Several years ago, I took a blogging journey through the American Civil War. Each day, I posted material from the corresponding day in a specific year of the war. I started with the fall of 1860, the last several months before the war started
At first, the material was from news articles, including images, from both sides, with a semi-regular entry from the diary of a Washington, D.C. clerk. Over time, a couple of more diarists were added with fewer and fewer news articles.
On of the things I was trying to do was to – like so many others – “make money online.” While I was making virtually nothing from the civil war chronicles, I was making a couple of hundred dollars a month on another website.
With another year until the diarists would reach the end of their war, I made the decision to abandon the civil war chronicles and concentrate on trying to capitalize on the success of the other site.
Two years later, that site is still earning money – a couple of hundred dollars a month.
I keep getting distracting off into other things that interest me more.
That being the case, I’m taking a step back to the beginning – a new civil war based blog.
It’s called Diaries of the Civil War, though it will also include letters and other narratives. Most posts will be for the corresponding day 150 years earlier.
The blog is organized as though there is a community of authors. Each diary, letter, and journal writer will appear in the blog as a contributing author.
And, yes, it is already live.
The main events don’t begin until later in 1860. Until then, I will be populating the blog with material, for the most part, that occurred before the current date in 1860.
It is at http://dotcw.com. Please come visit.
It’s pretty plain right now. I will be adding graphics later and links later on. Yes, there will be advertizing, but the ads will not intrude into the content.
I’m already learning new stuff – and, it’s hardly even started.
