SayUncle speaks of blogging while being busy. He’s been busy starting a new business. Blogging can be difficult thing, and the circumstances that made you start blogging aren’t necessarily what keeps you doing it. Motivation can be difficult, and there are times when there’s just no time, and you have to phone it in. It can feel like a waste sometimes, especially when you look at what you give up by spending time doing something that barely covers what it costs you to do it.
I’ve toyed with the idea of a group blog a-la The Volokh Conspiracy, with multiple contributors and more diverse subject matter (but probably still 2A topics). But there are sticking points. For one, there needs to be a fair way to share in meager revenues once the blog covers costs. In addition, willing contributors that have strong expertise to share, can write, and have a good editorial sense also don’t come along every day. It would be easy to find co-contributors, but keeping the quality of the product high necessitates the use of much rarer, high quality co-contributors. Co-contributors who are willing to blog for essentially no money.
There is no getting around the fact that finding material to write about nearly every day is draining, and that is a necessary, nearly daily task if you want to be successful. Readership is a function of posting frequency. Too little and people don’t bother to check as often, or get bored with you and wander off. Too much and people can’t keep up, which as a reader I always find frustrating. But you have to be consistent no matter what you do, and for one and sometimes two people, that’s hard. I’ve always envied the folks over at Volokh, who can get busy, drop out for a few days or weeks, and count on the other contributors to keep the conversation moving. Phoning it in, I can do five posts or so, spending less than an hour a day. Ordinarily it’s more like two to four hours a day, very little of which is actually writing. Most of it is hunting for material to talk about, and keeping up with things.
While there’s no danger of me quitting any time in the near future, I do question how long I can keep doing this. I am a fairly restless person. If I gave up blogging, I’d have to find something else to do with my time. When I was unemployed, I had to start a side programming project to keep myself from going insane. If I ended up giving up blogging, it would probably be because I found a better (and hopefully more profitable!) way to occupy my free time, and not out of blogging fatigue.
This is part of the reason I asked Lee if he wanted to contribute!
I try to put out 5-6 posts a week, but if isn’t uncommon for posts to take 2-3 hours to write (and maybe as much time to research) Of course some are quick but those aren’t as fun to write or read.
Ron
I asked several people to guest blog for the Gun Blog Black List. All expressed interest, only one actually did (Thanks Gracie!). There are several people that have abandoned or shut down blogs recently. Sad to see them go. Some don’t want the daily blog, but may be willing to guest blog.
My offer is open to anyone, so if you are interested, please email me.
I’d definitely be sad if this blog died.
I have a hell of a time coming up with things to blog about sometimes. I’m content with three or four posts per week. Sometimes less than that. Get three or four people to post twice a week, though, and you’d have more content than most other sites. I don’t know how some people like Glenn Reynolds do it. I guess it’s either in your blood or not.
Hope you never get tired of blogging your’s + Bitter’s site is on my daily must list and you very frequently bring up interesting points of view. And I’ve learned alot about the ridiculousness of some state’s alcohol control laws.
Thank you
You would be SORELY missed!
What about a system of auto syndication? Sites would share content but keep identiy. Providing resilience in the servers, and way of customizing content on each web page. Rob might have some thoughts ways to implement that. I would thing a system of rss and tags would provide a good building base.
I never lack material to blog; mostly I lack the time. I do appreciate reading this blog every day–it often brings to my attention stuff that I otherwise would miss.
Tell you what, being a new parent is a great way to get you to put hobbies on the shelf for a bit. I have a bunch of stuff in my had that I don’t have time to get onto pixels, I haven’t been to a range in months, and all the gaming I’ve done is on Facebook.