It is Friday, Friday, Friday. Gotta get dow-... Okay, I'll stop, that was pretty lame, I know. But, Friday is a wonderful day, rain or shine. Today's Friday Five continues my 5 Questions series with the second installment of questions with editor and blogger Steven Thompson. Steven runs 12 very popular comic/pop culture blogs and writes a regular column on a 13th. He has been recognized around the world due to his blogs. Check out Booksteve's Library here and find the links to his multiple blogs!
Q: When did you start blogging?
A: I had enjoyed reading blogs for a few years. Kate Worley, a comics writer who had befriended my wife an I back in 1990, died in 2004. I was searching for information on her passing and found a blog by Reed Waller, her ex-partner both in life and in comics. Although they had long since broken up, Waller wrote eloquently of his friend and I thought, "I wish I had a forum like this." Then I realized how easy it was to get just such a thing.
Q: Why do you blog?
A: All I've ever really wanted to be was a writer. My wife has always said that, with all my arcane knowledge of trivia and minutiae, I should be a teacher. I decided that blogging was the best way I could write and at the same time teach people about some of the weird things I've enjoyed over the years.
Q: Why do you have so many different blogs instead of putting it all together in a single location?
A: Well, my first try at a blog didn't take. It was aimless and abandoned after only 3-4 posts. Eventually I deleted it entirely and figured I was through with blogging.Then I came up with the idea for a new blog centered on sharing books, movies, etc from my own personal library. It slowly became quite successful and was my only blog for the first three years. Then I found myself a victim of the economy, depressed and with time on my hands. So I started a second blog specifically aimed at a different audience. In time, some ideas hit me that just wouldn't fit in on my regular, all-purpose blog--my high school journal for example--so I gave them each their own blogs! I currently have 12 (and write a more-or-less daily column for another) but there have also been four more that I created, abandoned and eventually deleted along the way.
Also, it doesn't hurt that more blogs, appealing to somewhat different readers, tends to elicit more ad-clicks and thus more money for me.
Q: Do you have a few favorite blogs of your own or others you'd like to share?
A: Oh, I have scores of them. Other than yours [You are so freaking sweet!] , a few of my favorites:
http://martingrams.blogspot.com/
http://www.bionicdisco.com/
http://www.newsfromme.com/
http://my-retrospace.blogspot.com/
Q: What advice do you have for a newbie blogger or someone that is thinking about starting a blog?
A: It's the simplest thing in the world nowadays, even more so than when I started blogging six years back. Everyone has a voice and blogging is a unique and simple way to get yours heard. Blog about politics, family, life, death, books, movies, dental work, Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber [please no], the history of the telephone, how to bake lasagna. There is quiet literally no limit to the subjects you can choose. Maybe only two people will read your posts but on the other hand, there could be thousands. But you aren't writing for them anyway. You're writing for yourself. Now, go. BLOG! [Yes sir!]
Have any other questions for Steven about blogging? Post them in the comments section and I will forward them to him. Or, since he is over here pretty often, maybe he'll answer them himself! It is always nice to hear it straight from the source rather than a 3rd party don't you think?
http://martingrams.blogspot.com/
http://www.bionicdisco.com/
http://www.newsfromme.com/
http://my-retrospace.blogspot.com/
Q: What advice do you have for a newbie blogger or someone that is thinking about starting a blog?
A: It's the simplest thing in the world nowadays, even more so than when I started blogging six years back. Everyone has a voice and blogging is a unique and simple way to get yours heard. Blog about politics, family, life, death, books, movies, dental work, Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber [please no], the history of the telephone, how to bake lasagna. There is quiet literally no limit to the subjects you can choose. Maybe only two people will read your posts but on the other hand, there could be thousands. But you aren't writing for them anyway. You're writing for yourself. Now, go. BLOG! [Yes sir!]
Have any other questions for Steven about blogging? Post them in the comments section and I will forward them to him. Or, since he is over here pretty often, maybe he'll answer them himself! It is always nice to hear it straight from the source rather than a 3rd party don't you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment