The Other McCain urged people to help out Zilla – who apparently needed a few bucks to avert the end of her blog. Generous people helped out and all is well. But it got me thinking – do people really blog for money?
Looking around the new version of B4V, I don’t see the “tip jar” that I recall seeing on the old version. My presumption is that Matt hasn’t found the time to install it, but I don’t know if the old one was ever hit. I do have one over at Noonan for Nevada, but I’ve never received anything from it. I don’t even know why I had my cracker-jack tech support team (my stepson) install one on N4N…I guess it is just the convention to have one.
My point here is that I do this for love – I love to write, love to spout off, love to have some give and take of debate. Love to see all of you here. Love the notes I get every now and again when someone tells me that what I’ve written had special meaning for them. Love the fact that for each of you who comment there are hundreds more who come here every day just to read. When I can’t think of something interesting to write I feel like I’m letting people down. When I make a mistake I feel like I’ve betrayed a trust. When I see someone powerful using my exact words to describe a situation I delight in the evidence that they – or, at least, their aides – are checking the blog. I do this for no money and whether or not I ever make any money at writing, you can count on me doing this until the day I die. Rely on it, if there isn’t a post by me for a couple days and there wasn’t an announcement that I’m on vacation or some such, then I’m dead.
Don’t get me wrong – if any of you out there are secretly billionaires and want to write a $100,000.00 check to me, I’m going to cash it. That is Mark Noonan, by the way. But it wouldn’t change why I blog, or what I blog about, or my opinions. They say you should do what you love, regardless of whether it is profitable – and when I’m blogging, that is precisely what I’m doing.
Blogs For Victory 
Mark,
I love your blogsite and have been here for years. I really do like to read your take on things, and agree with you about 95% of the time, but am now feeling a little guilty about not contributing, so when you, or your stepson, get the tip jar operating, I will throw in a small donation. Keep up the good work
Im in
Thanks, guys…anything would be appreciated; but, really, its all just a lot of fun for me.
I Do blog because I am passionate about the things that I write about, but I found myself up against a wall financially and am very grateful for the kind people who helped me to avert disaster.
Sometimes people need help and I am very thankful for the people who came to help me, as I try to help others whenever I can.
Since I’ve been blogging I have found myself belonging to a very warm community. It isn’t about the money or even the links, while those are of course great, it is about the people i have met and been blessed to be able to call “friend” along the way.
Stacy has a great post about what those donate buttons are all about though, you can find it here:
BTW, I like this blog and will be adding it to my blogroll. I hope you have a great night!
sniff sniff
Zilla,
No criticism was meant – it just struck me as odd; I’ve been doing this for 8 years and never made any money at it…and then it struck me that I didn’t care in the least. I’d do this if I was sitting on a packing crate, as long as I had an internet connection.