I came across a blog contest posed by Memoirs of a Single Dad (@M_oa_SD) that asks bloggers to answer the question of why we are here: for love or for money.
For me this is an easy answer: I'm not making any money, so I must be in it for love, right? Well, there's a lot of things I do for love and for the intangible rewards. I workout, I teach Special Education, and I play city-league flag football with friends. I have only been blogging as @ManvDadhood since October 2010, and have not quite built up my readership to the point of gaining anything monetary from it.
So the question for me is, "If I was making money from my blog, what would I do differently?" Would I do anything differently? It's hard to say, but I think that if I got to the point where my blog was no longer acting as the therapeutic outlet that it is now, then I would have to diversify my focus. I have already posted about my more-than-awesome LG Vacuum, and I did a piece for Dadstalking.com, and I now have a bimonthly column on TheCaffeineCoquette.com, but even that is another opportunity to get some more thoughts out of my head on dadhood and manhood.
What DO I want?
In the long-run, is it money or love that drives me? Both can be intoxicating, and I think that if I try really hard to "take the high road" and do this for love, and then I get the opportunity to do it for money, I may miss a great thing by trying to force some moral code on blogging that may not be necessary. Right now, I am enjoying myself. I am connecting with some great people, and am getting myself out there. Would i pass up an opportunity to get some extra perks from doing this? Of course not, but would that then drive me? I know myself, and I wouldn't
The intangible rewards have yet to be surpassed by pocket change.
-JB
