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Conversations with my Mother

Posted by MadameX • 7/15/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic

A few days ago, I was talking to my mother about how there are a few bloggers who make a wonderful living from their blogs alone, and thus millions of people who think they can slap a blog online and quit their day jobs. We had a fairly long conversation about how this related to other areas of life where a certain sector of society is always looking for the shortcut rather than wanting to actually build something, and then I said something like, "Right...and so now we have 4 million blogs created by people who don't even want to blog but are expecting to earn a six figure income."

And she agreed.

And then there was a moment of silence and she said, "But YOU should be able to do that."

User Comments

7/15/07

VeraBass

I love your mother!

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7/15/07

Phattitudes

I love her too. Will she adopt me? I promise to start a blog about it and expect it to earn 6 figures

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7/15/07

markstoneman

Good stuff. She's right too, but you're making your living writing anyway, right? Just not the six figures, I'm guessing.

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7/15/07

bnsullivan

Sigh, my mother doesn't know what a blog is -- or care -- and I have 5 blogs.

Oh well.

Lucky you, Tiffany, that you have such a mother as you have. It's wonderful to have that kind of unconditional support behind you.

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7/15/07

MadameX

I love my mother, too...but I think maybe she's a tad unrealistic! Bobbie, my mom doesn't READ my blogs (and hasn't read either of my books!)

Mark--thank you very much. And yes, I do make my living as a writer and have done everything from local newspaper articles to corporate copywriting to educational materials to two books (one fiction and one non-fiction), but I think making a living BLOGGING requires a special magic touch (or having started in 1998).

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1. 7/15/07
  
  bnsullivan
  
  LOL, well now I feel so much better. My mother doesn't read anything I write either -- nor do my siblings -- nor do they care that I write anything in the first place.
  
  Husband, daughter, and several in-laws do loyally read what I write -- whether they care about the topic or not, bless them.
  
  My favorite readers -- two elderly, long-retired professors who were on my dissertation committee so many years ago. They've subscribed to my feeds -- and they both email comments to me all the time. Love it!
2. 7/15/07
  
  markstoneman
  
  Your family reads you? That truly is an achievement. And your old profs have figured out RSS? I love it.
3. 7/15/07
  
  MadameX
  
  I'd have to differentiate there--my mom loves that I write and faithfully collects up even my little local newspaper articles and keeps them forever, and she's always said (even when I was in law school) that she expected that I'd be a writer one day....but somehow it doesn't translate to sitting down and reading unless there's something specific that I really want her to read for a specific reason. That's kind of true for me across the board, though--my husband never read anything that I wrote, and most of my "real life " friends don't even know that I HAVE blogs let alone where to find them.
4. 7/15/07
  
  bnsullivan
  
  Mark, one of those old profs is a true geek -- a research mentor who insisted that I learn to program when I was in grad school, promoting the idea in part because he thought it would be a practical skill, and in part because he truly believed that learning to program enhanced the process of logical thinking. So he taught me Fortran IV (non-credit, tutorial basis). Turns out he was right on both counts -- even though I NEVER used Fortran, I went on to transfer the skill to learning other, more relevant programming languages/related skills.
  
  No problem with that guy using RSS feeds. If he had thought of it first, he probably would have written the original code!
  
  The other guy is not particularly techno-savvy. He bookmarked my blogs and visited them regularly, but one day made the off-hand comment that he wished they all were on one page. Bingo! So we introduced him to Google Reader and RSS feeds. He has since subscribed to a zillion things -- esp. news feeds -- and has made his Google Reader his start page. Gotta love it!
7/15/07

zakman

I vaguely recall reading a news item that said that, on an average, 2,000 businesses close shop going bankrupt EVERY DAY in Japan.

And I'm pretty sure every one of them must have started out with dreams of hitting a six-figure income.

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1. 7/15/07
  
  MadameX
  
  That's a good point, Zak...I've read varying statistics over the years that in the U.S. 85-90+% of new businesses fail within the first two years. I guess the upside to the blogging delusion is that it doesn't require much investment.
2. 7/15/07
  
  markstoneman
  
  A parallel from just after the Cold War in East Germany: suddenly everyone had a video store.
7/15/07

writingtrue

When I released my first album, my dad called me a few months later.

"We were just playing your album for some friends," he said proudly, reporting they said, "Sounds like a professional did it."

Um...Dad....?

Writer

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1. 7/15/07
  
  MadameX
  
  GREAT story. And don't forget, "It looks just like a real book!"
2. 7/15/07
  
  bnsullivan
  
  "Sounds like a professional did it."
  
  Heh, I can really identify with that one. As in "Surely one of our own couldn't really be a professional!" Mmm hmm.
7/15/07

robinj

My Mother would have said as long as it keeps you amused dear lol

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7/15/07

VeraBass

lol, writer

You're mom's still miles ahead of mine, MadameX. The last thing mine can proudly tell you I did was to represent our ethnic community and be voted to represent all of them (the 50 or so communities) in the City that year. That was 27 years ago, and the reason she registered that one is because she has a photo of herself with me that appeared in the newspaper. Apparently I haven't done anything comprehensible since.

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1. 7/15/07
  
  MadameX
  
  Vera, I think you should make it a point to be photographed with her more often. Stand under relevant signage whenever possible.
7/16/07

ThriftShopRomantic

It's a great story, MadameX-- and sounds just LIKE a parent. My dad has been pretty interested in the blog-- I think because OTHER PEOPLE have said they like it-- but wow, when I had some things published in small unimpressive journals, I was hoping for a little enthusiasm and support...

Instead I could hear the ol' crickets chirping in the background. :-)

Writing's a hard business. It's really true what they say about writing for yourself first.

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4/23/08

nikhilbathla2020

comment removed by the community.

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1. 4/23/08
  
  ender
  
  spammer. good grief. you're going to dig up a thread that's 9 months old and just give your URL? not join the conversation, but just prove MadameX's point?
  
  yeah, that's gonna get you TONS of clicks.
  
  thanks for proving to be one of the millions of money-hungry bloggers who just clogs up the works.
4/23/08

acousticguitarist

And will you do it?

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