My Experiment in Blogging Thus Far

So its been, from the start, mostly for me and my personal though processes, organizing them and the like, that I started this. Some place to get my thoughts on [digital] paper, out of my head, a place to straighten things out. But of course if, somehow along the way, a couple... hundred thousand people decided to start caring about when I scratch my nose and eagerly visited my blog daily so that I could spread my wisdom around the world and monetize for a nice check here and there, well, it wouldn't hurt my feelings.

But the more I poke my head around the blogging world, the more I see certain trends:

• Blog only tend to get notice if you self-advertise. A lot. In other people's blogs, facebook, twitter, ad nauseum. That's decidedly not me, and I'll have a hard time ever doing it.
• Apparently, somewhere a long the lines, the invisible internet majority decided that blogs must have a ridiculously narrow focus. For example, see this blog about Jeopardy, with a hugely higher number of blogger followers than I'll ever have. Or this blog that seems to cater to all those with oil/electric energy concerns who also have a fancy for trains. It's not a recipe to success, but all the cool kids are doing it.
• Apparently all the cool kids are also into wordpress. Which, I admit, after internet research does seem more powerful, it also seems not worth the money for the full edition while blogger does everything that I need.
• Apparently having pictures in your blog posts helps make people more interested. You know, since people have such a strong aversion to reading on the internet.
• Did I mention self advertising?

It was difficult enough for me to insert a link to my blog into my forum signatures in those forums that I frequently peruse. (I know, lots of nerd in my blog in general.)