Thursday, January 20, 2011

Brainstorming

Brainstorm
Image from flickr.


I finally monetized.  I've earned 31 cents via Google Adsense in the last week.  Woohoo!  This blog was not created to earn money, and everything I've read suggests it won't earn much because the topics are too diverse.  Sometimes it's a travel blog.  It briefly morphed into a dating blog.  Now it's sometimes a job search blog.  It's a diary, reflecting whatever is happening in my life.  The purpose has always been to interact with people all over the world and it's a success in that area.  This will continue to be my fun blog.

I want to set up another blog with the goal of producing an income.  It still needs to be interesting so people will want to read it.  I need to find my niche.  Google seems to like my local travel posts.  If you search "Galveston Lost Oaks" I'm fourth on the list!  I also continue to get views on others that I wrote months or even a year ago.  Will I be able to create enough content to support a blog, though?  I suppose I could start writing posts and hold off publishing them until I've got a good head start.

I've also thought about starting a geocaching blog.  So far, at least two of you have started hunting caches because of me and people seem to like reading about it.  There are thousands hidden in my local area and over a million hidden worldwide, so I would not likely run out of material.  Not only are there caches to find, but also travel bugs, challenges, hiding caches, events, equipment, etc.  Does it have the potential to earn a profit?  Google doesn't send traffic to those posts, but would that change if there were more of them?     

What would you guys rather read about?  Any other ideas?

11 comments:

Tempo said...

When I consider the blogs I still look up..and those that I've lost interest in there seems to be just a couple of things that do it for me... I dont like long posts, I dont like posts that are oh so serious ALL the time, I like a bit of funny now and then. A couple of examples then? Pearl of course, she has so many followers and rightly so. The Gravel Farm, especially B4 he had children and found it hard to find time to blog..and sadly that's showing in the amount of comments he's getting. (people are SO fickle)

Poppy said...

I agree with Tempo, when I see too many words I just scroll down and then don't read it. :)

I'd go visual. :)

Brian Miller said...

oh def start a geocaching blog...we are taking a trip this weekend and plan on hitting a few...

Oilfield Trash said...

Congrats on the 31 cents.

Kelly said...

Weren't you planning to visit as many State Parks (and National Parks) as possible? You could do a blog on that...and draw from some of your older posts until you had enough new ones. You could include the geocaching in it as well as the camping and other outdoorsy stuff.

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Glad that you stopped by Pen and Paper, it really is all too easy to loose touch - I suppose thats the nature of blogging though. Good on you for going the geocaching route, I hope you make a sucess of it. For myself personally I like the blogs that have a bit of this, a bit of that as it seems to keep things fresh and its always a surprise to visit, to see what that days post is.

sage said...

I've put the ads on almost 2 years ago with the thoughts of giving it to the local food bank--I've yet to earn $100---but I am building up the money earned.

Jen said...

Yep. Short posts are the way to go, I've learned. Better to break up a trip into 3 or 4 posts than publish a novel in this forum. Sometimes you guys surprise me. I didn't think anyone would comment on the spaghetti o's post. Your comments explain why you did. Thanks.

The Texas state parks would probably end up in the new blog. National parks and travels to other states would remain here. It would be a local travel blog because that's what gets the Google traffic and would be easier for me to keep up. Google likes original content and ignores duplicate information, so I'm not copying posts I've already put here.

I do like the blogs that have a little bit of this and a little bit of that, too. They are the most fun. That's why this one is not changing for the purpose of earning more money. This one is primarily for fun and for making global virtual friends.

The food bank will appreciate that $100 when you get there, Sage. Keep up the good work!

Tempo said...

We like trivial drivel? I think in this sad and serious world we're all looking for the quirky, the funny, the fab, remeberances from when we were kids etc. I want to add my voice to those who liked your Geocaching posts, for those of us who will never get there your posts show us something the tourist brochures don't!

Full-On-Forward said...

ANYTHING YOU WRIYE--AND yOU'LL NEVER KNOW TILL YOU do it!!!

gO FOR IT gAL!

wRITE FROM THE HEART LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO AND IT WILL BE A SUCCESS!


Dang caps lock!

John

mac said...

Congrats on the 31 cents.
Nobody ever said it would be easy to be a professional writer ;-)

As to what to write; if I knew that, I'd be writing for a living too. Just go with what you love.

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