10. How has blogging changed for you personally over the past half decade?

In Internet time I’m old, so I’ve gone through almost everything a blogger can

The pure joy of writing on the Internet. The periods of self-aggrandizement when you believe that the Internet owes you an audience. Blog drama and cyclical arguments about topics so esoteric that it makes academic banter seem practical. Finding myself and losing myself and finding yourself again. Trying to squeeze out as many pageviews as you can. Not caring about readership at all. I’ve seen and experienced just about all of it. Blogging, if you take it seriously, is psychodrama at its finest.

These days, I just enjoy the ride. If I’ve learned anything it is that the only way you are going to survive as a blogger is to stop taking everything you do so seriously and stop worrying about what being a blogger means. If you like to write, write. If you want an audience, write a lot of good things. If you are thinking about fame and fortune, write a lot of great things and make sure you have a day job because it’s going to be rough going. If you find that you hate writing on your blog, be honest with yourself and realize you’re probably doing it for the wrong reasons and adjust accordingly.