Why I am sick of writing blogs

No, not writing blog posts, as a verb. Writing blogs, the noun. I subscribe to over 70 writing blogs, and 90% of them are trying to pitch me every day. “Buy my expensive course!” “Join my expensive membership site!” No wonder they can write about making money – they’re taking it from other freelancers! Disgusting.

Now, there are a few gems buried among the turds. I have bought quite a few ebooks that have been hugely helpful. But for the most part, I am being offered a bill of goods. A lot of them say “join my membership site for networking!” only to have you find out that the only people you’re networking with are the ones offering the site. Truth is, as a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists ($75, annually), I can network in my field for much less money. I can go to the MediaBistro quarterly mixers in my region. And lord knows I can tweet. I have made an amazing amount of valuable contacts via twitter.

And what of the courses? Are they of any value? I honestly have no idea. The freelancer who can drop $400-900 on an e-course actually doesn’t need to learn much about the business, I’d say.

I want to read writing blogs and get a sense of the person doing the writing. I want to know where they came from, where they are now, and what the journey was. I want to hear the wisdom of the day-to-day. What I don’t want is to be pitched all day, every day.

So today I unsubscribed to about 30 blogs, which I will not name here. My time is valuable, and shouldn’t be wasted on the blog equivalent of infomercials.

Your time is, too. Be selective as to what you want to read. If the blogs you read offer real value, and somewhere along the way the writer provides a product or service for a fee, go for it. But don’t get bogged down under a heap of sales offers all day long. That’s time you could be spending doing some actual writing of your own!