redpinemountain.com

That Pesky "M" Word

Or, to be more specific monetizing blogs.

Farms are expensive. There is always equipment in need of repair, animals to feed and darn, old escalating property taxes.

Mountain Man and I lead a simple life. Neither of us want nor desire more material possessions but we do have a desire to protect our farm and our land and ensure it survives us. Yes, 300 acres is a lot of land, yes, we could make quite a bit of money if we split off some property and sold it to developers but as long as I am breathing, selling land will never be an option. I strongly believe there are too few large tracts of farm land left nor are there many properties where the ancient trees are still standing. It is my fondest wish to preserve this very special place in the world for future generations to enjoy.

Now the question becomes how do I make some money? Well, I’m working on my book but that’s a long way from being finished. I am not artistic so an Etsy shop is out and there’s not many people in this rural part of Vermont who are interested in paying for their dogs to be trained at the moment when money is tight.

I have my blog. I visit many blogs with paid content. These blogs are written by people trying to put food on the table for their families. Others do paid posts to raise money for charity. Whatever the reason, I certainly don’t look down upon paid blogging and the blogs I visit are well done and enjoyable reading.

I got my blog approved by numerous paid posts sites but then I started looking at the opportunities available to me. Try as I might, I just could not figure out a way to work the assigned topics into this blog where I share my innermost thoughts and struggles with you. No, paid posts won’t work here. But, there are people out there in the blogosphere making money and I sure would like to make some too.

This morning, I took the dogs on a walk through our ice covered paradise. The scene reminded me of the one from Dr. Zhivago; specifically the ice covered house in the country where Yuri once again starts to write. I thought about how much I’d love to be able to capture the beauty of our farm for all to see. Today, there are few people who have a chance to walk out their front door and be in a 300 acre wilderness.

That’s my long winded way of saying I have decided to start a photo blog. There will be no writing, no words, just scenes from Red Pine Mountain and, yes, I’ll shamelessly monetize it. I should have the new blog up and running fairly soon. I’ll still have pictures here but there will always be words. If you want to escape the verbiage and travel to the visual, then I hope you will join me on my new hoto blog.

That’s my solution to the pesky “m” word.