Is a ProBlogger considered someone who makes their living off of it?

In that situation, if they are making enough money to survive, then their job consists of keeping up to date on news and writing interesting content.  And any job worth doing is going to have stress involved with it.  (Of course, if they’re not making enough money doing it, they need to quit or get better).

If blogging as a hobby (where you are not making a living from it) is stressing people out, I just don’t get it.  If it really stressed you out to do a jigsaw puzzle, why would you keep doing them?

Blogging is something people do for the interaction with like-minded readers and bloggers.  It’s supposed to be fun and enjoyable.  Sure, drama happens sometimes, but that happens in every facet of life.  If someone’s blogging is causing them more stress on a regular, continuous basis than it is causing them enjoyment, they should quit immediately.

I can’t see how blogging could be higher stress than a real job.  That’s just recockulous.

The stress of making money has nothing to do with the vehicle for making the money.  Or, in my opinion it doesn’t.

I could make money smiling, and because I knew I suddenly had an economic responsibility to smile I would be stressed out and start hating to smile.

I will never set myself up for that exact scenario, but I think it gets my thoughts across.

Personal blogging has been very therapeutic for me.  I had no idea who I was when I started blogging.  I know who I am now.  I am actually healthier mentally *and* physically than when I started blogging. 

I feel pressure when money is attached to any means.

I don’t know about good for your health or not but it certainly keeps me inside more.

I used to be out and about.  I mean, I didn’t even have a puter til 96 so I had 33 years of regular non-puter life.

Which if you ask, which you didn’t, I’d prefer that widespread internet never came to be.  People would have to get up and do stuff.

I think being on the computer constantly has more to do with the “national obesity crisis’ than McDonald’s.  Seriously.  It’s made us lazy slobs.

I’ll be off line for an extended period while we’re moving and doing all this house shit.  And ya know, I think I’ll keep my computer totally disconnected for a month.  I’ll report back on how it’s affected my life.

I betcha it will make a huge difference.

Your site just ate my comment.  WTF?

Anyway - only one word in it mattered:

Balance.

Really?  People lose weight from staying inside more?

When I don’t leave the house for extended periods, I just get fatter. 

I love South Park and that part of the episode had me laughing my ass off.

That is all.

It’s the “trying to make money” that causes the stress.
Just about anything done for money involves some stress because of the expectations attached to it, either by yourself and/or by others.

Blogging does not cause me stress because I don’t, and would never, do it for money. If I have nothing to blog, I walk away and don’t post. The only thing I stress about is worrying that I might be abandoning my blogfriends, because that’s rude. But I don’t worry that I NEED to post to boost my ratings or popularity or whatever.

If I’m not posting, I’m still visiting other blogs. I think it’s good to see how other people think and what they’re doing, to get outside my own head. I think, I seem to notice, at least with some ProBlogger-types and the bigger they get, it seems they do NOT visit other blogs at all. Are they just of a different mind set? Their blog has become WORK? Are they too stressed? Have you noticed that? Tell me what you think about THAT.

I’d love to be stressed out over how much money I’m raking in from blogging. Just give me a chance, people!

I am new to blogging (both reading and writing). I enjoy it and on a personal level can’t imagine myself stressing about it. I find it makes me more observant when I’m out and about. In addition I also find it very theraputic.

I have to say better.

and I adore South Park

That was awesome.  I knew the Chocolate Rain guy was psychotic!

Are you talking about my comment, Danalyn?  Cuz I’m pretty sure that sitting on your ass doing nothing all the time pretty much would make anybody fat.

No, I’m talking about the article...it said people found themselves losing weight.

But now that I re-read your comment...yeah...we’re all lazy slobs now.

I think the amount of stress involved depends on the blogger.  I think the higher the stakes (as perceived by the blogger), the greater the stress involved.  It doesn’t matter what’s at stake--whether it’s money, reputation, fame/attention, etc.--as long as it’s something that seems vitally important to the blogger.  So, theoretically, a personal blogger who is obsessively fixated on being the center of attention or entirely dependent on validation from readers can feel the same sort of stress as a ProBlogger who depends on website revenue for his/her livelihood (which is not to say that reputation and fame isn’t at stake for ProBloggers as well).  That said, the majority of personal bloggers don’t fall into that category.  They blog for their own benefit and/or for social interaction with others, which is why ProBloggers are primarily the ones at risk for “blogging themselves to death” (as The New York Times put it). 

To answer your questions, blogging certainly hasn’t had an adverse effect on my health because it’s not an obligation I have to fulfill at the expense of anything else in my life and it’s something I do only if and when the mood strikes me.  Yet, I can’t say that it’s had any positive effect on my physical health either--it hasn’t done anything to encourage my limbs to stay where they belong nor has it eliminated my daily need for Procardia and Vasotec.  What it has done, however, is train me to look for the humor in almost any situation and make me realize that consciously choosing the perspective from which I look at my problems allows me to exert some control over their effects on me.

Wow, what a mental image first thing in the morning! 

"ProBlogger don’t visit other blogs as much because they are too busy researching for their own.”

Do you really think so? Or are they (some of them) purposefully inaccessible because maybe it lends to the image of celebrity, like Dooce and the Kool-aid followers?