People are always like “Yo fool, you should put some adwords up on that magic underwear site of yours.” and I’m always like “blah blah blah is a profit motive a reflector or a director of editorial content? blah blah blah.”
The other day my friend Puck was all “Real writers get paid. You hear me? Remember this, always. Want to know when you can call yourself a writer? The first time you get paid to write. I know this sounds mercenary as hell, but think it through. Carpenters get paid. Plumbers get paid. Surgeons get paid. Only in the creative fields do we say that someone can (and should) pursue the field, with all of the effort and study necessary to do it well, simply for the love of it, without expecting compensation of any kind.”
So while I don’t entirely agree with that I’m going to more thoughtfully consider “monetizing my blog,” which may be a good idea in light of all the high rollin Moroccans around here. This will probably mean that I curse less and make fewer references to goat fisting in order to be taken more seriously. I’ll probably setup an adwords account because I believe it’s a good idea to run my hobbies like a business. This will also mean that I make more “marketable blog posts” regarding my knowledge expertize zones.
It’s all about why you do what you do. If you want to write professionally then you have to try to get paid, because people are more than willing to just take your work for free. If you are doing a personal blog or a hobbiest, then no, I don’t think you need to get paid.
thePuckWrites is a pro blog aimed at helping starting writers get going and promote themselves in new media, so of course there I advise to get paid, but Kafka didn’t get paid, he though his stuff was awful, and he was a real writer. What I am trying to do is fight the stigma against demanding payment for creative work…people just getting started get screwed and I am trying to help people avoid that. I am not trying to make a general claim that no writer who is not getting paid is “really” a writer…I am trying to teach starting writers to pursue their professional work in a professional way.
Besides, you don’t want to learn about this stuff from me…I am just whoring my skills to the highest bidder while I write my real stuff and try to get that published. The rest of this is just waiting tables for writers.
However, I feel tickled that read my blog. I have a high opinion of you and get an emotional boost that you would spend your time reading my stuff.