Man, you guys are full of good ideas. When I put out the call for story requests on Thursday, you came through with over 150 suggestions. And some of them are stellar.
I’ll get to work on some of these, farm some out to guest authors, and see if the staff writers want to take a stab at a few. Between us all, we may be able to hit some topics that GRS has never covered before.
Many readers asked to see more articles on boosting income. In fact, there seem to be quite a few people interested in a series of posts about blogging as a business. I think this could be very interesting if done right, with periodic updates like the garden project we did in 2008 and 2009.
I wouldn’t want to use Get Rich Slowly as an example (for a variety of reasons), but since I’m itching to resurrect one or more other blogs, I’d be very open to showing how to build a blog from scratch, including all of the income stuff.
Here’s what I propose.
Blogging for Dollars
I have three dormant blogs, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They are:
- Animal Intelligence, a blog about — well, animal intelligence. I’ve considered reviving this with a broader theme. I’d cover all sorts of fun and interesting stories about animals. Pros: There’s a huge market for this sort of thing, there’s plenty of material, each post would be quick to produce, not much competition that I know of. Cons: Difficult to monetize. (Animal Intelligence currently receives about 6,000 visits per month, and generated $8.74 of income in June.)
- Four Color Comics, a blog about comics. Four Color Comics was the first site I ever set up with the intention to make money. It died when Get Rich Slowly became popular. Pros: I have lots of source material to draw from, and would enjoy the research. Also, there are probably some moderately good ways to make money with this topic. Cons: There’s tons of competition in this niche. And though the audience is passionate, it’s small (especially for the comics I’d write about). (Four Color Comics currently receives about 600 visits per month, and generated $0.87 of income in June.)
- Success Daily, a blog about self-improvement. I intended to launch this site in April, but the book publicity overwhelmed me. Now I’ve pushed back the launch date to 01 January 2011 at the earliest, though I’d accelerate that if we chose the site for this project. Pros: I’m deeply interested in this subject, and would love to write about it. There’s a fairly good market for the info. Cons: Very tough to monetize; we’d probably have to do e-books or something. Articles would take a lot of work. (Success Daily currently receives about 500 visits per month and generates no income.)
What if I were to revive one of these hibernating sites and share publicly the steps I take as I try to build traffic and income? I could document my design decisions, the ads I choose, and the income I receive. I think it would be instructive. And if we kept the project to just one or two Saturdays each month, I don’t think it’d overwhelm the folks who just don’t care.
I think this could be a fun way for all of us to learn about building and monetizing a blog. What do you think? Would you be interested in a project like this? And if you are interested, which blog would you like to see me flesh out? I’ll tell you right now that I think Animal Intelligence has the best chance at success. Or maybe there’s another topic I could pursue? (I just don’t want to do another blog about money.)
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Hello,
I would love to see this Series “Blogging as a Business.” From a reader’s standpoint, I’m interested to know the entrepreneurial side of what it takes to build something from scratch. What are the gotchas, biggest lessons learned, how to take advantage of synchronistic “coincidences,” staying disciplined, and how to say “no.”
For me, it’s less instructional on the topic of the blog. Actually, I’d rather see it get started from scratch and remain anonymous for the reasons posted in the comments section.
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As someone who keeps putting off the development of my blog I would be incredibly interested in reading how you get on. Also @ Erica.biz – just signed up – looks an intriguing blog!
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I love reading about blog stuff, but I would caution JD that relaunching a site will take a lot of time. Do you have that time?
I write about money blogging on one of my sites, I enjoy it so much.
For anyone looking for info on starting a blog, there are a MILLION sites out there – try Google and go from there.
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Great idea and timing. I just started my own blog and haven’t a clue what I’m doing. Any insights would be great. Animal Intelligence would be interesting! Thanks so much for sharing & your time. GRS has helped me a lot and except for a mortgage – I’m now debt free.
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Success Daily seems like the most interesting of all the projects – good luck
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I’d be very interested in reading about this topic (series?) on GRS. Of those choices, I’d like to read about the development of Animal Intelligence or Success Daily, with SD having my top vote since good posts on there might end up in the monthly round-up I do on my own blog, Taking Care Of You (tcoyou.com).
I also thought it would be more useful if, instead, the site for this example was not known to be associated with you and built from scratch. Showing a blog developing from the very beginning without all of us being led to it is a more realistic example. And, starting from the beginning would guide those at that stage, rather than them feeling 10 steps behind. Those of us past that point will, hopefully, add comments about our own experience at that point and once the series has advanced to our own level, we will feel more invested in the series and keep reading/commenting.
The unknown blog concept would provide a true representation of the average user’s experience. Maybe the second post for the month could be about your own experience with the topic discussed that month on one of your other blogs (AI, FCC or SD)?
So, do you have any yet undeveloped ideas that you could use for this GRS project?
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Hi JD, I’m a daily reader and first time commenter. And a huge fan of GRS! I would love to read an ongoing “tutorial” process of how to start and manage a blog. Though my areas of interest would be animal intelligence (I’m an RVT and manage a veterianry hospital for a living) and Success Daily (who doesn’t find interest in success?,) I like what #15 Dustin suggested about starting a blog from square one…how do you choose your topic? With so many blogs and so many interests, how do you truly prepare to get on the internet highway in the first place? Those are my two cents =) Thank You for GRS, I truly love it!
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@Tyler K “It seems that for every person who’s really passionate about writing for the web, you have 10 more who just want an “easy” way to make money from home. I’m worried the second group is gong to be the biggest Audience for this topic.”
So what?
On top of that, blogging isn’t an easy way to make money from home (unless you hit on a brilliant icanhazcheezeburger strategy)– reality check information on how time consuming the process can be should open some eyes on the subject.
And aren’t you always encouraging more posts on how to increase income? Asking for a raise isn’t the only way to get more income. My preferred way is to save/invest money and have it spit dividends at me, and sometimes I’ll take on consulting work if it comes my way, but I wouldn’t say no to a bit of money from something that’s a hobby anyway.
@JD Another idea, building on #33 Suzanne: You could do a contest and choose some other unknown person’s blog and help them build it up, discussing that process, getting their insight (and frustrations) as well as yours in monthly posts. That might also help your time allocation (as #32 points out)… and if the blog doesn’t succeed, well that’s also informative. There are a lot of pitfalls.
@32 Yes, there are a lot of sites on how to start/monetize a blog. The problem is separating the wheat from the chaff. I trust GRS to give me unbiased (or as close as humanly possible to unbiased) information on the subject.
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I’d LOVE to see a series like this as “growing” a blog has been on my to-do list for years!
Not sure the topic matters – pick what YOU like and are passionate about – as all of us will have our won passions and niches too. It would just be nice to get the know-how from someone who knows!
Thanks for the offer.
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What a great idea. As a total newbie (don’t even have a website/blog up yet) to the blogging world, I would love to see articles on how to make a blog work. While it’s not all about the money, it would be great to have it generate some income beyond just sharing what is going on in my shop (“here’s what I’m working on,” “cool inspirations,” and “projects down the pipeline”). I get the networking aspect, but I can see that a blog would be a lot of time and work and I would need for it to be worth the effort on multiple levels. Yes, I really am 10 years behind the times, but hopefully I’m not alone.
The comic site seems to be really creative, so I’m leaning that. However, do what you are most passionate about to help alleviate your burn-out.
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I think this would be a great idea as long as it’s written by you. I’m another reader who hits delete when the post is by someone other than J.D!
It might be helpful if you chose the topic with the least chance of success and taught us how to make it successful. You’ll already have instant traffic which is the biggest problem for new bloggers so anything you can do to make it more “real world” is good.
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Absolutely…bring it on!
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Tyler, I can see your point, but count me among the readers that would really like to get some specific blog creation information from someone who’s not over the top with their advertising, has a really nice layout, and knows how to network with other like-minded bloggers. Much of the existing pages I’ve read seem to jump over certain steps, and knowing JD, he’ll take the time to make sure it’s clear for those of us following the series.
I don’t have any pretensions of making money with a blog, but I have a topic that I really want to write at length about, and on the off chance that it clicks with people, I’d like to be set up right from the start, rather than having to figure out transitions from one of the quick & easy free sites to something that potentially *could* make money.
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While this topic interests me a little bit, I’d be much more interested in seeing articles about starting a non-internet business. Yes, the startup costs are much higher, but the reality is most readers would have a greater chance of success than niche blogging. And that’s saying something.
I’ve commented before that I think there is value in talking about the unknowns of small business startup in the US. Starting an LLC, getting foot traffic, lots of legitimate concerns for business owners the world over.
While a comic book store wouldn’t be a reality (that model is rough), perhaps something else would be.
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I think you’d get a lot of interest in this topic. And given that you have something up every day, I wouldn’t worry so much about missing readers every once in a while. All your posts are going to miss some readers anyway—I mean, I’m well past the credit card stuff, but it’s not like I stop reading altogether because I see a CC post.
That said, I think it would help if every once in a while, you had readers actually interview you about the blog subjects. When you started GRS, you were a little bit of a novice about money. So people got to learn about money stuff as you learned about it, and you were well aware of what you didn’t know to start and could write about that. With the blogging stuff, you’re starting the posts as an expert already. So I bet you do some stuff in your sleep that wouldn’t even occur to a non-blogger. You’ve got to find a way to remember what it was like just starting out (maybe you have a journal somewhere or wrote about that on GRS…I don’t know), mistakes you made, etc. Anyway, just my two cents. Looking forward to the series.
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I am actually very interested in this topic at the moment. I started blogging just for personal reasons, but lately I’ve been thinking more about how feasible blogging for fun and profit could be.
If you want to go with a case study that is “personal blog turned income stream” then I would choose the Self-Improvement topic.
If you want to go with a case study that is “growing a blog structured for monetization” then I would go with the Animal Intelligence topic.
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JD, I understand where you’re coming from. As a blogger, I chuckled when I read where some of your readers want more articles from you and fewer from guest writers. Perhaps they have no idea how difficult it is to write about one topic over a period of years. I also understand your feelings about giving up on a site. I’ve written a sports blog for over three years and I’ve yet to make $10 from Adsense (yes, you read that correctly). I quit writing for seven months and revived it last week.
I’d write about whatever you’re passionate about and welcome any help you can get from other writers.
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I like this idea because I am curious about the topic. I also like the idea about helping someone with a nascent blog develop it. I vote for the Success Daily blog – perhaps you could incorporate some of the fitness stuff into that? I’d be interested in your fitness journey.
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There’s another popular blog that was going to do the same thing and the same concerns such as already having a loyal following came up.
The way to do this, if you are interested is to start a brand new blog, new domain name, zero posts.
Keep the blog a secret for 90-120 days or whatever you feel you need to get some traction. While you build this blog up over this period of time, keep a daily journal.
At the end of the test period, release your journal as an ebook and everyone that is interested can follow your success/failure.
From then on, if you continue the test, it would be public, but would show that a blog can be build from the ground up and nothing more.
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I don’t know about a blog, but I’d like to see some articles about blogging as a business or how to have a successful blog. I’m really impressed that you’ve kept GRS running this long, I only discovered it a couple of months ago.
I realized then its been around for years, I discovered it when one of popsugar.com website’s linked GRS to one of their money articles. I don’t like reading finance journal for the most part because its very repetitive.
How many times can people say diversify your stock portfolio,earn more,spend less,save, etc..Plus the irritating thing is when you pick up magazines like Money, and they profile couples who complain that they can’t make it on 100k, blech.
Anyway I feel GRS is more accessible to people from all incomes, and not just those who are well off. Plus you bring in a real personable feel to finance with your articles, and with the articles of writers like April and Sierra. I like that. =)
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I have a blog and next-to-no interest in “monetizing” it, because its primary purpose is to inform those who might interested in hiring me as a personal trainer or dance teacher, my part-time second job (and anticipated retirement gig). Very few teachers/trainers have an effective web presence, and it was easier (and cheaper) to blog than to set up a formal website.
That said, I would be VERY interested in reading J.D.’s take on the process of setting up and maximizing a blog, because obviously he has done so himself, but primarily because of his voice.
I like the way you write, J.D.; I think you are an intelligent, curious, open-minded individual, constantly seeking to improve both yourself and your understanding of the world.
I would be most interested in the Animal Intelligence topic.
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I think this would be really interesting. None of your suggested topics struck me in a special way, but whichever you choose, I hope you start with a post about why you chose it (particularly how you weighed passion for the subject with potential profitability)! And, to me, this is totally within the theme of GRS – I don’t think (hope) none of us reading plan to get super rich starting a blog, but there does seem to be a lot of potential for a nice side income.
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As a scientist who studies animal intelligence – what a great idea for a blog! Would love to hear more about this.
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I too would love a behind the scenes look at building a blog as a business.
Success Daily is the most interesting topic to me, but it doesn’t really matter what topic you choose if you are writing about everything you are doing to develop and promote it.
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Start a site from Scratch. Document it all. Kind of like a “Real World” documentary project. Including hard facts, like numbers, traffic sources, click thoughs, income, etc.
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I am super into this idea. Please and thank y ou.
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I would love to see a series of posts profiling the “journey” of building a blog from scratch. I’m toting with this idea, but it’s hard to know where to start. Hope to see it come to fruition!
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Love this idea JD! I have been toying with the idea of starting something like this (and hiring a life coach!). LOL. I enjoy this site because we as a community are out to help through information the other people in our community. I think this would be a great addition!
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I’ve been searching the web for guidance in this very area. There’s an ocean of information, but no clear answers. I would find value in being walked through the steps, especially on how to get readers. It would be most helpful if you started from “scratch”, with no readers, so we could understand the entire process. Getting readership is somewhat of a mystery that I do not understand. If you choose not to start from ground zero, which I would totally understand, maybe you could at least include the info on how to get readers. I would be very appreciative of any guidance.
I wonder if there is anyone else that would be happy to have even 50 readers.
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I like this idea alot. There are so many sites making money on how to make money blogging that I have a hard time not being suspicious of them all
My vote is for the Animal Intelligence site. First, because I love animals. Second, I think it would be the most difficult to monetize.
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Great idea. I would vote for the success daily site.
To avoid skewing the readership by bringing thousands of readers from GRS, why not create a secondary community using a service like Ning for those interested in learning how you build this blog. Regardless of the platform, the idea would be to provide a secondary location so we can watch and learn and contribute and allow the blog to develop naturally.
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Great idea and I too like to vote for the Animal Intelligence. The only issue I have with that is you already have 6,000 visits per month. Would it be possible to start a new blog on the same subject and sligtly different title, as you obviously have passion about, it would then reflect a true new blog?
As an aside the link on the Animal Intelligence site to the Chimp on a Segway is broken, this one works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UpyyooUtMI
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I would love to see you do the Success Daily one!
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I am interested in starting up a blog site so would love, love all the basics since I am very new at this. I agree with Lauren and Lazy Dazy, in starting from scratch for some of us “newbies” that would like to get started with someone we feel we can trust and is knowledgeable.
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I am interested for sure. None of topics appeal to me, but love this idea.
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I would follow the progress if that project very closely.
I think the one about self-improvement would be the most interesting to follow
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Hi J.D – This sounds like a project which will interest a lot of people. I’m guessing that the self improvement blog would appeal to most of your readers.
But I think you have to choose for yourself. It sounds like Four Colour Comics could work well for you too.
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meh, I like the idea but really dislike the ideas around execution. Here’s why:
#1 Big Reason: JD, didn’t you tell us that you almost burned out with GRS? I treasure GRS, and would prefer for you to continue to put your excellent efforts into this site. If you are looking for a change in focus, that is one thing, but if not – this seems like it could be a nail in GRS’s coffin.
2) I really feel like the advantages you have are just too big to make this interesting at all
3) I would enjoy seeing a discussion of the steps you have taken/phases you have gone through with GRS, and then illustrating these steps with other blog examples at those same phases. Using just one example blog, that is one specific type of blog will just be less universally applicable / useful as an example for others.
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For purely egotistical reasons I would vote for the “Success Daily.” Egotistical because I could just go along with my site with a similar purpose
)
I have this site for a while but things just keep coming up that keeps me in developing this site from a few visitors with no income to one that I can comfortably live on.
I know, I know, I should not be so egotistical, so how about I would also report how my site does when following all the things we learn from “Success Daily?” Wouldn’t that be a nice thing to give in exchange?
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J.D., what are YOU passionate and most interested in putting an additional focus and work at this moment in your life? Sure, you would draw on the GRS community to read the new site/topic which is a bonus. But, that may not provide the stickiness you may hope for if there isn’t an ongoing interest in the topic.
I would also say whatever your passion is, again that thing that keeps you up at night, *that* needs to be your topic. Especially if you are looking to use this as a potential case study for building traffic and income. I bet the passion for your topic will give you energy to relay your success and inspire you to find new and different ways *to* build traffic and income.
In saying that, I do think you have tons of value and knowledge to pass along for general blogging, traffic, income tips. If nothing else, share that here at GRS to inspire someone to do what you did!
You could also set up a category that’s excluded from your homepage or a subfolder so it’s a different feed. All of your pageviews would remain here on GRS for traffic purposes and the readers who want to read know where to find those posts. Or, you can always guest post for a blog that shares tips on that topic (and I think you know a good one
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Your idea sounds ideal and would benefit many.
How about choosing the site which would be the most challenging to get going or stay afloat. Taking the easier route may not help us in the end.
thank you
carmen
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I wanted to put in an “Amen” for commenter #12.
Look around for a few dead-but-interesting blogs and offer to mentor them. Then have them, or you, take turns to blog here about methods, philosophy, techniques, ups and downs WITHOUT telling us their blog (or maybe you could “unveil” it after a year or so).
That would give us a picture of how someone without a following, but with your expertise, could grow a blog!
Its a great idea. Please consider it.
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JD – I reckon it’s a great idea, and it would be a series I would follow with great interest.
It doesn’t matter that you already have an established readership that would follow to the new blog. Most of the benefit of the series would be in learning how to go about building a blog and monetising it, quite apart from the numbers.
Personally, I’d prefer to Success Daily. I love the concept and think that, over time, there’s a much wider range of sub-topics to cover.
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I would LOVE to follow this project with the animal intelligence blog. Please consider the animal focus! I love that it’s something new and useful that you’re contributing to the universe – a lot to be said for the less competition thing. Also, it has a very wide appeal. Comics is a niche thing. Lots of people are interested in animals for lots of different reasons. You might even do some greater good for animals and the environment by helping people see animals differently. Also, don’t underestimate the potential revenue from an animal blog. I bet that cuteoverload or icanhazcheezburger (sp?) sounded like jokes when they were proposed, but now I’m guessing that they get millions of hits and make plenty of revenue.
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I would love to see a new blog created specifically and anonymously, and also several users selected to get started as well, also anonymously. A slow rate of one post every other week I agree shouldn’t flood out the theme of GRS – and also shouldn’t cause a burnout situation itself, especially if the selected users prepare some ‘how I’m doing with all this’ posts to share.
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I for one would be very interested in this project. It hits core to what I want. My vote is for the 4Comics or Success. Any way you do it I would be interested in learning from you some ideas on driving traffic and making some money from your blogs.
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I have to stand up for Chris G. too, @Tyler. I’ve had some professional dealings with him and he is ALL about people, not about money. He has been super-nice to me, personally, during some tough times.
I can’t say anything about the Twitter auto-unfollow, but you are doing yourself a disservice in prejudging him.
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Would love to follow this project.
Animal intelligence seems a good one.
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Glad to see you didn’t give up on the site. While I like your posts, JD, I don’t mind the other ones–at least most of them. They do provide a variety of ideas and backgrounds and keep it interesting.
Whatever blog you choose to do…it isn’t going to matter too much because, as much as I want to know like the rest of them, it isn’t going to be a “normal blog” because most of us are going to follow it which will skew the numbers much more than anyone’s would who doesn’t have the readership of GRS to launch with.
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I would be very interested in following a blog start-up project. I have a blog that’s been up and running for a few months, and growing readership with the intention eventually to monetize would be excellent. (Readership *is* growing, but very very very slowly, and really, I’m probably only going to live another 50 years…)
Content of the new blog is fairly irrelevant to me (unless you want to know which one you’ll gain a reader on), but I have the same question as others have asked — how to grow readership when you don’t have tens of thousands of readers (or friends) to start with? I’m just not that popular
Difficult to monetize is somewhat appealing to me, because that’s the land I live in (I think).
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