Today I post this story to thank all of the kind souls who have played a part in helping me to achieve a dream of mine; a dream which I am sure is shared by many others....TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE SOMEBODY PAY YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF! In just a few short days I will be receiving my very first check earned from my blog, having finally met the $100 threshold stipulated by Google. It will enable me to say that I am paid to write, and although the amount of money may not be enormous, the joy I am feeling about my achievement is!
This past Christmas my oldest daughter Holly created a blog site for me as a Christmas gift, providing me with a virtual, clean sheet of paper, which would allow me to pursue my love of writing, and to see where the efforts of that pursuit might lead me. On February 19th, my Adsense application was approved, allowing me to have advertisers utilize my blog site. The way Adsense works is that the content of my stories determines the type of advertisements that appear along-side my blog. If, for instance, I write a story about dogs, then companies selling pet products might be featured. The idea is that if someone is interested enough in a particular subject to read about it, then they might be inclined to click on an advertisement concerning related products; when they do the blogger receives a few cents via Google. I realize that the more cynical might say that I am actually more of a landlord who is paid for rented space than a writer being paid for printed prose, but I consider that more of a "glass half-empty" kind of perspective. Instead, I choose to savor the moment, and to revel in the notion that I was successful enough in my efforts, that I actually got paid for them!
In reality, the money plays a very small role in the happiness I have attained through my blog. The real pleasure, for me, has been in knowing I am capable of writing something that others would take the time to read, during a period when lives are so hectic, that many people seldom have time to read more than a newspaper or magazine. The idea that someone from Paraguay or Iran would ever read anything I had written was unfathomable to me a year ago, and the fact that these readers return to my blog multiple times has surpassed all of my expectations. So thank you to all of the readers who have shared a moment with me these past 11 months, for you have, in truth, been the real source of my great happiness. I am humbly grateful, to all of you.
*Although my daughters frequently remind me that it is bad form to share any statistics about my blog, once again, I am going to ignore them. I find the stats kind of interesting, and I hope that you do, as well.
1. 4,755 visits have been made to my blog.
2. While visiting my blog people often read more than one story. The number of stories read is 8,763.
3. I have had readers from more than 25 different countries, including Japan, Russia, France, Sweden, Brazil, Columbia and South Korea.
4. "Fireflies and Tuna Cans" are the most common words used by readers using a search engine to find my site. "Michael Chiolero" and "Impaled by a Catfish" are the most interesting search words, though. *Apparently, mentioning Michael in one of my stories, or having Janet Falendysz comment about her mother's impalement by a catfish, are sometimes, for a few returning readers, the most memorable aspects of my blog.
5. Favorite posts are:
1. A Detroit City Childhood
2. Picking Up the Pieces of Her Children's Broken Hearts
3. Letting Go of Doorknobs, As the Universe Unfolds.
6. My favorite comment by a reader was from my story entitled, "Bring Two of Every Sort of Animal...But We Just Brought Our Two Dogs and Two Cats." She wrote, "Don't know if I can post, as I do not even know you, but this story lifted me higher, than a friend with wine! It came on a low day, blessings. Joy."
7. Any story that includes my delightful mother, Geri Garner, always generates many favorable comments. I guess everyone loves my mother...especially me!
And last, but not least....
8. I may have only made 32 cents a day, but that is 32 cents more than I was ever paid for talking about myself, in the past!
Thanks, again!!!!! And I hope that the happiness you feel in the future is equal to the happiness I am feeling today. Oh, and I almost forgot...when I was 46 years old I enrolled in college to get a degree in Early Child Devolopment. My first class was an english composition class, and my professor was extremely encouraging, concerning my writing. The first essay I wrote in her class was entitled "Fireflies and Tuna Cans," and as a way to pay tribute to her, that is what I named my blog.
This past Christmas my oldest daughter Holly created a blog site for me as a Christmas gift, providing me with a virtual, clean sheet of paper, which would allow me to pursue my love of writing, and to see where the efforts of that pursuit might lead me. On February 19th, my Adsense application was approved, allowing me to have advertisers utilize my blog site. The way Adsense works is that the content of my stories determines the type of advertisements that appear along-side my blog. If, for instance, I write a story about dogs, then companies selling pet products might be featured. The idea is that if someone is interested enough in a particular subject to read about it, then they might be inclined to click on an advertisement concerning related products; when they do the blogger receives a few cents via Google. I realize that the more cynical might say that I am actually more of a landlord who is paid for rented space than a writer being paid for printed prose, but I consider that more of a "glass half-empty" kind of perspective. Instead, I choose to savor the moment, and to revel in the notion that I was successful enough in my efforts, that I actually got paid for them!
In reality, the money plays a very small role in the happiness I have attained through my blog. The real pleasure, for me, has been in knowing I am capable of writing something that others would take the time to read, during a period when lives are so hectic, that many people seldom have time to read more than a newspaper or magazine. The idea that someone from Paraguay or Iran would ever read anything I had written was unfathomable to me a year ago, and the fact that these readers return to my blog multiple times has surpassed all of my expectations. So thank you to all of the readers who have shared a moment with me these past 11 months, for you have, in truth, been the real source of my great happiness. I am humbly grateful, to all of you.
*Although my daughters frequently remind me that it is bad form to share any statistics about my blog, once again, I am going to ignore them. I find the stats kind of interesting, and I hope that you do, as well.
1. 4,755 visits have been made to my blog.
2. While visiting my blog people often read more than one story. The number of stories read is 8,763.
3. I have had readers from more than 25 different countries, including Japan, Russia, France, Sweden, Brazil, Columbia and South Korea.
4. "Fireflies and Tuna Cans" are the most common words used by readers using a search engine to find my site. "Michael Chiolero" and "Impaled by a Catfish" are the most interesting search words, though. *Apparently, mentioning Michael in one of my stories, or having Janet Falendysz comment about her mother's impalement by a catfish, are sometimes, for a few returning readers, the most memorable aspects of my blog.
5. Favorite posts are:
1. A Detroit City Childhood
2. Picking Up the Pieces of Her Children's Broken Hearts
3. Letting Go of Doorknobs, As the Universe Unfolds.
6. My favorite comment by a reader was from my story entitled, "Bring Two of Every Sort of Animal...But We Just Brought Our Two Dogs and Two Cats." She wrote, "Don't know if I can post, as I do not even know you, but this story lifted me higher, than a friend with wine! It came on a low day, blessings. Joy."
7. Any story that includes my delightful mother, Geri Garner, always generates many favorable comments. I guess everyone loves my mother...especially me!
And last, but not least....
8. I may have only made 32 cents a day, but that is 32 cents more than I was ever paid for talking about myself, in the past!
Thanks, again!!!!! And I hope that the happiness you feel in the future is equal to the happiness I am feeling today. Oh, and I almost forgot...when I was 46 years old I enrolled in college to get a degree in Early Child Devolopment. My first class was an english composition class, and my professor was extremely encouraging, concerning my writing. The first essay I wrote in her class was entitled "Fireflies and Tuna Cans," and as a way to pay tribute to her, that is what I named my blog.
