Yes to this: “The ability to hear people’s voice and not just be appreciating specific content.” I love the blogs that provide a personal touch. When I read blogs I’m not looking for facts. I’m looking for interesting stories. Thanks for the comment. I was so happy to see your name pop up again in my comments.

I love that you still have a blogroll. I am feeling more inspired to recreate mine! I’ll check out Donebyforty’s too. I’m giddy just looking at all of those links 😉

I think that’s true. I see much more camaraderie in blogs written by female bloggers for example, but many negative comments made to female commenters on male owned blogs. That’s not true across the board, but I do think pockets of negative exist and once you spot them you have to decide if you want to speak up (sometimes that just adds more fuel to the fire) or simply unsubscribe. Thanks for the comment!

I’ve been torn about the monetization of this blog for years! Part of me thinks oh it’s such easy money and the other part of me hates that I even consider it. I go crazy scrolling through posts skipping over ads. I have ad blockers on my browsers, but I don’t want to drive my readers crazy with that stuff. So I’ve gone back and forth between including them and removing them. In some ways I think sponsored posts are better, because you can read the post or skip it. I mark all sponsored posts as “On Behalf Of” and as “Guest” writers, but I don’t know who pays attention to that. Thanks for the comment!

Sadly the majority of blogs on my old blog roll have vanished. Very few survived over a decade of blogging. A few sold their websites and a bunch moved on after getting married, having children, etc. They simply didn’t have as much time to write. That’s what happened to me for awhile. I took a hiatus until a few old blogging friends told me how much they missed my stories. Thanks for the comment. I just found your blog and spent nearly an hour looking through it. Great stuff!

Still, I have seen the negativity. At the same time, though, it seems like it can be isolated. Almost as if there are these toxic digital cliques that form their cloud of negativity over certain blogs. It seems much better if you can avoid that.

Again, I’m still very new, but that’s what I’ve observed so far.

I’ve been blogging since 2008. I think one of the biggest changes has definitely been the affiliate links you mentioned. It seems like a lot of posts are just built around them rather than their being built into the post. But oh well.

I do the occasional sponsored post, and I have some ads. But mainly I just don’t really make much money at the endeavor. I’ve made my peace with it (mostly). I blog for myself and obviously my readers. Money that I make from it is just gravy.