On 16 Nov 2006 I became a blogger by uploading 'The World's Ugliest
Toolbox'

http://bobhooversblog.blogspot.com/2...t-toolbox.html

....in response to Google's offer of free blogging space. Since then
I've uploaded 264 others from a file of a thousand or so digitalized
articles accumulated since about 1992. The material covers a broad
range of interest and includes articles submitted for publication,
successfully in a few cases but mostly rejected, especially so for the
aviation-related material.

To provide this 'free' service Google attaches advertising to your
material. When someone clicks on one of the ads, the advertiser pays
Google, who shares a bit of the wealth with you. You are allowed to
limit the number of ads and to block ads from companies you deem
unsuitable. Of course, the more restrictions you impose on your site,
the lower its potential income. And the thing has to generate SOME
income or Google will simply kick you off.

Over the past year the blog has been visited 97,305 times. Those
visitors clicked on 862 of the ads, for which Google paid me $292.
That's about 266 visitors a day and two clicks worth eighty cents, a
tad shy of Minimum Wage even for a writer :-)

As soon as my blog appeared I got a few friendly jabs from fellow
writers about getting rich through blogging. This message should lay
their fears to rest :-) At the same time, a number of other folks
asked if creating a blog was worth their time. I didn't know. I said
I would give it a year and tell them how things were going, which is
what I'm doing here.

Over the course of the last year the blog has generated a fair number
of comments, some of which I've posted. A lot of people have urged me
to submit a particular article to various magazines, unaware that in
most cases, I already have. If you want to see a particular type of
article in your favorite magazine the person to talk to is the editor,
not the writer.

Has the effort been worth-while? If you mean financially, no. But as
a means of disseminating information, I think the blog has been a
success.

-R.S.Hoover
-18 Nov 2007