I’m one of the clever monkeys occupying this, the Third Planet from the Sun. I started blogging back before it was cool (around 2000), I’ve had several of these critters – I was a ‘feature’ over on Yahoo/360 back when it meant something; I’ve won three blogging/writing awards.
My posts carry a theme of current events, sociopolitical issues, economics, religion (I bash on everyone’s Imaginary Friends more than most, I fear), plus a heavy dose of fiction (I’m fond of alternate-history as a genre).
Someone reading my site (“The Celestial Navigator”) will find that there’s always something for people who like to think and think critically – I’m fond of saying that the stuff I write appeals to ‘people who stayed awake in class.’
Currently, I work in the I.T. industry as an enterprise sales representative. My aspiration is to write full-time. To that end, I’m also writing/editing for an online magazine, Subversify.Com.
In truth, I write about many topics. My family was always political – they were both senior military personnel, and were keenly interested in anything political. My own college-major was history, so I’ve always had a ‘bent’ toward politics, history, and social causes.
Since mid-2000. It’s been a work in process, and had taken several side-journeys along the way – it started on Blogger (back when Blogger had next-to-no real tools); I took a brief hiatus before reincarnating it over on Yahoo/360, where I met many people who’ve followed me.
I started a site over on Multiply.Com (that’s where a lot of Y/360 users went after it became clear that Yahoo would no longer support 360); it became clear to me that Multiply was dying-out as more and more of the social users went to Facebook and the serious writers went to WordPress, Blogger, or their own domains.
My Blogger page is now my main blog, with most of my serious writing going to Subversify.Com.
Around 1,000, give or take. It depends on the topic. Ironically, my best fiction gets hits only from a very small group of people – I find my current-events writing gets much more attention.
My blog isn’t there for money. I’ve got a PayPal donation-link, but no one uses it. My main efforts at creating a paying site are over on Subversify.Com.
As I mentioned above, my typical reader is usually (but not always) educated; many have advanced degrees – there are several, however, who never finished college (they’re just good at connecting-the-dots and have a better-than-average set of brains).
Most are professionals of one sort or another. All of them have an interest in what’s really going on in the world – especially here in the U.S.
Well, I don’t call it ‘blogging’. What I’m doing is much more than a ‘weblog’; I write. I write about four hours a day; sometimes longer, if I have interview material to do for the magazine, or if I’ve got a subject on which I’ve done a lot of research.
Well, the RSS feed is handy – so it only takes one ‘click’ – I imagine the person who’d do so has an interest in U.S. economics and sociopolitics; they probably also like fiction (especially complex historical fiction).
Another part of my site is news-aggregation – I’ve heard from more than one user that they click on the news links I provide on a daily basis to keep up on things.
Frankly, that’s how I designed it – three columns; you have my latest post on the upper left; down the center and right columns you have links to groups I support and watch groups, along with around fifteen good, solid news sources.
No one wants to know about your dog, your cat, or your kids, unless they’re related to you or know you outside of the online-world. Save that stuff for Facebook.
If you really want to make a living writing a site, rise above that stuff. Write something that matters.
This blog can be visited at http://astranavigo.blogspot.com