As time goes by, and I write and blog, my thinking continually evolves. With "Grow Your Dollars", my investment blog, being fun and having a new URL at grodollars.com, I decided to change my "Seashell Central" blog name to "Shell's News & Reviews" and change the URL again, from seashellcentral.blogspot.com, then www.shellmain.com to www.shellsnews.com.
You know it really amazes me that some of my friends who hear about my blog tell me they don't read blogs because they say a blog is for the purposes of self-advertisement and aggrandizement.
For those of us who keep blogs and are still stung by Sarah Plain's influential disparagement of bloggers, many would, I hope, agree with my fifteen-year-old daughter who says that Facebook and MySpace, maybe Twitter too, are the online homes of some self-promoters, not blogs. Maybe that's going a bit far; there are wonderful private photos going around on "friend sites". Having recently joined Facebook to see what all that excitement is about, I know I don't really belong there and am not sure to keep that account going. Confirming or denying friendship, especially with relatives, is a little superfluous at my age. Vagueness about friendships can be one of the luxuries of getting older. Friendships are so useful if life gets dull, and in need of spontaneity and comfort.
Blogs tend to be generous, confident expressions to help readers. There are so many blogs out there for:
1. technical support
2. breaking news to compete with CNN, such as HuffPost and Daily Beast
3. blogs for opinion polls or related to stories associated with news outlets
4. celebrity news blogs, about and by,
5. cooking and crafts of all kinds
6. sales-related blogs, reviews etc
7. photo journals for self-expression and family history records
8. investment blogs
9. "how to" do infinitely many things
and many more. They are all meant to be helpful and provide information, it seems to me. They all take effort (work)-- a good thing, and they tend to be free, given generously for free!
Blogs are excellent because they are working to correct what other media hands out, no holds barred. Also, if an expert writes a special authoritative piece, it will be influential in whichever media it appears. These experts might find getting published in a blog post quick, easy and straightforward. It's true that no one reads everyone's blog any more than they read everything by anyone, every book and newspaper. And that's okay. Guilt is surely not intended by blogsite developers and bloggers. Some attention to and recognition of bloggers tend to be appreciated as validation of worthy efforts in a useful occupation. Blogs are under-rated partly because they always have been, and mostly will be free to read.
Update1: This article in The Wall Street Journal called "How To Twitter" on Twittering, says "it's about promoting yourself."
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