Online commentary isn’t only entertaining, for some, it produces full-time income

Believe it. Pahrump is on the bloggers’ trail and most of them are written by travelers who either make it a point to come here, or happen to be passing through. Either way, they usually find a reason to communicate their findings with friends and family via technology.

A blogger is anyone who makes an online commentary, comments on a posted blog from someone else or just has their own personal journal on a website.

We have a huge number of local residents and businesses on Facebook. They keep up with family members, post photos, share likes and web-links and post schedules of events.

Tweeting is also a form of blogging and has a search engine to find Tweets geared to personal interests.

There are domain hosts such as Wordpress where individuals are able to write journals about living here. One couple, “Kat and Steve,” started a journal because “we couldn’t find any good, solid information on the city. Except for a brief piece in Wikipedia.”

They began their journal in 2008 and the last post was the snow on Mt. Charleston in 2009.

A more active site for those who blog about their travels is www.mytripjournal.com/travel-United_States-Nevada-Pahrump. There are pages and pages of comments about trips through Pahrump, and a good number of travelers discovered the secrets here, such as the wineries, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, the Amargosa Opera House and the fall festival.

They also discovered our award-winning RV parks and that living here is less expensive than a lot of other places. Some have been back more than once.

A woman identified as “Kate” on her website claims she is “Wandering Not Lost.” She wrote an article about finding Helping Hands 4 Jesus founder Richard Fenton as he was making his rounds in the just-out-of-sight campsites tending to the needs of the homeless and homeless veterans living in the nearby desert.

She blogged about his work and the not-so-pretty side of Pahrump — things that don’t attract tourists.

Other sites catering to Pahrump are gypsyjournal.com, youngsnowbirds.com and RV park websites for Good Sam and Escapees.

Some people actually make a living from blogging, one of them is Patti Diamond, a weekly columnist for the Pahrump Valley Times.

Diamond, author of Divas On A Dime, shares her thoughts and reasons for blogging. Necessity being the mother of invention, Diamond found herself reacting to the bad and getting worse economy in a positive way.

Diamond said, “When I started Divas On A Dime five years ago, it was the height of the economic downturn and my friends and family were affected. I soon realized I knew a lot about living well on very little money. When I showed my friends and family how to reduce their expenses they said ‘You should write a book!’”

“My intention was to write a frugal lifestyle cookbook called Divas On A Dime. It started small with one book, then the website, then the Facebook page, then the weekly columns. I kept researching and writing and before I knew it each chapter in the book became its own book.

Diamond recently gave up her job as editor of Pahrump Life Magazine to pursue Divas On A Dime full time.

“Now we’re working with KPVM on a locally-produced TV/Internet show, and planning a kickstarter funding campaign to get my books published.

“It’s a different world now than it was even 10 years ago for writers. Traditional publishing houses used to have all the power, but that’s not the case anymore because the Internet has made it so you don’t have to wait to be published. Anyone can reach an audience online.”

Can you make a living blogging? People do. According to eHow there are 55 million blogs on the Internet. Of those, very few are making money strictly due to their blog. Most are hired as professional writers by companies wishing to share expertise and attract new clients within their industry.

Of the independent bloggers, the successful ones are very creative and Internet savvy. They understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media and their writing reflects a unique perspective on something people want to read. They take time to build a loyal audience and use multiple streams of income related to their blog by making use of advertisers, sponsors and direct sales.

Randy Cassingham, who started “This Is True” many years ago isn’t from Pahrump and left a good job with NASA to start his blog/newsletter project.

He said, “There are quite a few bloggers making nice supplemental incomes from blogging and such.

“Mine isn’t a blog, but rather an email newsletter. There are several who make good supplemental incomes from it and not doing it full time.

“I was one of the first. I started in 1994, and quit my day job as a software engineer and technical publisher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1996. My publication “This is True” is still my primary income. I just celebrated the completion of its 20th year.

“It’s social commentary using weird news as its vehicle. I figure it has to be entertaining for people to want to read it, but it gets fairly deep on several issues. I bill it as “Thought-Provoking Entertainment.”

“I do also blog — http://www.thisistrue.com/blog.html, mostly to expand on what I write about in This is True, rather than be a big money-maker on its own.”