You know how sometimes actors will look into the camera and talk to the audience? It’s called “breaking the fourth wall.” Well, this post is similar to that. I’m pulling back the curtain to say, sort of like when you’re out on a long bicycle ride and your body just isn’t up to the task and you turn to your fellow riders (or yourself) and say, “I just don’t have it, today, mates.” Everyone has off days; nothing wrong with that. We’re not human bicycling machines. (Yet.) Sure, I could come up with something bike-related, or talk about some picayune detail of cycling, but I’m just going to go wherever this writing about not knowing what to write takes me. I don’t know what you do when you don’t feel like writing your blog — of course, you do you. But I know what I do: I write my damn blog.

It’s happened before, and turned out alright both times, I thought. Both Is There a Blog Post from A Dude Abikes Today? and Possible Blog Topics for Today Include… were posts that are what the kids today call “meta.” And you know if that some new nomenclature is approved by young whipper snappers, it’s got to be good. Unless it”s not, like overly using the word “literally,” as Gary Gulman pointed out in his comedy routine. For example: “I literally didn’t know what to coffee to order at Starbucks!” Anyway, there are tons of blogs about blogs, and some may actually should be taken seriously. Sage advice, words to live by: “Do this, blogger, and you’ll be a success!” If only it were that easy.

There are secrets I could tell you, but I’d have to charge you to get access to my SPECIAL PREMIUM, MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. No, that’s not true. (Yet.) That’s because ADudeAbikes.com is still sadly a non-profit affair. But here’s what professional bloggers won’t really admit: blogging is still a thing because, well, it’s just words on the internet. They’re maybe in a certain format, but they can be pretty much anything you (or more accurately, your audience) want. Business have blogs, celebrities do, too (though I doubt most write them), writers of various sorts, tech nerds, health and fitness influencers (not referring to myself!), and so on. Millions of hobbyists blog. But only a small percentage make bank on it.

According to a — you guessed it! — blog, here are the Top 10 Highest Blog Earners in the World (2020). They get a millions in ad money, because they get millions of eyeballs on their sites. Why don’t you or I? Well, for that we’d have to get into all kinds of topics like Search Engine Optimization, marketing, key words, social media promotion, sponsored posts, guest posts, etc. ad nauseam. This isn’t a fact-laden, well-reseached, exhaustively footnoted, post. But there must be some secret about how to get from zero to hero in terms of blog followers an ad income. I obviously have not learned that sacred piece of advice.

You’d think that following the old adage “write what you know” would not be too hard. Uh, sure. But what if the older you get, you feel like the less you know? Knowledge, technology, and even facts keep growing exponentially. The world keeps spinning round, and sometimes it seems like you’re just along for the ride. It’s hard enough to stay in one’s own wheelhouse and yet, we all know something. Maybe it’s not interesting or useful to other people, or maybe it is. And that knowledge or wisdom may be more than we may know.

To have a ton of followers on social media is a major goal for many people. You know who else had followers? Adolf Hitler. Jim Jones. David Koresh. Sean Cassidy. Didn’t work out too well for the first three. Sorry, Sean. Not sure why I included you. But getting those followers is a job, a mystery, and accident. I’ve not pursued the following. People should not follow me on a bicycle, because I’m a user of Strava S.O.F.T. There are not people behind me; I’m riding solo and when others are around like on a trail, they’re passing me. Sometimes even runners for short distances or up hills! So I’m usually le lanterne rouge most of the time these days, thanks to injuries, maladies, and what not. Literally.

Well, it feels like a good place to end this blog. I’ve got to keep searching for a way to avoid becoming homeless in Austin, Texas in under two weeks! So I hope you liked it. It’s maybe not my best post ever, but if it made you chuckle or think of something or feel better you’re not me, great! Of course, feel free to please like, comment, re-post, share, and all the rest. But hey, let’s be real honest. I write for myself. That approaching 600 people have subscribed in over five years without promotion is not bad. Imagine if I did tweet, ‘gram, ‘book, etc. I’d be rich and famous with all the other bloggers, the queen of whom is Arianna Huffington, who I met. OK, I was on a Zoom meeting she did with a few thousand others probably.

But see, I did have plenty to write about. I bet you do, too. After all, there is no such thing as writer’s block. Except in fiction. Every piece may not be Pulitzer-worthy, but there is one unassailable truth about writing: WRITERS WRITE.

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