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Blogging’s not a job – it’s an expensive addiction

16 April 2011

It’s about two years since my old friend Damian Thompson approached me with a couple of yellowish rocks and a pipe and said: ‘Have a puff on this.

It’s about two years since my old friend Damian Thompson approached me with a couple of yellowish rocks and a pipe and said: ‘Have a puff on this. I think it might really suit you.’

No, of course not. What Damian actually introduced me to was something far more addictive, expensive, energy-sapping and injurious to health than crack cocaine. He asked me to join his elite team of bloggers at the Daily Telegraph. And now I’m having to go cold turkey and I don’t like it one bit.

The reason I’m going cold turkey — i.e. giving up blogging for a while — is that I’ve been quite ill for rather too long. It started over a year ago with a bout of swine flu, then degenerated into a debilitating condition I could never quite shake off: dry cough, headaches, bouts of nausea, shortness of breath, you name it. I knew things were bad when recently I had to give up exercise and no longer had the strength to wrestle my children when they came home from school.

Anyway, none of this is anything to worry about — I’m being treated and I’m on the mend. But a key part of my cure is taking things a bit easier, cutting out the things that have been doing me most harm. Foremost among these is my popular Telegraph blog.

I’m not boasting. It really is popular. Obviously I don’t always get the 1.5 million hits I had when the Climategate story broke. But in an average week the number of hits I get is roughly twice the circulation of The Spectator, and in a good one bigger than those of the Guardian and the Independent put together.

And the reason for this is that, as Damian rightly suspected, I have a talent for blogging. Admittedly I’m no use for gossip or inside-track Westminster analysis. What I can do though, better than most, is that mix of concentrated rage, flippant wit, irreverence, bile and snarkiness which many blog readers seem to think defines the art.

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Tom Fuller

April 19th, 2011 8:28pm Report this comment

Bloggers are dropping like flies. Jeff Id, you... who's next? I'm sure we'll all be replaced quickly. Hope the next generation of bloggers has been paying attention...

Jay Currie

April 20th, 2011 9:37am Report this comment

Blogging is addictive. It also is incredibly useful.

You mention climate gate. Without the blogs it would never have started and phony climate science would be costing us even more than it is now.

Go, get well, play with your kids, write a book...and, when you are ready, come back. There are many battles yet to fight and win.

Many.

Herbert Thornton

April 21st, 2011 6:30pm Report this comment

Not only true but it reminded me that Dr. Johnson said: 'Nobody but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.'

Perhaps, these days, he would have said 'Bloghead'?

pottsy

April 22nd, 2011 9:33am Report this comment

Get well soon, James. Your musings, especially on the new religion of climate change, are a highlight of the blogosphere.

Amanda Has Alligators

April 22nd, 2011 2:50pm Report this comment

Well, yesterday evening (Florida time) we had a mad dash to the 5000th comment, and new posts were coming in every second at one point.

As a reader, I'd like to say here that James's blog is like no other (to me) because it is a world unto itself. Most of us do read his articles, and they are of a nature that they grip your interest and tempt you into responding. But some of the daily readers just go straight into the comments section, because it's like a sports club. It has teams: Us versus Them. Sometimes the play gets rough, other times it's very gentlemanly. You get to know the players, but new ones are always coming in and out. There's a lot of humour, and there's also a lot of good information and thoughtful insights. James is often a part of it (when he's not recuperating, poor chap) because he responds to comments directly from time to time, and we all like that. Also, we value what James does very highly, and we know it’s hard on him, so we like to give our support. On the other hand, any critic that comes on the blog has a much better time of it than WE do when we visit a liberal or watermelon blog. (If you don’t know what I mean by ‘watermelon’, buy James’s upcoming book.)

So it's a very dynamic blog, with people posting from Tasmania and Guangdong and Indonesia, and from all over N. America as well (there are posters I know of in Greece and France, too). Most of the time it's a 24-hour blog, meaning that if you wanted to sit there all day (and sometimes it's tempting!), you would see new posts and find someone to talk to. But that started to happen about 18 months ago, when the climate controversies really heated up. When I first started reading James (and commenting), there were just a handful of 'regulars'. Now the list is very long indeed.

Another aspect of the blog's success is that, though the moderation is often annoying and inappropriate (try saying anything, even approvingly, with the name of a certain American ex-president in it), the comments appear instantly. So one can have exchanges in real time. Much as I like The Spectator, its blogs will always be limited in popularity, I think, because comments are withheld for so long (especially if you are not in the UK) and you can't really have exchanges with others.

Anyway, long live James, and long live James's blog!

littleoil

April 24th, 2011 7:58am Report this comment

James,

Love your work.

I went though a similar health problem some years ago and found an excellent and simple solution. Drop me a line if you would like the details.

Robh

April 24th, 2011 4:43pm Report this comment

Well, at least you have an audience. I write music, it lands on every download store you can think of. I sell almost nothing these days because of a number of reasons....I do it for the love of music, and I suppose I cant really do anything else. At the same time its a constant love hate relationship (more hate these days)but its played havoc with my life from relationships to health. It wouldnt feel so utterly pointless and soul destroying if I had an audience.

James, take some comfort in knowing theres always someone worse off.

James Delingpole

April 25th, 2011 6:42pm Report this comment

@Littleoil I don't have your email address but do please get in touch via my website which is www.jamesdelingpole.com.

Denis McClean

May 29th, 2011 10:57am Report this comment

Dear James,

I was sorry to read your requiem for a blogger and I can only sympathise fully with your plight and hope you make a good recovery. Nothing more important than your health. However, the crux of your problem is how can you earn a living from what it is that you like and which you are so good at. It's obvious you have a great following so why not make your blog a subscription service and see what the response is. A small monthly credit card payment from several thousand people might just add up to enough to give you an adequate reward for the time and effort you put into the task. Hope this is not too naive a proposal.

In any event, every good wish to you for the future.

Denis McClean.

kellyburke

December 23rd, 2011 3:24am Report this comment

I'm sorry to hear of your health issues but glad to hear that you are taking time off.

I wholeheartedly concur: writers need to be paid for their work, whether they write for the print media or the electronic media. It's time to do away with the Huffington Post's "business model".

I recently heard a Canadian venture capitalist sneer at the very thought of paying for journalists: why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? This freeloading attitude permeates the web. Something has to change.

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