I have few friends who set up their blogs. One works overseas but I can tell the heavy work load stop her to keep writing. Her last blog was post in 2006. Another friend sent us email once a while to let us know he had new blog posted. I read some of his blog and .... don't tell him, I didn't read his blog for a long time because they were long and not much about his family and his family is what I care. Most of the people use blog as a public journal so they don't need to email all of their friends and family every time.
Most of the popular bloggers didn't know they would catch public attention in the beginning. Taiwan's Wan Wan Comic Blog has 1.6 billion visits. WanWan told her own story by laughing at herself with drawing. Everyone just loves this cute girl and the ability to see every little things in a funny way. This is one example that she laughed at her Broken English. This is the story line: Wanwan bought a book from a Japanese book story and she found she already had the same book. Mom told her to return one of the books with receipt. She was afraid because she couldn't speak Japanese so she used her very limited English. By her surprise, she got her refund.
Another successful blog in Taiwan is Crazy Teacher. A guy couldn't pass Taiwan's national college exam (passing rate was 30% in my time). He got the chance to study in the States and got his master degree. His job? English teacher in American public school!!! With this kind of background, we (most of Chinese) are all full ear to hear his story. He opens a new window with humor to describe his life in America. This kind of fresh look gave Chinese a totally different perspective to see the other country in a fresh new angle. Even only 7% of the bloggers are doing it for money but when bloggers become popular, they have to try really hard to keep the same favor or they lose their supporters and the original motivation. When Weblogs funder Jason Calacanis announced his retirement from blogging, he said: “Blogging is simply too big, too impersonal, and lacks the intimacy that drew me to it,” I couldn't tell the two Taiwan's bloggers changed. I guess the money in the states has stronger force... By the way, the fairy tale type of story can happen in blogger too. Check out this article in The New York Time Sep. 2, 2009 "Exploitation? Elle Mag Hires Homeless Blogger for Pocket Change". I think Mr. Kirkpatrick was too hashed o Elle magazine. I couldn't think a better deal to have a world famous magazine did the advertisement free of charge and also offer one hour work per day. Without the help from Elle, Brianna Karp’s homeless life will be longer. Her blog wouldn't have little chance to catch so many people's attention either. Without strong motivation, I can't picture myself become a diligent blogger. I can tell for most people will just like me. We are just simple have no time and not "interesting" enough to write an article but micro-blogs like twitter, facebook will fill in the gape. I have no problem to write what I am doing in less than 140 characters. Let see if what The Economist wrote in Nov. 6, 2008 will become true that blog is going to become history: Gone, in other words, is any sense that blogging as a technology is revolutionary, subversive or otherwise exalted, and this upsets some of its pioneers. Confirmed, however, is the idea that blogging is useful and versatile. In essence, it is a straightforward content-management system that posts updates in reverse-chronological order and allows comments and other social interactions. Viewed as such, blogging may “die” in much the same way that personal-digital assistants (PDAs) have died. A decade ago, PDAs were the preserve of digerati who liked using electronic address books and calendars. Now they are gone, but they are also ubiquitous, as features of almost every mobile phone. Links: The Economist, (Nov. 6, 2008), Oh, grow up, http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12566826 Kirkpatrick, M., (Sep. 2, 2009), The New York Times, Exploitation? Elle mag hires homeless blogger for pocket change, http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/09/02/02readwriteweb-exploitation-elle-mag-hires-homeless-blogge-24302.html
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