the unfocused blog

Is the personal online journal worth it?

In the world of blogging there are only two kinds of blogs: Biz and personal.

The biz blogs are all about a sell-sell-sell mentality while the personal ones are about the personal life of the author, such as the old “What I had for lunch” stuff.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that on read my site is first and foremost a personal journal. Yes, I do sell things here but only the stuff I’ve created in one way or another. Otherwise there are no affiliate links, no banner ads, no text ads and so on.

Personally speaking I have nothing against biz blogs because they do serve a purpose and make real money. There is a legitimate need for them on the internet. However what bothers me about them primarily are three things:

1. The pigeonhole nature can sometimes backfire.
2. Creative writing always takes a back seat to the dollar.
3. Too many rules.

The tightly focused nature of a biz blog will at times put a box around you that is inescapable. For example, let’s say your blog is about cars. You always write about cars and that’s that. But one day you try something different and talk about bicycles. Maybe you saw a really cool bike and wanted to say something about it, so you did. What happens is that your audience will bitch at you about it just for (gasp) writing about something on your blog that didn’t conform to their expectations.

You know you’re trapped in the box at that point if that happens. Your choices are either start a separate site for your other ventures or never dare stray from the primary focus of the blog ever again. People on the internet get quite testy, don’cha know.

Biz blogs by nature are written LCD style because they have to be. One would think with a biz blog you could be a creative writing force – but you can’t. These types of blogs are about information and opinions. If you dare go “artsy” even to the slightest degree, the audience won’t pan you for it but rather not pay attention at all, then maybe pose the question of “Where’s the good stuff?” And yeah, that’s really annoying. Your readers are literally of the opinion, “I don’t give a flying fuck about you as a person. I come to your blog for information I can use, so please have a nice hot cup of shut the fuck up and get back to the goods. Thanks in advance, douche bag.”

Lastly are the rules. Yes there are rules and lots of them. A classic example is that you can’t say fuck on a biz blog. Or bitch. Or asshole. You’re not permitted to say any of that. If you do, some retard (another word you can’t say) will e-mail and/or comment saying, “Think of the children!” As if kids are going to read a biz blog. Yeeeeah, sure. Right after they’re done downloading porn without your knowledge (again) they’re going to catch up on the latest biz and buzz with the internet. Uh-huh. Sure. Kids – including your kids – play video games and download porn, in that order. That’s it. Think otherwise and you’re a fool.

It is nothing short of incredible how well-educated adults use children as an excuse for their own agendas of censorship. And bear in mind these are the same people who supposedly support free speech on the internet, yet get their panties in a bunch when someone writes fuck on a biz blog.

Remember, free speech has never – nor will ever – protect the speech you want to hear or read but rather the speech you don’t want to hear or read. Once you get it through your thick douche nozzle skull that that’s the way it works, you’ll be far better off.

Moving on..

I can write biz-style easily and have done it many times. All I do to achieve this is use a clear concise to-the-point bullet train style of writing with very little feeling or emotion. It works. Yes, you have to work at it and yes it takes mountains of blog writing before you get it right. And even then you’ll still stumble from time to time (to which your audience will eat you alive for).

Said honestly, I sincerely do appreciate the fact my personal blog is in fact personal. And I also appreciate blog authors who toss out a “fuck you” every so often when they get pissed off at somebody (hopefully not me). :-)

My online journal is wildly unfocused and has no point.

And that’s just the way I like it.

Copyright ©1975-2008 menga - Today is Sunday, March 14 2010; the time when you loaded this web page was 2:05am UTC. This blog is authored from Tampa Florida - a place where all the cool people are :-) If this web site has not been updated in the past 30 days, you can safely assume I'm sick, dead or finally got a life interesting enough to get away from the computer. On a final note, remember to save your shit.