A post about blogging and an interesting link

I got this comment on my last post and I thought I would devote a post to the subject of blogging.

"I've enjoyed your blog for a while. The combination of relentless work, broken things and a cynical sense of humor is appealing.

I'm writing a blog about my first year of unemployment in which it all seems hopeless (but my Scandinavian heritage accepts as normal) full of opportunities for cynical humor, etc. 

1. do people actually donate to your blog. I've donated to another blog (The best radio you have never heard) which is really good.
2. I see that you have monetized your blog. Do you make anything off of that?

Thanks. 
Oh,yes. Your blog is partially responsible for my purchase of a 1948 tractor.

Art"

First of all I'd like to thank Art for following my blog. It makes it all worthwhile when you hear that someone enjoys reading your blog.
I would like a link to Art's blog so that I could follow him.
Which brings us to the whole problem with blogging. (I will get back to his specific questions later)
Blogging gives you a chance to connect and read the mindless ramblings of people you find interesting. You find these people/bloggers through internet searches or browsing blogs.
But the internet search is in many ways the inherit flaw of the blog. It can bring you a very specific audience that is interested in what you are talking about. It that is a narrow subject, medium sized farmers with 1980's equipment, who don't like GMO, have International trucks, like fiddle music and O.V. Wright, Triumph motorcycles and Studebaker cars, and are grumpy... Well, you get the point...
So unless you work tirelessly to promote your blog, if you have a blog where you are kind of unique, you tend to develop a small core of followers who read nearly every day but they don't bring you new traffic. (Unless you post pictures of naked or nearly naked women on a regular basis)
Here is how my blog works. Nearly every day I go to my blog and I read the new posts on my sidebar. I almost always check out Gorges Grouse, Mindless Ramblings, Ed Winkle, and I read "The Goodlife" even though I already what he is doing. If the Proverbs fellow has posted I read that, and Buffalo Noise, and the guy that restores guitars, and I like to see what Kevin is working on in England. Then from Kev I look to see what "Hippo on the Lawn" is up to cause I think the guy is pretty amazing. (The sort of fellow I imagine myself to be when I'm reading an adventure book but in real life I'm not much of a risk-taker) And I look to see if Frank James has anything to say. I do miss his farming blog. And the Ohio Farmgirl and her goats...and Gene Logsden, and soon it is midnight and I haven't posted.
I like to read other people's blogs because I find their lives interesting. I want to know if Ralph combined his flax and I keep hoping Gorges will buy a Bellsaw and I really hope MuddyValley will find Bigfoot on his trailcam. And I really hope Jamie Jeffords is ok, but I don't know him in real life so there is no way to find out... So I blog and read other blogs to be part of a community of like-minded people. And I know that I have a good post if I get Collieguy to make a comment...
But I digress...

With the above information in mind I will now answer the specific questions.
1. Do people actually donate? Well three people donated. When you consider that I have 52 followers and get around 250 hits per day, I'm not sure that is a terrible rate of return...

2. I did not actually go through all the steps with Google Adsense and I have no idea how to get into my account. So if you see advertising I didn't do in on purpose. However, the Amazon link works fairly well as I have a friend who uses it frequently. I use the return to buy books and CD's on Amazon. It is not a large return.

3. More details on the 1948 tractor please. Also, I never claimed to be a GOOD influence.

In conclusion...
Art likes my blog because he finds my somewhat narrow scope of discussion interesting. Because it appeals to him he assumes it appeals to a lot of other people. It doesn't. Not that many people care about oddball farmers.
If you want to make money on your blog you have to promote it. You need to link to other blogs and probably have an agreement to click on other people's monetized links. You need to pay attention to keywords and write content to promote the keywords. The posts that consistently bring hits tend to be where I explain how to do something. Like repair an old turntable or split a tractor.
That and discussion the question of the bovine navigation of inclined planes.

A couple unrelated links:

How to get started farming, perhaps this will be the subject of another post. A link to The Small Farmer's Journal.

Problems with the US border, sort of why I never went to East Germany when I had the chance and I've always regretted it.

We are spending trillions of dollars on crap like this which hasn't actually worked.

A reason why I am not one of the top ten blogs on blogger, at least it is not the "Ledge."

I was going to post a Flying Pig Fiddle & Banjo video but couldn't find one before my cup of coffee ran out and I had to go to work...