posts and research to back them up. Who has time for that?
Me!
🙂
I think you can see by the response that there’s a lot of other people who like to be surprised and appreciate randomness. I’m not writing a blog to make a fortune, I’m writing it for other reasons and at the same time I’m hoping that I can make people laugh, cry, or laugh at my crying. 🙂
Randomneer’s Unite!
Let’s start a club!
Randomneers Unite Club (Ruc?)
Better than Politicians Unite (P.U.)
I’m tried of trying to please everyone else, too. If I took all the advice about writing that’s floating around in blogs, I wouldn’t get anything done. 🙂
True statement!
I like random myself, Chris. Random is a life of slice (of slice of life?), telling it like it is or felt. Isn’t life just randomness over and over? Why should a blog be any different, hmm? I like to read blogs I connect to, whatever exactly that means…I don’t care about the content at all. Cheers for randomness!
You’re in the club!
Yay!!
I’ve read books about making money off your hobbies – similar concept for blogs, and the number one must-have I took from them is: Have a spouse with a real job who can support you while you get your quaint little hobby business off the ground. Or die penniless and insane.
It never specified that, but every “Success Story” that was presented, including the author’s – hell, ESPECIALLY the author’s – pretty much boiled down to that (“My dear, wonderful, beautiful husband said, ‘YES! Build your business while I pay the bills!!’ “). Not really an option for the single crowd or those without wealthy patrons.
Of course I’m unparalleled in Self-Defeating Thinking, so there’s that to take into account.
I’ve got a fictional novel blog, art blog, and fanfiction blog. The first two are consistent and have… good? content. dunno… and might-possibly-maybe make me money… somehow. Trying to profit from the third blog would just get me Cease and Desist letters, and I just can’t be bothered with those right now.
Great insight! Thank you!
I think I like consistent bloggers, but when I say that I’m talking more about their writing voice. If you have a good writers voice you can write about any random thing and still be authentic…hope that makes sense. (I think you have a good writers voice)
Thank you and perfect sense.
I love random. It’s like opening a present every time I come to your blog. I never know what I’m going to get, and I always leave with a smile. And don’t knock your contribution to that other place. I started following over there because of you. And then the monkey. And I have a shine for that Chowderhead guy. But … you were first. And you will always be my bedtime storyteller, so thank you.
No thank you. That means a lot.
Perhaps a “state the obvious” blog is the way to a fortune. Fuck it, do your own thing Kriss!
Agreed!
Give me random or give me death! If I had money, I’d just lose it. If I didn’t have random thoughts, I’d just lose my mind.
Agreed!
I like a certain amount of randomness. I read some blogs that always write on the same subject and although it can be good, it’s a bit tiring sometimes. Of course, I tend to be a bit random myself. I think that if my wife reads one of the stories, laughs and shakes her head and calls me crazy, then I win.
I read you for the variety. I agreed 100%.
I quite enjoy reading about your random thoughts.
I appreciate that!
Jeez, I wish I’d known blogging for profit was as easy as getting paid for my blog. I’m always behind the curve. Thanks for getting me up to speed.
Seemed like an easy one to miss. :p
By the way, I really enjoyed the post, Chris. Your random jaunt into the kiss that never happens was brilliant. Although I’ll never look at a fat girl sitting alone on July 4th the same way again. Just kidding! I don’t look at other women. EVER!
(In case my wife reads this…)
Thank you and Gotcha!