While doing some research about blogs and what bloggers do, I kept thinking about Blood’s article warning about what you read and write in blogs saying, “Their sarcasm and fearless commentary reminds us to question the vested interests of our sources of information and the expertise of individual reporters as they file news stories about subjects they may not fully understand.” I couldn’t stop thinking about that statement. As a teacher, I always talk about not taking everything you hear, read, or see as fact. It reminded me of the State farm commercial poking fun of people who read something on the Internet and accept it as the truth. This was an exaggeration of course, but it happens all the time. We read one article and the comments on it and most times see only one side. That does not mean that’s the only side. I’m thinking with blogging, where ANYONE can post about ANYTHING, we need to be both critical readers and writers. I think we need to be aware of personal bias.
I was also wondering about monetizing blogs, a way to get paid for your blog. While reading 7 Ways to monetize your blog, it made me think of how bloggers could make money. They can have ads, but other ways to generate money is by talking about their sponsors and/or products. I have been reading a few blogs for a few years and when they talk about a product, I always wonder “Do you actually like/use that product, or do you just need to plug it in to get paid?” While reading blogs, I’m now checking for ads or signs that the blogger is making money and what their sponsors are.
This led me further into looking up The Dangers of Blogging and there is a lot to keep in mind (some scarier than others). A few things I will be looking further into:
- Everything you post to the public can be seen, even if you delete it.
- When sharing your thoughts and opinions might not be the best idea.
- We read about how Dooce’s blog posts got her fired from her job
- Chris Moody was sued for sharing an article
(Again, these are told in the author’s point of view. Are we reading/knowing the whole story?)
- Know your rights. There are legal guides for bloggers to help with this. Do your homework to protect yourself.
Jeanna's Blog 
To add to your second point, I have also seen that writing about topics other than work can still get you fired if they are controversial enough. I have seen that even mentioning something you like, that is not controversial, may still result in negative feedback from readers.
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On the topic of monetizing blogs and how the blogger might not really support the product, it really depends on the blogger. Some are more honest than others. Because bloggers are always asked how they make money, a large number of bloggers post about the topic and detail how they make money. I’ve read a number of said posts: some will directly mention their pride in only accepting ads for products and services they support, others will put disclaimers with the ads to say that while they are being sponsored, the content still belongs to them (the blogger). If you see a blog with ads you question, they could potentially have a post on it.
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I’ve noticed that bloggers that I follow always tend to share that certain posts are sponsored. Now that I know how to search tags and categories, I will now look up to see if bloggers made a post about their sponsors, or how they monetize their blog.
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