An article in the April 10 edition of the New York Times illustrated the blogging lifestyle through the eyes of a blogging leader. Heather Armstrong, one of the nation's top parenting bloggers, has seen several advantages and disadvantages to her blogging life. Ranked #59 on the internet's top 100 blogs, her Dooce.com blogging site has become the primary money maker within her home. While her success is hard to deny, Mrs. Armstrong has been greatly effected.
Keeping a blog "fresh and topical" is critical to the maintenance of a blogging site. After 7 years of constant posting, Mrs. Armstrong certainly suffers from different levels of writer's block on certain occassions. While a lot of bloggers attempt to leave a gap of personal distance, Mrs. Armstrong has often written about her 4 year old daughter, fights with her parents or her husband, and so on. Because of the subject matter of some of her posts, hate mail is inevitable. Hate mail has driven her so far up the wall that she has reached a level of literally printing out the emails and driving them over with her car again and again. The hate mail will continue, but her extravagant pieces also create a bond with her readers that is quite strong. For example, a story as simple has removing a racoon from her chimney attracted more than 500 comments. Furthermore, estimates have been made that shows Dooce.com raking in as much as $40,000 a month due to advertisements.
Having experienced troubles when writing about such personal stories of her family, Mrs. Armstrong has reached a point where she tries to no longer focus specific family mishaps. She understands that a particular boundary needs to be in place in order for her to maintain a lucrative blogging atmosphere as well as a happy and working family. All in all, even with her different troubles of the past, Mrs. Armstrong feels that blogging is a perfect outlet and that she is thrilled to continue as a leading blogger.
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