Blogging Evangel Redux

Time once more for a refresher on:

Today’s reminder of same comes from the good doctor Melissa Clouthier, who wrote today about Pajamas Media changing its operational philosophy to emphasize vlogs from the select few at the expense of its written word contributors.  Much wailing and gnashing of teeth has ensued from those who were dependent on PJM for a little or some or much of their income.

Excuse me while I don’t grab a facial tissue which which to not daub away the tears I’m not shedding.

Maybe I’m a tad bitter because of the times I spent trying to break into the big boys and girls club only to be completely ignored, but why are you wailing?  You might have to actually — gasp! — either get a job or ramp up the one you already have, meaning you won’t be able to park your happy self in front of the computer 24/7 and throw up whatever you feel like so your sycophants can lap it up?  Oh the humanity.  Howsoever shall we survive without your deathless prose updated hourly?

Perhaps — although I doubt it in the extreme — you’ll figure out what I figured out a while ago and what has made me far more at peace after having finally seen the picture.  If you want to be a professional writer, by all means do so.  Assemble your best work and pitch your wares.  You’ll quickly find it’s a brutal, bruising business with literally thousands of people fighting you for that one spot.  Good luck; you’ll need it.

Being a big shot in the blogosphere means one hundred and ten out of one hundred people on the street have never heard of you instead of the one hundred and eleven out of one hundred for everyone else.  You aren’t even so much as a big fish in a small pond.  You’re a paramecium in the ocean.  If that much.

Maybe you should try actual communication from the heart.  Sure, do what you can to promote yourself.  If you believe you have something to say, let people know.  They’ll be the judge.  But remember the four tenets.  None of them say “look at me — SQUEE!”  Not a one.  They say talk to people.  Talk with people.  Care for each other.  Laugh and cry with each other.  Love each other.  Try finding that on a South Park Republican or pseudo-spiritual self-glorification site.

If you believe in what you have to say, pay for it yourself.  I have nothing against people who run ads on their blogs; I have them on my NASCAR blog (and have made exactly zero from them thus far).  But the server space and the bandwidth?  That’s all on me.  And I don’t mind it one bit.  Ain’t braggin’, just telling it like it is.

Refer back to the completely ignored comment.  Maybe if you didn’t individually and collectively treat other bloggers you define as beneath your station like they don’t exist you wouldn’t be having these problems.  You reap what you sow.  Every time.

Go cry yourselves a river and get lost.