Today the organizers of Armchair BEA have asked us to share our top tips for getting beyond our blogs. Sadly, I have none. Two years ago, I kind of stumbled across the opportunity to write for a local news/human interest/events website. I was writing more or less monthly columns about reading and the local book community. And then last year happened. It was the year from hell and I found that I not only didn't have the time to write the column, I had no inspiration to do it. I miss it - and one of these days I'm going to make myself take the time to write again. If you're interested in writing, you might look for a local website like mine (omaha.net) and see if they're looking for writers. It's a great opportunity to spread your writing wings.
One of the topics that came up in this discussion of things "beyond the blog" is monetizing our blogs. There are some excellent blogs out there that have advertising or are sponsored by businesses. I've had the opportunity to monetize my blog in that way; it would be wonderful to earn money for something I'm doing anyway. But. Once someone is paying me, I would feel obligated to produce content on a regular basis and to really work to pump up my numbers. I just don't want to do that. For now, this blog is mine. If I don't want to or don't have time to post more than twice in a week well then, I don't. I don't worry that I'm letting anyone down.
What I'd most like to find the time to do again is write for me, to journal, to write short stories, to get back to the novel I was working on a few years back. I don't know that I have what it takes to be published. The more I read, the less confidence I have in my own writing; on the other hand, the more I read, the more I think that there is room out there for great stories and I think I can do that.Who knows, maybe one day I'll be reading reviews of my own book on book blogs!
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