I received this notification in Blogger when I fired it up this morning. It's some new type of "Beta Feature" which allows someone, or something, maybe AI to choose certain keywords and highlight them in blog posts. That way the reader can have access to more detailed information from topics that are in the post.
While I do this for fun, but sometimes it's a drag, and it is a lot of work, I've never done the advertising thing to turn a buck while doing it. Now I would love to be a rich social media personality, influencer, and millionaire, from this blog, well not really. While being able to fund the fly fishing lifestyle through the blog would be nice I'd never be able to throw up Sophie Rain kind
of numbers. Rain, who is 21, and hails from Miami, has made 83 million dollars with her Only Fans account in about two years. I'd take $83 from time to time.
I firmly believe that the positives of all this technology come short compared to the negatives. Yes, you can show me life and death situations where technology has saved the day, but in real day to day life and interactions and time spent living technology, computers, and the internet have ruined so many things for me. And we're just getting started with the whole AI thing. I recently saw that AI actors are being created and marketed for use in movies and commercials.
Meet "Tilly" a created and privately owned AI actor that is searching for an agent. That's a computer generated image/ person. Pretty soon nothing with be real, not people, not the currency, and even more scary our opinions, thoughts, and emotions. We are already being "tracked" each time we click on our phones, computers, and devices. Am I a conspiracy theorist? No. Not in a psychotic way, but mores in a targeted algorithm way. An example, click on or search for men's work boots and see the flood gates open with ads and links and emails coming at you from every direction.
As far as traffic to this blog. 1,277,040 so far since I started this in 2009. That's not too shabby. I think what's more impressive is that for 25% of my time on this earth I've penned this blog. Last month the traffic numbers show pretty good numbers, which add to the total.
While there are options to turn a buck on these blogs, ads, which are annoying as hell to navigate through, Patreon, a begging for money platform where people can donate, I think what I'd like to see is a subscription. If I got each reader to sign up for $20 bucks a year that would be some change I could add to the South Carolina piggy bank.
But what I'd really like would be a sponsored, or to be part of a fly fishing something. Years ago companies did that. You did your thing and they tagged along for the ride. These days content is readily available and has no worth in itself, only the clicks and the time ads are watched have any value. And each time we add to that content pool the value gets diminished, until something new, in content or technology, comes around. Remember the first drone footage. Wow! Now, no big deal. The same with GoPro stuff. It takes a humpback breaching and landing on a boat to get big number views. First person POV (Point of view) is hard to beat and you have to be there with a camera in hand to capture the moment.
And then there's the issue of broadcasting or spot burning where and when someone fishes and or hunts.There's a large population that uses other peoples content for their own personal gain. Which, isn't all a bad thing. How many of us have Googled or You Tubed how to change a this or do something? But when it comes to fly fishing you have to be careful. Want to have lots of company during a bite and get that spot blown up? Post it up.
Want to lose any chance of being in that tight- knitted group of people who found a spot or a bite? Post it up. You'll be fishing alone for a long time.
So. I am going to try and do this Beta whatever it is. I'm going to list a bunch of keywords below to see if it generates any more traffic to this blog. So here we go.
Fly fishing. Fly tying. The Average Angler. Colin Archer. New Jersey fly fishing. Saltwater. Delaware River. Striped bass. Best fly fishing blogs. Delaware River. Jetty. Jetties. Groins. Blitz. Beaches. Beach. Flies. Lines. Tippets. Leaders. Fly rods. Waders. Stripping basket. Jetty Country. Sandy Hook. Raritan Bay. Island Beach State Park. Martha's Vineyard. Sight fishing. Jones Brothers Marine.
I'll let you know when I reach Sophie Rain numbers, or get a sponsor.