Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

Do you want to be a successful blogger?  You can be.  I’m a successful blogger.  I can tell you what I have learned after more than six years of blogging.  The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is not my first blog; but it is my most successful blog.  I deleted the other ones.

The first thing you must do to become a successful blogger is to have an income that has nothing to do with blogging, because most bloggers never make a living from blogging.  I don’t make a living from this blog.  Social security and a pension from a supermarket chain keep me afloat.  I will become eligible for a generous military pension later this year.

I do consider myself a successful blogger.  I had over 2,000 hits for last month and the blog is finally in a position to get 3,000 hits this month.  That’s success.  If I can ever push the number of hits up to 5,000 a month I will make a little money every month from links, a donation button and an ebook that are already on the site.  How much is a little money?  $10.00.  That’s more success than 97% of all bloggers.  Who knows.  Maybe I can push the monthly hits up to 10,000 a month.  Then I might make $20.00 a month and I would be a bigger success.  If I keep learning about blogging and keep getting better maybe, just maybe one day I will make $100 a month from blogging.

If you have been paying attention you realize that blogging will not make you rich.  That’s why you need an income that has nothing to do will blogging.

You cannot blog about your life.  No one wants to read about your life unless you’re a celebrity; but you can blog about something that you are passionate about.  Because if you are passionate about it, you better believe there are other people out there who are passionate about it, too.

Do you have a pet?  Let’s say it’s a cat.  Make yourself an authority on cats.  That means you seek out everything you can find about cats.  My blog is about writing flash fiction stories.  I got an MFA in fiction writing in 2006.  I won a fellowship that was worth at least $60,000 that paid for the MFA.  I am an authority on fiction writing.  I’m not saying you have to get a degree to become an authority on cats; but you do have to do a lot more than just observe your cat and write about the cats.  A lot of bloggers don’t get this

Your blog also has to be unique.  This blog is about writing flash fiction.  There is no doubt about that.  But how many blogs do you know about writing flash fiction that publish mainstream, literary, erotic and porn flash fiction stories on them?  How many have articles about writing and blogging on them?  How many have commentaries about society and sexuality on them?  How many have photos of nude women on them?  I don’t know of any.

I think that makes this site unique.  You want your blog to be unique.

So, that’s how you become a successful blogger.  And who knows.  You may become a much more successful blogger than the Old Soldier.

Keep reading flash fiction stories and keep writing.