Probably as a result of the infrequent posts here, page views and stats have taken a nosedive, with the page currently seeing a similar number of visitors to the first few months of its life. This as well as my struggles to find time for the page have led me to give serious thought to retiring from the blogging life. There are still a ton of games, films, TV shows, animes, and all sorts of other silly stuff that I'd still love to write about here, but I have to face the fact that I will probably not have the time to do so, and even if I did - would I be suitably motivated to do so?
Who knows? I want to have time for the page and I want to want to spend more time on it (if you catch my drift) but it may not end up being realistic. Time spent at work looks likely only to increase, not decrease, and I have to wonder if blogging is worth the effort. I didn't start the page with the expectation of fame or earning a fortune but it's a bit disheartening to be no better off than I was at the start. You would think seven years of consistent posting would have paid some dividends? But alas, 'tis not so, apparently. Woe is me and my unpopular... Style? Persona?
Nonetheless, I shall persevere for the time being at least, at the best speed I'm able to manage. Here's hoping the coming year will see blessings galore, for all of you as well as me! To that end, any donations for the ongoing support of Red Parsley will be gratefully received (chortle)! Hope you all had and continue to have a good one :)
Merry New Year!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you are struggling, it's tough when your hard work doesn't get noticed. I guess it's very difficult and rare to make money off a blog.
Have you considered putting your blog on Patreon? You can get people to sign up for a few pounds a month and perhaps make reasonable money thay way. Your journalism is really top quality, as good as any computer mag... Or maybe apply for a job in journalism? This site should be good proof of your writing ability to any employer.
Personally I'd be happy to subscribe via Patreon. I used to have a sub with Retro Gamer but cancelled it so would be happy to send the money your way instead. Question is, how many others would.
You mention donations, but there seems to be no donate button on the site...? Anyway, I think Patreon is a better route.
Thanks man, nice to see you again :)
ReplyDeleteI was just joking really, regarding the money/donations. Obviously I wouldn't turn it down if someone offered me something but I've never expected to make any money from this page, it's more that hardly anyone even visits. My stats gradually improved over the years and were actually pretty good up until about 18 months ago, but things have been gradually declining again since then and now I'm pretty much back where I started. It's a bit demoralising considering how much time and effort I've put in, but at the same time there are so many other people doing the same sort of thing, I guess I kind of understand it. It would still be nice to have something to show for my efforts though.
Thanks for the suggestions anyway. I looked into getting an actual job in the industry many years ago, before I started Red Parsley and was writing for a friend's (now defunct) website. Starting positions paid too little even then so I can't imagine it's a realistic proposition now. I guess it couldn't hurt to look into it again though. I haven't even heard of Patreon but I'll certainly check that out too.
Anyway, I'll see how things go over the next few months. Maybe things will pick up again; maybe the site will be retired. We'll see. I didn't even really mean to write all that stuff - I was just going to make a short Merry Christmas/New Year post but then just started blabbering. Many thanks for your kind words, it means a lot :)
Your welcome. I know how it feels when you work hard on something and no one seems to care. That happened to me with Nebula Retro which you were the only website kind enough to review it! But although NR didn't make money directly I have had some positive responses at interviews so maybe Red Parsley will help you if you apply for a journalist job?
ReplyDeletePatreon is a website whereby you get "patrons" to sign up and pay you either monthly or every time you produce a new blog post. The point is to get people signed up and paying regularly and inertia means they hopefully keep it going. If you can get 100 people paying £5 per month that's a good start, 1000 people and its a salary! Lots of YouTube bloggers, who could previously make a living directly on YouTube find they no longer can and are moving to Patreon so it may be the way the industry is going... Free+ads no longer seems to make money so newspapers are going behind pay walls and Patreon is a small scale way of doing that for artists and writers.
The only problem I can see with Patreon is discoverability is very poor on the website. Hopefully that will improve but you will need to advertise separately. You really want to get all current blog readers to sign up. Perhaps you can direct message some Facebook friends...?
Sorry for the late reply, thanks for the info and suggestions. I might actually have a bit of time over the next week so I'll look into Patreon :)
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