I've been undergoing considerable anxiety lately about how much is too much on this blog. While most of what I write is personal, some crosses the line into teaching--professional work that other writers in my position charge money for in private online classes. I have been loath to make those conversations private: I like imagining the silent listeners, accidental or otherwise, who drop in to overhear. The fact is: I have a bad relationship with money. I don't want to it to come between me and my friends; I don't want to charge anybody anything; I feel like a philistine whenever I do.
Some blog owners solve this problem by allowing sponsored ads on their blog. That is something I will never consider. Others solve it by adding a donation button, giving their readers the option to toss $20 the writer's way and maybe thus pay for an hour's worth of work. Nobody is required to donate; nobody pressed. It's just an option.
Yesterday, after much worry, I decided that maybe I should go ahead and install the donation button. This morning I changed my mind and took it down. I felt terrible about it.
So I'm back to where I've started. And right now my plan is to continue on as I have been. But if there comes a time when something must give, it will have to be this blog.
8 comments:
When a Frost Place participant like Carlene speaks of receiving PD credit for following a reading group that you curate on your blog, then it’s time to rethink both form and function, as you have done in your most recent blog posts.
I do enjoy reading what you write on a relatively regular basis, even as I am finding your new book both a useful and pleasurable resource this summer, given my loose connections to education in our public schools and the poetic landscape of the Frost Place. However, unlike my sporadic visits to blogger.com, I’ve paid to lunch on the porch and to listen and learn in the Henry Holt Barn and to read and reread various publications. Your compensation may be small, but it offers you some consolation.
Not so, if you are feeling that readers take advantage of the professional services you offer, simply stated, because disciplining yourself to write and to reflect upon your writing has become a generously shared habit, thanks to the internet. I certainly don’t wish to do this, lurking darkly in the shadows of World Wide Webdom, quietly reading my copies of Kenneth Rexroth’s translations of Chinese and Japanese poems in connection with your blog posts. True, there are on-line means available for readers to pay fees and/or donate on occasion; but your admirable distaste for sophistry appears to have effectively eliminated this option.
So, might it be possible for all of your readers to focus more on the joy of personal discovery and you to “curate” less, whereby you are learning whatever you learn from these precious moments spent with specific texts and let others do the same, thanks to this remarkable on-line opportunity to focus on Rexroth in the absence of Baron and to do this with much less expectation for any sort of group response – rather like an optional morning dictation at the Frost Place?
I in no way feel that anyone is taking advantage of me. The fact is: I like writing to you all; I love blog conversations; I am looking forward to the Tu Fu book club. But every hour I spend reading Tu Fu and coming up with discussion questions means an hour that I am not editing. I would rather do this than copyedit. But I have been running an almost daily blog for 6 years, without a considerable gain in readership, and I have to ask myself: should I keep doing it or not?
Re your questions about group response options: The blog setup requires me to initiate conversations because I am the only one with administrative access; everyone else is limited to the comments. I'd be willing to give another regular reader administrative access and to take the facilitator's role, but he or she would have to commit to shouldering the schedule and the the seminar-leader responsibility.
I appreciate the daily opportunities to, at the least, read something that makes me think, to find a new idea or author to ponder...and, as always, if a book club is burdensome, then it shouldn't happen! As far as being able to get pd hours for the chat, it is because we can participate in any plc and it counts. As I am in a tiny department, collegial discussion can't happen. And locally, the focus is always on pedagogical strategies. I deeply care about literature and crave some contact with others who are also careful and care-filled when it comes to the written word. So, again I thank you and I hope that it is never burdensome to share ideas....
Like Richard (above), I enjoy reading what you write on this blog, if on a more intermittent basis (though I _always_ try to scroll back to where I last left off so that I don't miss anything). With Carlene, discussion about literature only seems to occur in isolated online pockets nowadays, unless perhaps one is affiliated with academia; but aside from discussion, your insights are worthwhile attending, be they on literary matters or events of the day (momentous public or personal).
I had tried, early on, to follow the Rilke discussion (the same edition of _Letters_ serendipitously fell into my possession), but I didn't like the book (much) and the "classroom" aspect of the exercise turned me off, so I put it aside... though I followed the discussion with interest. If "curating" becomes "work" (and not a labor of love) it makes sense putting it aside.
For about half a year (or a little more) I tried keeping up a blog. Yours was the ideal I tried to emulate (except the getting up early part). In my case I determined to stop, not because I felt I was competing with myself in services I might offer for a fee, but because, while the daily post was interesting enough (to write I mean, not suggesting it was for the few readers), I found I was constantly being drawn to things either that weren't so much worth the bother (the latest PoBiz scandal) or not really worth expounding on in that way. Sometimes it is nice to have stray thoughts without thinking of applicability toward some quick essay.
Saying that - and admitting your efforts here to be successful and most pleasantly varied - six years is a long while and I notice most bloggers don't keep it up for a long time. I've benefitted from your insights and will be sorry to see them cease, if that proves to be the case; and if not, I will keep tuning in.
And thank you.
There is always the question of priorities. Which should come first? Which is more important? Which is most satisfying? Only you can make these decisions. i must confess yours is the only blog I follow and while I don't often comment I am enjoying being part of your questioning nature. My poetry is challenged by your thoughts and discussions. I was looking forward to the Tu Fu discussion. But if you have other pulls on your time I understand. I don't know what would make the blog work more for you. What about it gives you enough satisfaction to have continued for 6 years? WhaT can we do ( as followers) to increase your joy?
Dita, mostly I seize up about the fact that I am fifty years old and can't earn a living wage. But I love talking to you all, and am only worried that I seem self-involved, boring, pointless, etc., in addition to shooting myself in the head financially--the usual anxieties. The Tu Fu project will continue, and I will hang on to this blog as well as I can, though I may begin to post less often.
At the risk of sounding like a philistine ... what's wrong with allowing sponsored ads in your blog? People are used to seeing them everywhere else and ignoring them. Wouldn't that be the easiest method?
Re advertising: I am not trying to be holier-than-thou about advertising. In large part, what I can't bear is the visual interruption.
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