Is it worth to have a blog?

– Yes

It does not seem very responsible this so raw assertion without a context and a proper explanation of what we understood of having a blog or what is what we value on it.

On several occasions I have commented that egeomate was born with the idea of satisfying a writing obsession and also to return an economic value for the discipline of doing it. Time has been demonstrating that the balance of searching both is functional, though not everything is so simple to summarize in a very short post.

In the picture my son doing the show of the jump in pump half a second before it hit the water. I hang it here to balance his dissatisfaction with the previous post dedicated entirely to the skills of my daughter.

What we call to have a blog

Having a blog is understood as having control over a space that is written regularly, on themes addressed to a particular sector, a contact with readers and the consciousness to enjoy doing the above.

The regularity on writing is relative; it can be a daily entry, about two per week or a fortnight. Depends on the time we have and the passionate occasion theme. The subject should not be so tight that there is no place to release the human side, although a trend should be maintained on a particular sector of people who share similar interests and that in time feel the space adds value to the sector.

Then there must be something in all this that we like. Writing is not for everyone, not if you want to do regularly to an audience that mostly has only one IP number, which came as fast as Google, go to another place with the same keyword under his arm.

We must be patient to find and understand a small segment that does not go beyond 15% of the daily visits, that creates loyalty to a writer of whom they don’t know anything but his fingers. You can remain anonymous but over time it should be shown the human side even if we don’t share the same criteria. The reader should be aware of his tastes, his complexes, his fears, his way of seeing life and then will make sense the pictures of his everyday environment, work, family atmosphere, travel places.

Beyond requires human warmth; strive to maintain a relationship with a smaller segment that is below the 3% that comments, send an email to the editor, retweet, shakes or share in a social network a subject which appeared to be interesting. The remaining 7% keeps faithful in anonymity, by curiosity, respect, admiration and I feel that up by aversion.

After three years it can be learnt that what we wanted to know was not enough, but has served as a seed to understand other things. In addition, it has been more the learning gain than what we have released as our own learning.

What we call “worth”

This does not necessarily have to do with money; satisfaction is at a level of return relative to investment. If we invest passion, there should be a return of greater passion, it is clear that this is not my primary focus, such as blogs like Chocolate Bailable, where Angy surely recognizes certain profitability behind the many emotional comments of her readers that rather than being buddies of a subject are friends although they are across the continent, with non-geomatics career but who revel in every drop of inspiration with which each key was pressed.

We must also understand that the time spent in blog costs money, which could be used in a productive work, space with the family, rest, travel, sale of services, education, etc. All this investment has a cost and therefore should be a return to replace the wear of time.

Innovation has benefited bloggers writers, of which there are some even famous, with networks that defend their rights. What once cost has been simplified with companies that have made advertising and selling links is an interesting business that finally works. From this I can summarize some I’ve used in Geofumadas:

• Google ads, annoying to some, unnecessary for others, but a primitive way to monetize traffic from clicks.
• The sponsored post some of Zync, some of ReviewMe. Not many, but if they fit in the space, pay bills and after the last year’s fall have since recovered slowly.
• The ordered ads, these are what a company or another blogger asked directly, either in the blogroll or in the post. These incomes more-much more-but if you get it, makes the sponsor to feel he is strategic.
• Applications of influence, these are not necessarily sponsored ads but needs to see if it’s interesting news, a topic, product, business and taking advantage the amount of influence you can have, doing one tweet, wiggle, delicious, facebook …

What strange names we have come to coin. Luckily Cervantes is gone.

What incomes more

The above examples are alternatives – not the only ones – the web has provided for the Internet boards in order to search for something that reward your passion for writing. But writing on the Internet itself is just not profitable in our Hispanic environment, not for us who are amateur writers, who dedicate ourselves to others things during the day and write at night.

You must have something to offer, this can be influence, knowledge, contacts, products or services.

Over time, the provision of specialized services comes by inertia and we must be prepared to do so. In the case of a blog pictures it will be demand for services to the photographer, in technological products case, there will be demand for the sale of these, in the case of a geospatial technologies blog it may be the systems developing or timely assistance into a project.

Preferably we should be ready to serve or offer products that do not require physical presence. Internet helps a lot in this and must be exploited. Invitations to events should not be wasted, not to go to learn more but to invest in professional relationships that will bring fruit in time.

Thus, after a couple of years of writing systematically the specialized consultancy will arrive and rent more, much more. And then you have to dedicate time to do these things in a gap minute without totally neglecting the blog or at least warning about it.

What if it’s worth having a blog?

If we mean on writing with discipline and profitable rewards:

Yes!