There isn't a really cool blog song that I know of, but Harvey's Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" is cool, and mentions zines, where I got my self-publishing start. Close enough.
"I want to publish zines, and rage against machines..."
-Harvey Danger, 1998, When zines were resurging, and when blogs were just being invented.
I
started my first blog about taxi driving in 2007, while living in my
taxi in Huntington Beach. I would go to the H.B. library and rent a
computer for $5 an hour, since I didn't own one, and write about funny
license plate rings or bumper stickers I saw while driving my taxi. I
think I wrote about 30 posts, and had maybe 50 page views in a year,
which seemed to mostly be from my mom and the cops. Not the greatest
start to blogging, but you have to start somewhere.
In November of 2008 I landed at my parents' tiny apartment in Kernersville, NC, after a year living on the streets in Orange County, CA. That homeless year followed about 4 1/2 years of 7 days a week taxi driving, living in my taxi for about 4 of those years. I lived in an indie art gallery for 6-7 months, and drove a taxi on the weekends the other part of that time. When I got to NC, I was 325 pounds, in horrible health, 42 years old, broke, and lost everything I owned in that move. I lost everything from my 20+ years of BMX riding, except a key chain. I went from depressed to really depressed.
But I had my parents computer in my room. I had never really spent any time online up until that point, I was a total Luddite, thinking "Fuck that goofy internet shit." I knew almost nothing about the virtual world. Within two weeks, I started a blog called FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, about my 5 month stint working at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines in 1986. I've been blogging pretty consistently ever since. I've learned a few things about blogging in the 12 1/2 years since. Here are the main blogs I've done...
FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales..... about 212 posts..... over 25,000 page views.... 2008-2009
Freestyle BMX Tales..... over 500 posts..... over 125,000 page views..... 2009-2012
Make Money Panhandling (picked stupidest title I could think of to practice search engine optimization (SEO)..... 100 posts?..... about 65,000 page views, 2010-2012
A
month or so after my dad died in August of 2012, I got seriously
depressed, and deleted all my blogs (I had tried about 20 or 30 blog
ideas, trying to figure out how to make money with a blog). I immediately regretted deleting my blogs after I did it. Lesson, DON'T delete your blogs.
Freestyle BMX Tales..... (version 2, on wordpress.com)..... can't remember how many posts..... 40-50 posts? 10-20,000 page views? Not sure.
Freestyle BMX Tales 43 (Version 3).....89 posts..... 40, 124 page views.... 2015-2017
Bum to Bankroll..... 51 posts..... 1,403 page views..... 2015-2016
Become Your Own Hero (line from a poem I wrote)..... 49 posts..... 1,402 page views..... 2015-2016
Cash Poor Story Rich..... 6 posts..... 1,111 page views..... 2016
Check out downtown Kernersville (North Carolina)..... 6 posts..... 963 page views..... 2016
Create Your Own Dang Job..... 17 posts..... 1,041 page views..... 2017 (If you look up nothing else here, check out the first post on this one, my playlist for Trump's inauguration day)
Freaks, Geeks, Dorks, and Weirdos..... 42 posts..... 877 page views..... 2016
Get Weird Make Money..... 38 posts..... 839 page views..... 2017
How to Make Your Lame City Better- Part 1..... 22 posts..... 1,808 page views..... 2016
How to Make Your Lame City Better- Part 2..... 57 posts..... 330 page views..... 2016
New Ideas for Old American Buildings..... 24 posts..... 538 page views..... 2017
Steve Emig Art..... 86 posts..... 12,364 page views..... 2017
The White Bear's Stuff..... 35 posts..... 2,053 page views..... 2017-2018
Steve Emig: The White Bear.... 700 posts..... 124,513 page views.....2017-2020
Block Bikes Blog (for Block Bikes Shop/website)..... 96 posts..... 21,839 page views..... April-June 2019
The Phoenix Great Depression..... 47 posts..... 985 page views..... June 2020-October 2020
Small Business Blaster..... 17 posts..... 953 page views..... 2020
Welcome to Dystopia: The Future is Now- Book 1.....this is a book published as a blog..... 20 chapters/posts, all built December 2019..... 1962 page views..... December 2019- April 2020
Steve Emig Adventuring..... 67 posts..... 2,462 page views..... 2020-2021
WPOS Kreative Ideas..... 89 posts..... 5,541..... April 2019-May 2021
Current blogs (revised October 8, 2021):
Crazy California 43..... 35 posts..... 765 page views..... April-May 2021
Full Circle- My new blog about writing and the writing life.
And a new fiction blog...
So... Over 12 1/2 years, 25 blogs, 2,405 blog posts, 438,932 page views.
I just found dozens of blog posts, actually a few hundred, that I totally forgot I wrote. I've tried at least 30 more blog ideas, and stopped after a few posts. But a lot of my same themes, like creative scenes, re-building our world, starting a small business, Sharpie Scribble Style art, and of course, BMX freestyle. Lesson for today? Don't be afraid to try new ideas on a blog. When you get one that feels right, roll with it. If you burn out on that idea for a while (or forever), leave the blog up online, and go try something else for a while.
So... who wants to go down my rabbit hole? Click one of those links. I just blew my own mind.
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