Jeff Freeman has a great piece about what it takes to run a blog. Here I take him seriously ;p

I don’t agree with Jeff Freeman.

I don’t play with those rules, I don’t get paid if I get more hits.

I could have one hundred readers being all idiots as I could have four but being intelligent people. At the end of the day I couldn’t care less about how many people read me. Actually, let me get this straight: the less I know, THE BETTER. I write to develop ideas, not to build consensus. Too often I’m misunderstood, it would be terribly frustrating if I had set my goal as trying to convince people of what I think. Instead I see the “blog” as a personal point of view. A personal research. I “reblog” not to steal the worth of other people content and enhance my own, but because I draw from it, it provokes thoughts or needs to be archived. As a memory of things that are worthwhile to be kept. So that if I need to find something, the research is simpler. The blog is a way to create order, to select what you need and what you find worthwhile. To focus on certain parts.

What is fundamental is the overall community where ideas are being suggested and elaborated. The raw material of the experience. The fact that we “irritate” each other and, maybe, produce a reaction. Whatever comes out of it, following whatever a possible reader may find interesting. It’s an absolutely selfish game, everyone takes what he needs.

I don’t run it as a competition even if it may be fun to think about it that way. But at the end it doesn’t count. What counts is the synthesis you make of things. The way you borrow from everything and everyone. Nothing is created, we are just getting influenced in multiple ways and have a personal reaction. A blog is that subjective reaction, a selection of arguments and a soapbox.

The audience is optional.