In Defense of Danderma (and Every Other Money-Making Blogger)
Look, this blog has only been active for around 6 months now. I created it in June but only really started posting in November (plus I took a month off from mid-January to mid-February). And, even though I now have a good handle on the blogging routine and have cultivated a respectable readership (not very huge but respectable nonetheless), I still consider this blog in the beginner, formative stages.
Point is, I still don’t know anything about what it means to have such a large scope of influence and a huge, loyal readership that I can begin to use those wonderful resources to pool in some income from things like advertising or sponsorships.
And you know what? I can’t wait till that day comes. Seriously.
Now, if you follow the Kuwaiti blogosphere you will have doubtlessly heard Danderma‘s name thrown around once or twice. For those of you who live underground or out of human touch, Danderma is a wonderful Kuwaiti blogger (and author) who has been personally delighting me with her long, original, insightful, funny, and meaningful posts for years now. Her readership is huge and well-deserved.
One year ago, Danderma made a smart, practical move and decided to harness the power of this large, loyal fan base for the purposes of advertising. She made a wonderful and comprehensive post about this experience right here.
Now, I’m not going to talk about the blogging-advertising experience because, for one thing, I wouldn’t know anything about it and, for another thing, Danderma has already pretty much covered everything you need to know.
The reason why I brought up Danderma and this specific post of hers is because I’m about fed up with this notion that so many people in Kuwait have about blogging.
That false notion being that making money off your blog is wrong, deceitful, unworthy, disloyal, or selling out.
People who do make these criticisms make them without realizing a very important fact about blogging: It can be very hard work.
Making a meaningful post about something people care about and in a tone that both reads easily and is personal to me is hard work. If a blog looks easy to you then the blogger deserves a whole lot of credit because they were talented enough to make it look that way. The reality of the matter is that most bloggers have an outside life and plenty of responsibilities just like everyone else which include jobs, families, and a social life.
Oh yeah, and we’ve all got finances too.
That’s right. On top of toiling endlessly for several hours a day in a regular job, we take the time to blog on a daily basis to our readers who, in the case of someone as successful as Danderma (for example), can number in the thousands. As a single one of those thousands I can say without the slightest bit of hesitation that I personally would be very heartbroken if Danderma decided to stop blogging because it was weighing too heavily on her other life responsibilities.
And, God, for all the hard work that she and countless other Kuwaiti bloggers (myself included) put into making their blogs special and worthwhile, don’t you think some of us might deserve to have even a little bit of that weight removed by generating a slight income from something as harmless as advertising and sponsorship?
I mean, after spending all that time (we can be talking years here) and energy to create something that our readers could enjoy, relate to, or learn from, what’s wrong with a blogger getting something back for all that work?
In her post about her advertising experience, Danderma sounded a little apologetic about making just an “extra 50 KD” and that the money she was making wasn’t enough to buy her a Ferrari. I see no reason for Danderma, or any other blogger who makes money off things like ad placements, to make any such apprehensive explanations. There are bloggers out there in the world who are talented, well-loved, and who make enough money through their blogs to live off of (here they are).
Now, I’m not saying that this is the amount of money that any blogger in Kuwait makes but I see no reason why Kuwaiti bloggers can’t aspire to those standards themselves. And, I also see no reason why they need to apologize or cower away from starting to make steps towards achieving those standards (no matter how small the income actually is).
I hope to God that Danderma eventually ends up making enough money off her blog that she can retire from her actual job, buy a Ferrari, and make her wonderful, one-of-a-kind posts about it all day long.
And as for me and this tiny blog of mine? Right now I’m just focusing on cultivating my readership and making a real, distinctive voice for myself. If I am blessed one day with as much of a fan base as some of my favorite bloggers then great! Cause then their awesome loyalty can help keep OwlOlive.com up and running through helpful resources like ads and sponsorships.
Not that my current readers don’t already make me beyond happy, of course. My readers are so awesome they could all run for president and win.
All my love!
