Jake’s Life

I’ve watched bloggers turn from hobby enthusiasts, eagerly sharing their words and thoughts with others through their blogs, to businesses as their blogging changes once they put ads on their blogs.

Some say their blogs and writing doesn’t change with the addition of the ads. But it does. We’ve all seen how income from your hobby changes your hobby’s intention and purpose. It becomes about the money, not about the fun.

Lorelle posted this not too long ago in a piece on blogging for money and I couldn’t agree more. I often think about my blog, its semi-low statistics compared to others (almost 1,000 this month and has been between 800-900 the last few months), and the blogs I read about blogging and other topics. Many are commercial blogs or blogs written by those with others which are commercial.

My blog was started to share some of my life with those who want to read about it. I want to make connections with other bloggers that I can share with, learn from, and teach things to in the process. My blog is about me and my interests (jumping from topics like guns, criminal justice, and blogging tools) and I aim to keep it that way.

Could I take one of my topics like Wordpress, Windows Mobile, or even a specific gun manufacturer and focus on it to gain commercial support? Sure. I could have the latest demo Smartphones and shiny new tactical pistols at my door step to try and praise through widely syndicated reviews. My stats would raise immensely, my blogging network would grow, and my bladder would begin to emit champagne. Okay, maybe not champagne but it would be more valuable in some way.

I enjoy blogging. I enjoy Wordpress and web design. And mobile technology. And web applications. And I love guns. These are hobbies and I aim to keep them that way. To help raise money for tuition I freelanced web design but didn’t do it full time because I didn’t want to get sick of it. It would be as if I built custom models out of enjoyment then became commercial, all by myself, and had way too many orders to fill in not enough time. I’d be making money, gaining prestige in that community, but also stressed out and eventually dreading doing that “chore” that I used to do out of pure enjoyment.

I will continue to blog about random topics that I enjoy writing about, providing obscure how-to’s on tweaking a Pocket PC and making homemade night sights for a hand gun, and making connections with fellow bloggers out of our similarities being bloggers, being gay, or just being on the right web site at the right time.