blogging for fun or profit

so today . . . i spent quite a bit of time online checking out other people's blogs. there are a few blogs that i follow, but mostly they are written by people i know. today i discovered that there are a lot of women out there writing about their days, just like i am. well, not just like i am. everyone has their own set of circumstances and their own way of writing about those circumstances. some of them sucked me in right away and made me want to read more. some just didn't interest me at all--they weren't bad, i just didn't find any connection and so i lost interest quickly.

i did find out some interesting things.

this quest started with diandra's new blog design. she found someone who would very quickly, and for a reasonable price, redo her blog and wanted me to check it out. so i did. diandra's blog turned out great, and the more i looked at other blogs designed by leslie, the more i wanted her to redo mine. so after school starts (and my paychecks resume) my blog will have a new look (i've even already chosen the palette!) unless i win the contest she is running right now--then it might be sooner. maybe i will even see if diandra can take a few pictures for me . . .

then i found a site where women who blog can register their blog with an organization called blogher. they have over 18,000 users! i was stunned!! i know there are a lot of people out there writing, but i had no idea how many! and if that many are registered, think about the number of women who are writing, like me, just for fun. i think it is primarily a networking site, but it has a lot of other elements as well. it looks like a wealth of information for anyone who is serious about blogging--i just had time to take a quick look, but i will check it out further another day.

i also noticed that some of the blogs i was reading were posting about the same things--there was one day when several people posted their wedding pics. and then i discovered why. there is a site that posts a topic every tuesday for people to blog about. the idea is, you blog about their topic (for example, your wedding) on tuesday and then add your blog address to what becomes a very long list of other people who have also blogged about the week's topic. it is called a blog hop. besides being fun, it serves a couple of other purposes--it gives you something to write about, it lets the people who read your blog find out a bit more about you, it adds some variety to your subject matter (it would never occur to me to post pictures of my wedding dress,) and if you participate, it gives you something in common with other bloggers that you can comment about. because that is where the fun is.

as i cruised all these sites i realized that a person could spend a lot of time in the blogosphere. really. between writing a blog, keeping up with other blogs that are of interest, networking with other bloggers, participating in contests, commenting on blogs, finding pictures or artwork to use, serious blogging could easily be a full time job!

i blog primarily for fun. if i had a "mission statement" it would be to share the stuff that happens to me in such a way that it makes you laugh or think. i'm not doing it to make money (thus, no ads) although i really admire these people who have looked at what is happening online and found a way to capitalize on it. so while the voice of my blog will remain unchanged (because it is my voice,) i did get some ideas today that i might try out. i hope you like it.

and if you do, leave a comment. because believe it or not, reading your comments is one of the best parts of my day!