I got my first check from google, for running ads on my site. My first blog post, for this particular blog, was on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. That check, is a reflection of from then, until now. I told my girlfriend that I had gotten the check and she said that was cool, and I was like not really, 3 years of work, translated into 73 dollars didn't seem good to me. And asked, well isn't it "free money", from a labor of love?
Hmm… Had to think on this one for a moment. It certainly didn't start out that way. I started writing the blog, thinking I could sell T-shirts and get advertisement revenue, by attracting teenagers with a disposable income. This certainly isn't what happened. If you will waltz down memory lane with me for a paragraph I'd appreciate it.
In the first year, I started it to make money. Which in retrospect was dumb. I got an account on a forum site, hackforums.net. Which turned out to be the right demographic, but people searching for the wrong knowledge base. For the first year that site was 70% of my traffic with the other 20 - 30% coming from google search results. I worked hard to be someone on that site and eventually I was even a moderator for it. I busted my ass that first year, writing the majority of the now 433 posts on this blog, being written in that time. And I tried to sell t-shirts, even had a photo shoot, lol.
I really began exploring other creative mediums as time progressed, the blog gave me a vehicle and confidence to do so. I wrote some, hmmm, would you call it music? Eventually finishing an "EP" which you can still download from last.fm.
I'm doing lot's of other little things. That are various and sundry labors of lover perhaps. In fact I'm microblogging right now at http://ramblings.malvager.net. I do a fiction blog that most certainly is a labor of love. And other side projects that may fall into that category. And another goblin majick album coming up too.
So what is it now, obviously I'm still blogging, and I'm not making money off of it. I've got about 5 posts planned out as of right now, don't know whether they all get released next week or next month. Is it a labor of love? It must certainly isn't. Is it to make money? Of course not. All I can say for sure, is it's a force of habbit.
irc.malvager.net, is my only continuously kept updated labor of love, and for me it's more of a money sync than a labor of love, because two(kye, psycho) of the GREATEST people, and damn good hackers too, help me maintain it, while I just pay a chunk of the server bill. Seriously, love you guys; in the words of Jesse Dangerously, I couldn't make a move without you guys, y'all my legs.
2 comments:
That's a Wordburglar quote, homie! From his song "The End," off Burglaritis.
I wish it were me, though! Ha.
LOOOL, You are right. My bad. I'll publish an errata this week.
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