Twentieth Anniversary Thoughts

 Tomorrow marks 20 years since I began this blog.  Some 45,000 posts and millions of words later, I am still at it.  I don't post as much as I did and mostly news briefs of note.  I kind of fell out of the blogging when Trump became president.  I decided to scale back because the news was so depressing.  Nowadays, I am working full time again, so that doesn't leave me with a lot of time to delve in depth about things.

Unless, of course, it has to do with deaths of certain people who I think might be worth commenting on.

I never gave this blog the time or had the following that so many bloggers did early on in the craze, so therefore I never had the hits and or was able to make a career out of it. I never intended to make a career out of it.  Furthermore, I wasn't part of the clique that got off the ground early on.

These days, Substack and similar "newsletter" platforms are being touted as "get rich quick" schemes.  The problem, of course, is few people are going to want to pay to read something on subjects can be had for far cheaper in a "niche" magazine.  Why would I want to pay to read somebody writing about photography, for example, if for far less money I can subscribe to a real magazine and keep the copies?  It is all a bunch of hype.  Only established writers can make anything off of newsletter-style platforms.  No "niche" is necessary if somebody is an established journalist or writer.  They aren't typically "niche" writers. This is the nasty little truth about these platforms.  In the end, it is no different than trying to make money off a blog or off of YouTube.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to do so.

I have always enjoyed writing and always will, but I have made very little at it.  One of my nephews tried to make a living freelance writing, and he found it next to impossible to do it.  Fortunately, he found a regular job as a staff writer, and he is doing well for himself financially.  Freelance is self-employment, with all that entails.  Unless you have an income stream already, it is impossible to make it.

Anyway, it has been 20 years since I started this blog.  I will likely continue with it until I drop dead or can't write at all anymore.