The Askhole
Yes, I spelled it correctly.
We’ve all known them, they’re everywhere, The Askholes.
Several years ago, when I initially got into blogging, I had a number of people calling me, emailing me, Instant Messaging me, asking me how I got my blog up and running and just what was it I did to draw readers and get the HITS I was getting.
They all told me how much they admired my style and how they too wanted to become bloggers and have a blog just like mine, and if I didn’t mind telling them exactly how it was done, they would certainly be very appreciative.
So, I would take the time to explain to these folks what it took to build a blog and get the readership they claimed to seek, and after that detailed explanation I was generally, at least 95% of the time, met with this response:
“BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANT TO DO…”
So, why in the hell did you ask me?
There are some folks that ask and they absorb every word, thank you kindly and then go on about their business and have a blog that gets thrown on the back burner because they don’t realize that to do a good daily blog requires a lot of work.
The rewards are slim, I don’t make money from my blog, oh, I get the occasional donation, and make NO mistake, I appreciate every last dollar, but if I had to rely on donations to make a living, we’d be starving and living under a bridge.
You can’t throw out some *screed* and hope to hit the *big time*, it just doesn’t work that way. You either put your heart and soul into the blog you write and do it for love of the game, or you post pics of near naked women in order to garner the hits that your lack of writing skill fails to bring you.
There are some that believe themselves to be awesome bloggers because the throw up a headline, a picture and one line of *snark*. That is NOT blogging, but quite a few actually do just that, mostly because they can’t string 3 sentences together and convey a cognizant thought.
No more free blogging advice from me, just sayin’, but dumb looks are still on the house!
Fred, I know what you mean. I’ve started blogging several times for one day. It just ain’t my cuppa tea. But I have great admiration for those whose calling it is. Keep you the good work and it goes without saying,
Keep your powder dry
Thank you my friend, it’s just not something for everyone, but far too many fail to realize that and when their blog fails, and most do, they have a handy scapegoat to blame it on… 😈
The next time one of these idiots ask you for advice tell them you charge $50 an hour, min of 10 hours and you will give them all the “advice” they want. They run fast.
See, I was thinking more along the lines of $25 and hour with a 4 hour minimum, IN THE PAYPAL account BEFORE the advice started.. 😛
Either way it will work.
I’m a lot cheaper than many think… 😛
I’ve been blogging since 2004.
I started because that was a pretty personally traumatic year, and I needed an outlet. I found Blogger and it all began. I wrote then, and now, for myself. I can’t write for Fred, and he can’t write for me.
I have great admiration for you, Fred, for your tenacity and your views. We may occasionally not agree, but you have managed to make me rethink any number of issues. And even if you were to post something completely anathema to my way of thought — I completely and totally support your right to write what you believe. And that is a concept that is slowly being challenged in the American mind.
Freedom. Freedom to speak. Freedom to write. Your opinions. What you believe.
Because there are those who would choose something akin to a WorldMind and if one is not in keeping with PC opinions these days, one finds oneself being shunned and belittled.
Those persons who allegedly bleat about freedom, Leftists and Progressives, and the least tolerant of a thought, policy or belief that in any way counters theirs.
Fred, you have a place in the world. A VERY important place in the world.
And yes, running a blog is tough. You and I both know how difficult it is to come up with a new post every day. You’re retired, but your life is filled with family and grandkids and local politics. I am still employed as a cop after 41 years of work for the feds and two counties. So yes, we’re both busy as hell but we STILL manage to keep our blogs current and fresh.
That is DAMNED difficult to do, my friend.
My hat is off to you. Your view needs to exist and you need to be read. Your perspective is a diminishing one for a massive host of reasons. Which is why your point in the Blogosphere is important.
Because, trust me, charges of “blasphemy” and the shuttering of challenging thought and writing is, at our current trend, not terribly far off in America.
That is such a shame. But I see the writing — the blasphemous writing — on the wall.
Keep on keeping on, Fred Witzell.
BZ
Indeed I will keep on writing… I slack off from time to time, this week it wasn’t family or local politics, I have been fighting a reasonably mild case of the flu.. I took a flu shot back in Sept. and it did lessen the length and severity but damn…
I have learned much from YOU BZ, you’re the only cat in the caboodle that can make me break out the dictionary, and as an English major, that takes a lot!
And you know, we HAVE disagreed on occasion, but what a boring freaking world it would be if we didn’t.. 🙂
Still love the hell outta ya, my brother.
BZ
Indeed… And that is NOT something I say too often, nor do I call too many a *Brother*, but you my friend are all that and more!
Thank you kindly. I am touched.
BZ
Fred, it’s not just in blogging but in other things. I have people constantly asking me what I think may be wrong with their car. When I give them a couple suggestions, after listening to them, they actually get upset with me and say, “It can’t be that” and “You don’t know what you’re talking about”. At that point, I just back away and tell them to consult a professional mechanic. I actually once had a co-worker with me who was a factory trained and certified Ford technician tell a guy the same exact thing I did and the customer got pissed and said we didn’t know what we were talking about…stupid fool didn’t even know how to tell if his vehicle was carbureted or fuel injected. I can’t get myself started on idiots who want FREE advice and then argue when you try to help them.
Bob, I get that all the time about guns.. 😛
+1 about guns.
I’m a certified Sig armorer and people still ask me questions and say: “That can’t be it.”
Really — ?? Then do it your own damned self.
BZ
Exactly!
Fred,
Sometimes the askhole liberals make me laugh when they ask for good advice, do the opposite, then have a fit when what they did blows up in front of their faces. They’re like the cobra that eyes a mongoose, thinking it’ll get itself a free lunch, not realizing it’s going to become lunch. It’s also like the half wits in the White House aka Emperor Bobo and Joey Big Birdbrain asking the GOP how to save themselves from being tar and feathered, then pouring the tar on themselves.
Fred you be da’ blogmiester! You are also a spelling Nazi par excellent! Anymore, I work on th blog when I can, and the subject that I planned on writing about hasn’t already been saturated.
Keep it up friend!
As a teacher, I know quite a few askholes, and they are not in the blogosphere. 😉