Steven Hodson over at WinExtra has a good blogging reality check rant. Here are some amusing observations that struck me as true:

• About 75% of the tens of millions of blogs are content scrapers, AdSense farms, or just plain crap.
• Most likely you won’t get rich, despite all the tips and potential revenue sources out there.
• Most likely you won’t become famous or be read by thousands of people – even if you blog every day and put your heart and soul into it.

I hope people quantify their blog’s purpose before they start, and answer the question “why do I blog?”. What are your goals? They really make a big difference in your ultimate satisfaction.

• Right now, if I were blogging to quit my day job, I’d be disappointed.
• Right now, if I were blogging to be famous, I’d be disappointed.
• Right now, if I were blogging to influence the tech world and be an “A-lister”… again, I’d be disappointed.

I’m not disappointed right now because none of these are reasons why I started blogging, or continue to blog.

What are my goals?

• I started this blog to learn how to use WordPress and see how far I can take it.
• I’m really just putting my thoughts out there and seeing if anybody responds – to be part of the conversation.
• To receive feedback in the form of links and comments on what I write, even when people disagree with me or try to piss me off. Sometimes the comments turn out to be fun and I get satisfaction that people found what I wrote amusing.
• I hope to become a better writer.
• I want to share cool stuff and information I find, be it movies, music, or technology related websites and links.

That’s really about it.

Truth be told, I may have set the bar very low. I have an inherent cynicism and sometimes feel that if you expect the worst, you’re pleasantly surprised when things turn out okay. I really don’t have any further blog aspirations beyond what I’ve achieved today.

On Google AdSense alone, I am well past the point where I can cover hosting costs (which are pretty low since I pay ten bucks a month) and the traffic, while not huge, continues to surprise me – some days I post once but still get over 1,000 unique visitors.

Anyhow, I do have a few blogging annoyances:

1. I don’t see any point where I could quit the day job – not unless I started several blogs and wrote for several more, but I’d probably be a burnt-out husk of a blogger. The truth is, for all the hype bloggers get we’re seriously underpaid, and unless you want to be like Mike Arrington who looks tired all the time or have the professional writing chops like Om Malik I don’t know if it’s worth it.
2. A person with connections and a much more exciting lifestyle can start an instantly popular blog based on past reputation alone. People are much more apt to read a famous person’s blog than one written by someone who has to prove their worth through writing alone.
3. I’m not an expert in anything. I see much better blogs out there covering the same subjects I do. Therefore I try to make up for it with variety of content. This might be a stupid strategy.
4. My traffic, while still climbing, is no longer doubling as it was before. I’ve likely have topped out what I’m capable of doing.
5. It’s a chore dealing with comments that call me a moron or the spam ones that could choke a horse – 27,000 last I checked.
6. Blogging is definitely time consuming and a long term project. I don’t even want to add up the hours I’ve spent (wasted?).

But none of these gripes keep me from blogging.

It’s important to find a comfortable place between reality and high expectations. Right now, I’m totally happy blogging twice a day and getting a few comments and links here and there. I find it’s no problem to keep the day job and blog on the side as a hobby. I’d be happy at this middle of the road level forever. Therefore, everything extra that comes my way is icing on the cake.

This blog will never be hugely influential in the technology world. I have no prayer of ever getting into the Technorati 100. But I also feel it’s not as crappy as some half-baked blogs I’ve seen. I also don’t suffer with writing fifteen posts and getting zero comments as I did in the early days. So I’m satisfied.

I’m pretty average in real life too, so why would I expect it to be much different in the blogosphere?

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