Are ebook blogs dying out?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

I should probably clarify that I wasn't mentioning Goodereader because they're so good, but to point out just how desperate the situation has become.

Funny but true. I watch their videos on YouTube because they are often the only English-speaking reviewers of off the wall e-readers. Their reviews suck and are often incorrect, but at least you see the machines in action. It's very much a love/hate thing.

And as someone who never reads PDFs, do you know how tired I am of seeing the damned D&D Monster Manual trotted out?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Or watching bubbles burst in the bathtub when I take a bath.

While reading from an electronic ink reader, I hope!

To the topic on hand: I never read blogs about books of any form, and as some said, when there's not a lot of news, you shouldn't make up news simply to fill content.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Funny but true. I watch their videos on YouTube because they are often the only English-speaking reviewers of off the wall e-readers. Their reviews suck and are often incorrect, but at least you see the machines in action. It's very much a love/hate thing.

And as someone who never reads PDFs, do you know how tired I am of seeing the damned D&D Monster Manual trotted out?

D&D is available in PDF? Or are we talking about people scanning their personal copy( or pirating as the case may be)?

Personally, I would love to see a blog/weekly news letter, whatever you want to call it, that covers what's new in a specific genre and maybe a few reviews of different authors/books. Of course, it's pretty difficult to put something together like that and I'm not sure how you would monetize it. Some have paypal contribution buttons, will run yearly fund raisers, have subscriptions and seem to make a living at it.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

D&D is available in PDF? Or are we talking about people scanning their personal copy( or pirating as the case may be)?

I have no idea. In the Goodereader video reviews of e-ink devices, they always use a PDF copy of the D&D Monster Manual to demonstrate the device's ability with PDFs.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Personally, I would love to see a blog/weekly news letter, whatever you want to call it, that covers what's new in a specific genre and maybe a few reviews of different authors/books.

They're out there. You just have to look.

I've been visiting Western Fiction Review and Too Much Horror Fiction off and on for years. They aren't precisely what you describe (they seem to read books in their genre at random rather than covering 'what's new' and neither focuses on e-books specifically), but those are just two I know about.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

D&D is available in PDF? Or are we talking about people scanning their personal copy( or pirating as the case may be)?

Some older stuff has been legally made for sale...
http://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?f..._0_0_0_0_0_0_0


Wizards has made the basic 5th edition rules available for free download, but all of the current core books are only available in paper.
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Some older stuff has been legally made for sale...
http://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?f..._0_0_0_0_0_0_0


Wizards has made the basic 5th edition rules available for free download, but all of the current core books are only available in paper.
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

Interesting. Thanks.

[Bob B]

I value quality over quantity.

I do follow eBook Reader Blog regularly. But, that is the only eReader blog I follow. How much can be said about eBook readers anyway? I am also retired and reading blogs is not a priority.

[BearMountainBooks]

Most blogs were making money a few years ago--and that money is part of the reason they blogged!

I've been blogging for years and I can tell you the number one issue right now is: Keeping an audience. Sooooo many people have wandered off to facebook, that there's a void. My blog has always paid for itself (I'm an associate at wal-mart, amazon, kobo, depositphotos, etc). But it's very difficult to get people interested in stopping by like they used to. I cross-post at facebook, but any post that contains a link that causes people to leave facebook isn't shown as often. And if the first few people to see it don't click, facebook stops showing it. If I post the entire article on fb, people see it, comment, like and so on. But it's a problem, because you can't gain subscribers or get clicks through to affiliate links if people are on facebook. (It is possible to post affiliate links, but results vary. Sometimes they don't seem to work at all and there's a question of whether they work on a share versus just an original link. You can't control how many people see it so if you sell ads, you can claim to have 400k fb followers, but anyone who has studied the issue knows that FB isn't going to show a single post to more than 10 percent of those followers unless paid to do so. There are various other algos that help it get shown, but for a single post, you are not reaching anywhere close to 400k or whatever the total is.)

My traffic has gone down considerably in the last two years and that's true of just about every blogger I've talked to. This leads to blogs shutting down. Five years ago I was making money on my blog via the affiliate links. These days I'm just trying to make sure I cover the costs of the blog. An author today doesn't have to have a blog or website. They can exist on FB and not have the maintenance, the cost, or the headache. Starting a new blog and gaining an audience is very difficult. Getting that blog to pay for itself or pay enough to be worth blogging every day? Fewer and fewer blogs can do it.

I think that will swing back around, but right now the casual audience is sitting over at FB reading random posts that show up in the feed.

[empyrking]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

And as someone who never reads PDFs, do you know how tired I am of seeing the damned D&D Monster Manual trotted out?

A good 1/3 of the whole video is about it. LOL I was beginning to wonder if I losing out on something.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

D&D is available in PDF? Or are we talking about people scanning their personal copy( or pirating as the case may be)?

Personally, I would love to see a blog/weekly news letter, whatever you want to call it, that covers what's new in a specific genre and maybe a few reviews of different authors/books. Of course, it's pretty difficult to put something together like that and I'm not sure how you would monetize it. Some have paypal contribution buttons, will run yearly fund raisers, have subscriptions and seem to make a living at it.

http://fantasyliterature.com/ does a great job of that in the sci/fi and fantasy world. They occasionally cover cozy fantasy too, but not nearly as often as the other types (urban fantasy, epic fantasy and sci/fi). They have more than one reviewer so more than one POV and fun (and funny contests). They're just for fun contests, nothing serious (like renaming a bad book cover with what the cover makes you think of...) The blog is also an Amazon affiliate and stays open by being an affiliate and by donations. Great blog.

There are other blogs for other genres. I know of one for cozy mysteries...there's more than one for romance (Dear Author is one. I don't follow that blog because I don't read many romances, but I've read the reviews now and then). There's one for Urban fantasy too, but I can't think of the name of it and that particular one veers off into paranormal romance more often than I personally care for, but it's still updated daily and has good book conversation.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Most blogs were making money a few years ago--and that money is part of the reason they blogged!

I still make money, but it is a heck of a lot harder than it used to be, yes.

And I am making a lot less because as you said, traffic is down.

But money wasn't why i blogged; it was the mechanism which made my blog possible. Without ad revenue I would have had to get a day job long ago.

[barryem]

Well, I hope it changes because I miss reading them.

Nate, your blog is really the only one with daily stories these days. Other than Goodereader, of course. I hope you keep going but even yours is only a shadow of what it used to be.

I'm reading Goodereader more now. He does point me to some interesting stuff. And it's funny how little he understands the stuff he writes about.

If I didn't know better I'd think the world is changing.

Barry

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I still make money, but it is a heck of a lot harder than it used to be, yes.

And I am making a lot less because as you said, traffic is down.

But money wasn't why i blogged; it was the mechanism which made my blog possible. Without ad revenue I would have had to get a day job long ago.

I didn't start out blogging because of the money--I wish I had. I'd have made a lot more back when traffic was high. I was doing it to create a blog presence for when I published and then after I published. Somewhere in there, I knew I needed to make enough money to pay for it and some of the other online expenses because of the amount of time I spent on it (in other words, quit the blog and write more books or make sure the time spent was earning out).

My husband also used to blog (financial blog). He ended his between two and three years ago.

There's two bottom lines: If people aren't reading it, there's no point in doing it--and there has to be a certain level of readership. The second is that if people aren't clicking through to support the blog, because of the time put into the blog, most bloggers end up having to create a new stream of income.

Lots of bloggers start as a hobby, but the time put into maintaining a blog is huge--wordpress (software) updates, the research, the posts, keeping up with comments and spam, keeping up with new requirements from the affiliates, looking for new ad revenue and so on.

Just one example--my most loyal fans are those signed up to get my blog via email. Amazon forbids me from using those links in those emails--the reader must come to the blog and click through. This rule cost ereaderiq its affiliate status (among other affiliates). Poof, there goes that income. It has to be made up in other ways or the service stops (in the case of ereaderiq, he's put a lot of personal time coding his blog, coding ad taking forms and so on).

For blogs you love, make comments on the posts so that the blog owner knows what you are reading, what you like and that you are there. Click through any ads that interest you (rather than using a link on your mobile or desktop). Example: I have a huge fan who follows daily. We chatted one day and she mentioned how she always goes through her special Amazon smile link to buy the books I mention because that gives to charity. Amazon (in case you didn't know) has an app for putting a link on your device so you don't forget your charity). That's great for the charity (although what Amazon gives the charity is less than I'd make in commissions...) but it stunts the blog. It creates a new habit that kills the blog commerce.

These are all "not the problem of the blog reader" but it's like any other business. Most blogs will shut down if the income is too low. Just like newspapers, we make money via advertising and newspapers are having a heck of a time of it.

[Cinisajoy]

Sometimes on the newspaper, it is because they are not delivering what the advertiser was promised.
Here the ads come out on Wednesday. The newspaper guaranteed the advertisers that everyone in town would get the ads. Either through the paid newspaper subscription (which I don't have due to their reporters making very bad errors. Typically blaming victims because the victims don't want to talk to the media right after being injured. Or in one case, pretty much saying a woman had a huge tumor because she was obese. (The paper literally added at least 100 lbs to her after tumor weight.) If I remember correctly, the tumor weighed in at least 50 lbs if not more.

Or on Wednesday, they deliver the ads free to other households.
They and I went round and round when I wasn't getting my ads.
The circulation manager actually said, they are free why are you worried about it.
I said you get paid to make sure I get the ads.
So you can either deliver the ads or I will just call the advertisers and let them know I am not getting the ads. They make sure every house I can see gets their ads now.