I Write for Money

Posted on | March 30, 2012 | 89 Comments

When I quit the blog Thursday morning, some people attempted to persuade me to reconsider — and I resented their efforts.

If I am not a fit judge of whether this enterprise has succeeded or failed, I am a fool. Why would anyone want to read a man who is both a fool, and an acknowledged failure? To ask me to continue my ritual ordeal of public humiliation by the Friends of Tabitha Club was to impugn my judgment that I had already suffered more than anyone should be expected to tolerate.

So my friend Dan Collins just pissed me off by arguing for my return.

What no one can seem to understand is that the value of this blog as a commerical enterprise was damaged by Tabitha’s decision in 2010 that the author of “How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog in Less Than a Year” had nothing to say about blogging that anyone might want to hear.

Someone today suggested that I should be sensitive to Tabitha’s feelings. While she is attempting to put me out of business? Seeking to impair my livelihood and destroy my professional career?

When, in September 2010, I wrote “Where All the Important Bloggers Will Be,” Tabitha was put on notice that I resented my exclusion. Despite her public advertisement of my unworthiness, I was persuaded by my friend Chris Renner to attend the inaugural BlogCon. I suppose that this seeming acceptance of my initial humiliation was what emboldened Tabitha to insult me again in October 2011 (“Major National Gathering of Conservative Bloggers Will Include Everyone But Me“), and I resolved then not to attend an event where I was obviously so unwelcome.

So when the Friends of Tabitha Club announced its 2012 agenda, and my various friends began celebrating their acceptance into the club, it did not particularly improve my mood, already darkened by the evident popularity of the “Roll Over for Romney” movement.

Am I the only one who perceives that my lack of influence — my inability to persuade others to resist Romney — might be correlated to my persona non grata status with FreedomWorks and the Franklin Center?

This is what is being missed by those who have interpreted this as a mere personal spat: Tabitha Hale acts under authority of major conservative non-profit organizations, so that the donors, executives and board members of those organizations are all united in officially endorsing Tabitha’s judgment that I am unworthy of notice. It is they who have assigned her to mock me:

Am I to be publicly insulted, and take no notice of it? Is this how the Franklin Center expects Tabitha Hale to promote “citizen journalism”?

If I am a person of such trivial insignificance in the political blogosphere that not once in the past three years have I done anything to merit inclusion in the BlogCon agenda, why should anyone pay attention to what I have written about the 2012 presidential campaign — or anything else, for that matter?

Such are the thoughts that have troubled me.

Nevertheless, as I have always proudly proclaimed, I write for money, and you may thank two readers (one in Elmhurst, Illinois, and another in El Cerrito, California) for hitting the tip jar, burdening me with the sense that further services are due.

This is not my choice, and I continue under protest that nothing good is likely to come of it, yet continue I will.

Category: Blogging

Comments

89 Responses to “I Write for Money”

CCR
March 30th, 2012 @ 2:01 am

When the Tabitha Hales of this world are exposed for the poseurs they are, fading away like third-rate vampires presently feeding off of the egostrokes supplied by those who unintentionally or intentionally fuel their lust for acclaim even as they fear, and one day will be destroyed by, the light of their nothingness, you will still be standing.
MrPaulRevere
March 30th, 2012 @ 2:19 am

I think Churchill summed it up nicely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywDZKfZ-iZA
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 30th, 2012 @ 2:23 am

Separated at Birth: Tabitha Hale and…?
JonDiPietro
March 30th, 2012 @ 2:46 am

Good grief! Never read this blog before today (someone posted a link in Facebook) and I have to say this isn’t the best impression.

THERE’S NO CRYING IN BLOGGING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ZMO8jhbwg
elaine
March 30th, 2012 @ 3:02 am

You sound like Obama during his “acted stupidly” moment.

Don’t bother making pronouncements when you don’t know the whole story…
JonDiPietro
March 30th, 2012 @ 3:08 am

That’s exactly why I admitted never having read the blog. I was commenting on how it appeared. My impression is that he was beaten up by another blogger and is crying about it. Nothing in the article really inspires me to learn the whole story.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 30th, 2012 @ 3:16 am

I want money
K-Bob
March 30th, 2012 @ 3:19 am

I think it’s more like Hotblack Desiado.

Stacy’s just taking a year dead for tax purposes.
AnonymousDrivel
March 30th, 2012 @ 3:47 am

RSM,

If I click an ad-link from here to Amazon, yet buy another product from Amazon other than, say the ad I see which is currently a kindle, do you get a cut? Or would I have to purchase the item advertised explicitly? Also, I have layers of security and tracking-disablers as I browse, but I’d be willing to enable a cookie (or tracking code) briefly to send some money your way if I need to get something from Amazon.

Any tips?

As far as Tabitha Hale is concerned, I know of her only from the times you’ve mentioned her. I don’t read her and don’t know who she is. I don’t imagine I’ll seek her out, either. I do, however, read you, smitty, and Wombat FWIW. That’s not to say she’s not a gateway of sorts in the dextrosphere (as I understand you suggest) and not impacting your work, but she’s wholly unimportant to me as a consumer of blogosphere content generally or your product specifically. IOW, I’m sympathetic to your plight and have enjoyed your blog for the brief time I’ve known of it.
Horatio C. Bunce
March 30th, 2012 @ 3:48 am

If money’s what it takes, money is what it will be. The amount I’ve learned from this blog over the last year alone is enough to fill a book, and that’s not counting the news and entertainment value. Stop blogging if you don’t feel that it’s worthwhile, but never doubt the quality of your work.
Mike Rogers
March 30th, 2012 @ 4:15 am

Hah!
Adjoran
March 30th, 2012 @ 4:26 am

It’s okay if you get really drunk before diving in. That weird sort of pain-pleasure feeling like a sad country song.

Here’s a frontier blogger, one of genuine ink stains that didn’t come from a tattoo parlor, really a pioneer of blogging journalism, maybe the Michael Yon of national politics, who is deliberately excluded from a conference for no apparent reason than the animus of an inexperienced person who suddenly is thrust into a position of making decisions way over her pay grade.

His dog didn’t get run over, but it’s close.

But you should check back, usually the writing and reporting here are exceptional. Every now and then it dips knee deep in the hoopla – me, I just keep a box of tissues handy.
Adjoran
March 30th, 2012 @ 4:31 am

Yeah, just disable all the blocking and click from here, it’s not a security risk – I’m sure there’s an Amazon cookie or twelve, but easily purged, they’re not bad actors.

You can’t really “read” Hale, her “writing” consists of her Twitter feed. Dorothy Parker isn’t worried – although she may well be cringing somewhere.
Adjoran
March 30th, 2012 @ 4:51 am

Hold on there, don’t go jumping the gun. It’s been an intense and roller-coaster primary campaign which is ending abruptly. McCain refused to see it coming – he’s great predicting the unlikely surges, but not in foreseeing the falls. Smitty’s good at that end, but tends to concentrate on big-picture stuff like The End of Western Civilization or The End of Life As We Know It or The End of The Twinkies Bakers.

Give him some time to decompress and refocus. He’ll turn out more good stuff, it’s what he does. People don’t write books because they are sick of everything else. He’d be a great print reporter but that industry is dying faster than Al Sharpton’s credit rating. He doesn’t have the face for TV or the voice for radio. Blogging is HIS thing though.

That’s why the callous disrespect hits him so hard.

Now that we’ve all had a good cry, maybe the jerk will take a well-deserved vacation or something for a week or two before somebody really has to kick his ass.
Adjoran
March 30th, 2012 @ 4:54 am

Is it just me or is Tabby’s Twit picture like 60 pounds ago?
Bho
March 30th, 2012 @ 5:08 am

You know, I could use some more support in the blogs. If, as you say, you write for money, please contact Jay Carney for details on how you can help my re-election campaign.
–BHO
Adjoran
March 30th, 2012 @ 6:18 am

Jay Carney? I thought that guy was Doogie Howser!
Bushwackca
March 30th, 2012 @ 6:21 am

Don’t know about all of it BUT the “Rollover for Romney” line got my attention. The alternative to Romney wasn’t a great field. Yeah Santorum says all the right things but his baggage is as great for most conservatives as Romney. Where was Santorum during the 2nd term of Bush? He aligned himself with some of the WORST parts of an otherwise mediocre admin…. At least Romney only continued the destruction of ONE state. Santorum had a an EQUAL hand in the downward angle of the ENTIRE NATION as much as Obama… So.. It’s not the rollover for Romney issue its the alternative to Romney that is the issue.
Adjoran
March 30th, 2012 @ 6:43 am

I was a Pawlenty guy at the beginning, so obviously I’m twisted in some way. Coulda been sold on Daniels, had high hopes for Perry which were dashed into minute shards.

Romney was the survivor, he raised the money and built the organization. As a candidate, he’s not great, to be generous, but the real need now is for somebody who knows how to downsize for efficiency. That alone can’t save our situation, entitlement reform is critical, but we can’t afford to keep the same beast, we just can’t feed it any more. He’s the only one who’s done that in many different situations.

We never have had a perfect field, but this one wasn’t bad – the problem was the qualified opponents to Romney never gained traction early, and the ones who did managed it only on ideology, even though none of their overall positions were substantially different. And of course potentially strong contenders like Palin, Daniels, Christie, Ryan, and Jindal didn’t jump in.

My guess is Santorum wants to avoid embarrassment in PA, and will withdraw after losing Wisconsin, Maryland, and DC on Tuesday.
vermontaigne
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:15 am

You guys, the argumentum ad BMI is ridiculous. Tabitha Hale is also, for better or worse, a person, and should be treated accordingly.

Undoubtedly, there were audience members who got a lot out of her presentation at AFP in Milwaukee. She made some good points about the left-funded online media and observations about how to leverage one’s presence in social media with representatives, including the canny observation that conservatives dominate Twitter.

I don’t care about BlogCon, and I don’t think Stacy should, either, but he does, and if he tried to bury the hatchet with Tabitha I think she should have grabbed a shovel. But Stacy does care about BlogCon, so . . . .

That leaves me to do what I do best: piss everyone off.
Bushwackca
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:16 am

I disagree with the “This field wasn’t bad” comment. The fact is this is the WEAKEST possible field we could have had. At the very start we had a chance. Allen West, Marco Rubio, Even the La Gov. and a few others would have made this field MUCH BETTER. We ended up with the same old tired creamy GOP’rs that took us down the ruinous path.

Romney? The guy who LOST to McCain is going to be our guy? Damn shame.

What we did was allow the media and the establishment to PICK for us and useful idiots across the nation refused look for themselves. How many times will the old media be proven to have an agenda before folks use the tools given to them? How many times does a solodad obrien have to be proven biased before the punishment of lost viewers takes hold. When will Americans voice their displeasure at a media who are supposed to be WATCHDOGS are proven to be LAP DOGS? When will we wake up?

My guess is we wont. The schools are brainwashing kids, the kids are growing up and maintaining the “Government is GOD” since GOD isn’t allowed in schools. The only faith they have is GOVERNMENT and that’s a loser.
Dandapani
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:19 am

Stick around awhile. This BlogCon schtick is an annual event.
ThomasD
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:30 am

She’s an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks…

Stacy knows this, Tabitha does not.
ThomasD
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:33 am

“…suddenly is thrust into a position of making decisions way over her pay grade.”

I seriously doubt she is receiving no oversight in these matters. If I am wrong more is the pity.
smitty
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:34 am

Dan,
I thought the whole thing was pure Rodney Dangerfield schtick, but now it seems like an exit strategy. If there was no blogger blacklist, RSM seems to be offering both ample basis for instantiating one, and for making enough copies that he never, ever gets off.
From my own military experience, I can both sympathize with RSM’s plight, and tell him that, if his goal is his own personal minimization, this is really a great course for him to be on.
Truly the master of his own misery, RSM.
Cheers,
Chris
Larimerica
March 30th, 2012 @ 7:45 am

What the hell kind of cry-baby melt-down was this, Stacy?

When you announce to the world that you’re quitting blogging because you’ve failed to bully your way onto a conference panel, and then say within 24 hours that two tip-jar hits have compelled you to quit your quitting…well, you come across as a drama queen of operatic proportions. And possibly an utterly cynical guy who was really just desperate for some quick cash.

This was an astonishing act of self-abasement, because you have now positioned yourself as the blogger who threw that big, fake hissy fit.

Learn from this. You tried your Telford shtick on Hale — whine and attack in hopes of getting what you want. But it turned out she had more steel and more self-respect than you. I’d say your habit of throwing tantrums when you don’t get the gigs you want may well be the primary reason now that you don’t get the gigs you want.

You’ve made a point in the past of banning commenters who criticize you, saying indignantly that you aren’t going to let anyone stay who slags you on your own turf. You’ve been a dick to Hale, and she’s given you a taste of your own medicine, albeit with some sugar. She was still willing to let you attend, even though you slagged her, and tried to put words in her mouth to make her look bad, and made nonsensical claims about having been offered a “scholarship” to her free event.
Larimerica
March 30th, 2012 @ 8:03 am

Tabitha’s decision in 2010 that the author of “How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog in Less Than a Year” had nothing to say about blogging that anyone might want to hear.

Have you considered the possibility that a conservative woman might not want her conference on conservative blogging to feature reactionary sniggering about the importance of links to nekkid women.

You’re complaining about a respectable woman not being a fan of your Rule 5? Are you an idiot?
vermontaigne
March 30th, 2012 @ 8:04 am

Oh, RSM may say, “I can quit anytime!” but I don’t believe it’s as easy as that. He can’t challenge Tabitha to the duello, because it wouldn’t be chivalrous.

But what do I know? I’m just a dumb flyover Yankee.

He needs to bundle up Mrs. Other McCain and sink his toes in the sand on some deserted beach in Oaxaca for a week.
Charles Johnson
March 30th, 2012 @ 8:08 am

Come, little Stacy: come over to the Dark Side.
I will not let those evil conservatives touch you there anymore. No one will touch you there. Except me.
Zilla of the Resistance
March 30th, 2012 @ 8:18 am

Stacy, I only even ever heard of that Tabitha person from YOU, she is NOT the be all and end all of Conservative blogging! I do not WANT to be a part of any “club” that would not want YOU as a member! There are many other bloggers who the establishment elitists want nothing to do with, because said bloggers are “controversial” for telling the truth about things such as islam and Barry’s deliberately mysterious background – we are LEGION, we don’t NEED parties that think they are too good for us (fuckum), and I can think of no good reason why we cannot have our OWN damned convention, a celebration of Righteous Badassery in Blogging! We could have as our Main Event, the author of “How to Get a Million Hits…”, and include Bloggers who are ROUTINELY excluded, especially counter-jihad bloggers who are widely marginalized because elitist snobs are afraid to associate with people who tell the truth (just ask Pamela Geller how SHE gets treated by the people behind CPAC, for example).
I know you’re a rebel, so how about a Rebel Con, for you and your fellow Righteous Badasses?
PaulLemmen
March 30th, 2012 @ 8:30 am

What MJ said! However, I think it should be “FedoraCon 2012”. There are many of us micro-bloggers that hate Romney, love America and that you’ve never heard of! We are legion, we have small “voices” and we are largely ignored. Keep going!
ThomasD
March 30th, 2012 @ 8:40 am

I’d avoid the deserted beaches – those are the ones where they stash the bodies.
Zilla of the Resistance
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:00 am

Somebody will have to buy me a hat, because if I get left out of my own idea for lack of one, I will be pissed.
Jeff S.
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:07 am

If I am not a fit judge of whether this enterprise has succeeded or failed, I am a fool.

Stacy, you’re no fool, and yes, you are fittest arbiter of all. We who read you and admire you don’t always look at the enterprise as a commercial venture, which is why you received the resentment-inducing attempts to change your mind.

Why would anyone want to read a man who is both a fool, and an acknowledged failure?

Umm… because he’s intelligent, highly analytical, hard-working, dedicated to his family, patriotic, funny, original, honest… and a bloody good writer?

Tabitha Hale acts under authority of major conservative non-profit organizations, so that the donors, executives and board members of those organizations are all united in officially endorsing Tabitha’s judgment that I am unworthy of notice.

If that’s true, then these “major conservative non-profit organizations” are unworthy of support, and might as well be lumped in to the heterogeneous but still odious blob known as The Establishment.

This is not my choice, and I continue under protest that nothing good is likely to come of it, yet continue I will.

If you’ve no wish to continue, are convinced that failure is almost guaranteed, and believe that payments you receive from readers presently are for blood, sweat and tears not yet expended, inducing you to continue anyway, then I don’t know what to say. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
PaulLemmen
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:07 am

I have a plethora of them and will lend you one so you will not be left out.
PaulLemmen
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:11 am

I do not have the financial resources to “hit the freaking tip jar” but I will offer to house and feed you during the convention here in Tampa Bay this summer. I have a guest bedroom, beer and broadband access for blogging purposes. That is if you don’t mind being around an ex-con and his disabled wife. Purely selfish reasons on my part. I would get to meet you and perhaps some of your accumulated knowledge will rub off on me and I will become a better writer.
rosalie
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:35 am

I wasn’t drinking before we started hearing about that Hale chick, but I’m starting to drink now.
RegularGuyPaul
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:46 am

Stacy, you have been disrespected, and unjustly so. But I urge you not to turn your reaction against your readers. You wrote: “If I am not a fit judge of whether this enterprise has succeeded or
failed, I am a fool. Why would anyone want to read a man who is both
a fool, and an acknowledged failure?”

Let me turn that argument back on you: A quick look at your sitemeter page shows that you are presently averaging 7,266 visits per day, or 10,356 page views per day. Are all these people fools? All of us? Are we so unable to discern entertaining and insightful writing, and just read your blog by mistake?

I write a blog. I’ve been working on it since 2005. I’m averaging just around 95 visits per day. That’s down from a brief high a few years ago of 250 visits per day. Unlike you, I don’t write for money, for the same reason I don’t play golf for money: I’d starve if I tried. Believe me, I’d like to write for money. I bet if you read my blog, you’d agree that I write and think better than quite a few people who are out there making buku bucks committing their political opinions to the public sphere.

I am amazed that you have been able to do what you have been doing. It has been awesome to read about.

I cannot sustain my family with my blog. That doesn’t mean that my blog is a failure. If you cannot sustain your family with your blog, perhaps that does, by your criteria, mean that this blog is a failure. If financial success is all that matters, then you’re clearly writing about the wrong things.

But if the standard for success is quality writing, quality reporting, insightful analysis, valuable perspective, articulating a moral and rational worldview that remains gravely endangered in the modern world, and appreciated by thousands every day, then I would argue that you’ve achieved a level of success most bloggers — indeed most writers in any medium — can only dream of.

You and I aren’t friends. We’ve never met. Based on your writing, my perception is that you and I would be good friends, if we ever did meet. I don’t know what’s going on with you behind the scenes. Maybe your personal finances are such that you have to find some other paying gig, to the detriment, as you may fear, of this blog.

To declare that your blog has failed indicates an end. But I’d remind you that the question of success or failure isn’t a binary one. If you haven’t yet succeeded (to the standard you’d like to achieve), that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve failed.

Now, I don’t have a lot a disposable income to spare, but I’m going to hit your tip jar now, and I hope others will as well.
ThePaganTemple
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:48 am

Annual my ass, more like once every two or three months.
ThomasD
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:51 am

Careful, lest the vague grumbling from the’ crew’ be heard as audible words and phrases.

A ‘captain’s’ leadership can be moderated, so long as he does not believe that his authority is being openly challenged.
ThePaganTemple
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:51 am

WHAT? Wow, I’ve got to see that.

Oh, wait a minute, you said TWIT picture.
ThePaganTemple
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:53 am

It’s not the rollover for Romney issue its the alternative to Romney that is the issue.

Thank you, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
ThePaganTemple
March 30th, 2012 @ 9:58 am

So she’s not really a conservative, she’s a right-wing feminazi who takes offense at anybody who doesn’t toe the right-wing feminazi line. Hell, I could have told you all that, and you can add National Offend A Feminist Week to Hale’s list of complaints, more than likely.

It’s like I’ve always said and will continue to trumpet until my dying days-political correctness isn’t always limited to the left.
Finrod Felagund
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:02 am

Given that my choice of candidates still in the race four years ago when my state held its primary on Super Tuesday was between McCain, Huckabee, and Romney, I can’t agree that our choices are worse this time. I had to vote for Romney last time because the alternatives were worse. At least this time I could vote for a conservative (Newt).
Finrod Felagund
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:05 am

I agree, even though there are rarely any actual links to nude women in the Rule 5 list. If folks can’t handle women in bikinis (I’m talking to you, UK, you should be ashamed for changing beach volleyball clothing rules), then they’re just too uptight for their own good.
robertstacymccain
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:08 am

My shoulder is sore. This chip? It weighs about 10,000 pounds.
Finrod Felagund
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:10 am

If I am not a fit judge of whether this enterprise has succeeded or failed, I am a fool. Why would anyone want to read a man who is both a fool, and an acknowledged failure?

As the song puts it, “Everybody plays the fool / No exception to the rule”.

Also, it’s probably not the wisest strategy for a supporter of the 2nd-place candidate to spend inordinate amounts of time and blogspace taunting the 3rd-place candidate and his supporters. Second place is still first loser.
Dandapani
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:14 am

LOL. Yes, the whining is every two or three months, but BlogCon whining is only once a year. I was going to make a fat-chick comment, but decided better of it.
Matt Knowles
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:29 am

For what it’s worth (and I’ll see about making it worth more a little later), I read you at least once a day. I’ve been reading Instapundit for 10 years. I subscribe to PJTV. I remember RatherGate. I’ve read Goldstein on Hermeneutics. I could recite a long list of bloggers I admire: Stephen Green, William Jacobson, Eugene Volokh, and many, many more.
And I’d never heard of Tabitha Hale until you mentioned her.
ThePaganTemple
March 30th, 2012 @ 10:32 am

What I meant was, there’s a BlogCon once every two or three months. At least, that’s the impression I get.

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