If I Write a Blog, Will Anyone Read it?

Flickr

I've been blogging for about 11 years and admittedly with little or no success. I started with a blog called "Retired in Malaysia" in which I chronicled my retirement in Penang, Malaysia. I used Google's Blogger to host my blog.  I had quite a few followers and earned about $60, mostly from donations. After living in Malaysia for 6 years I moved back to the US.  I didn't post much on this blog, since I no longer lived there, but I maintained the site for those who might want to retire in Malaysia.

I started my second blog, Steveso Thinks in 2013. Last month I changed the name to Stevesovie Thinks after I unsuccessfully tried to transfer the domain from Blogger to WordPress. I worked for 3 days, on the phone, with GoDaddy to find the domain, to no avail. Trying to work with Google was both frustrating and annoying, as I was unable to speak to a live person.  With a series of emails, they led me in circles, from one Google app to another, and they still couldn't find my domain.  I finally gave up and changed the name of my blog and got a new domain. I most likely lost what few followers I had. So, in essence, I'm starting all over again.

I've attempted to start a couple of other blogs but abandoned the idea after about a year.  I successfully moved a blog about my 2 cattle dogs, Cattledog Kids from Blogger to Wordpress.com a few months ago. I am very slowly getting a little more traffic every month. I have one other personal blog, Stephen Sovie's Blog, which remains on Blogger.

I had toyed with the idea of deleting all of my blogs and quitting blogging altogether and just writing on Medium.com but I became disenchanted with Medium.  I like to write about politics, social and cultural issues, and my dogs, but very few people on Medium share those interests. I have over 14,000 followers on Medium, but I usually never had more than 10 people read or interact with my posts.  I had more traffic on my personal blogs but didn't earn any money.

As I have previously written in a Medium article, As If Anyone Cares, I'm changing the way I use Medium, I've decided to publish first on my blogs and then republish the posts on Medium, under publications of the same names as my blogs.  I know that seasoned bloggers will criticize that decision as it screws up SEO, but hey, I'm no "Huffington Post" or "Billboard".  I'm just a little guy who loves blogging and loves the challenge.

I realize that nothing may change, in regards to traffic or earnings, or maybe no one will read what I write, but I'm having fun trying. If you're bored or curious check out my blogs and follow or check me out on Medium. Thanks for your time.