I Blog For Myself.... But That Doesn't Mean I Don't Enjoy My Ego Stroked

Let's face it... I've already repeated (too many times than I care to mention) that my blog is not an empire of awesomeness millions of people wish to flock to. 

For the record.... Exodus was so long, it shouldn't have been legal

Yet, for those of you who feel like you have been blogging for a long time and STILL don't have enough followers for continuing on to be justifiable... you may be going through periods of self-doubt and the undying question for ANYONE with a serious hobby or an actual career. 

Is it worth it to continue on?

In terms of follower account and that nasty comparison monster (aka. jealousy), it is in no way worth it for me to continue v/blogging because of the ratio of personal validation (views/comments) to hours/effort put into posts/videos.

There are two questions I get when I tell people about my blog/YouTube channel from those who obviously don't know how crazy I am for books: 

Are you making money? 

AND 

How many followers do you have?

I will tell you right now (and anyone else can who blogs/vlogs), if your final goal is to make money... then you're in it for the wrong reasons. In Neil Gaiman's "Make Good Art" speech, says that he never take a job for money because - "If you don't get the money, then you don't have anything. If you do work you're proud of, and don't get the money, at least you have the work." 

I will also tell you here and now that if you are looking into blogging/YouTubing from scratch, it will take you 100x the hours you work on content for you to earn a single cent. You might as well get a minimum-wage job at McDonalds. 

On the followers aspect - You have NO control WHATSOEVER over how many followers you get. 

You're just as likely to say Taylor Swift's next single *might* be "I Know Places" and have your prediction become fact. That is a complete coincidence and you have ZERO influence on a person physically moving their mouse and clicking on the "Follow" or "Subscribe" button.

So why do I (and why should you) continue blogging without the rewards or money or a million subscribers? The answer is - I'm proud of my content and very passionate about books. The passion and effort you put into your work bleeds and molds into your content, becoming as much a part of your project as your topic sentence. People can tell when you are truly excited about a subject, and they can sniff out a phony in 10 seconds flat.

Onto the Ego-Stroking Part

Every once in a while, you will interact with a viewer/friend/subscriber that has truly been touched, affected, informed, or merely enjoyed what you talked about. That one comment, even if its a 134 character tweet, provides such a natural high, kind of like a teacher praising your work in front of the class. Everything seems worth it, and the world is all rainbows and gumdrops.

I admit there has been many a time where I question my sanity. 

Me? Making content for people on the internet to judge and gawk at? 

Me? Spending hours every day upkeeping a blog a YouTube channel when Netflix exists?

No thanks! 

The reason I am writing this post even is because of something very special that happened to today. I became a Book Depository affiliate. Somehow, this little occurrence spurred almost three hours of solid productivity (something very hard to obtain). Even more than 100 followers or almost 100 views on a single video. I guess it's just the realization that I can be like Katytastic & PolandBananasBooks when they leave disclaimers about affiliate links. Whatever it is.... this is just one occurrence of how hard work truly can pay off. Whether it's a nice comment, recognition from your idol, or becoming an affiliate to a good cause.... these are the small moments of ego-stroking interspersed amongst hours and hours of work. 

That leaves me with one question - Why do you v/blog?

PS. I'm doing a whole discussion on affiliate links & sponsorships soon. Stay tuned!