Photo-Whoring

I’m insatiable. When I’m swamped with work, all I want is a little peace and quiet. When I actually get my peace and quiet, all I want to do is work. How very humanly of me. I’ve been here on my laptop for a few hours already, surfing everything from YouTube music videos and short stories to how to conduct multiple regressions on SPSS.

On another note, some two years back, someone (let’s call him L) tried to pitch to me the idea of monetizing my blog (not that I hadn’t thought about it beforehand, genius). I did mention two big problems with that idea:

1. WordPress does not permit monetizing in any way (I tried, believe me).
2. My blog statistics are hardly spectacular. It can range from 300 visitors a day to a mere 40.

Of course (and very obviously), I could easily remedy those two problems, said L.

I could switch to a different blog hosting service such as Blogspot which does in fact allow ads, or just get my own domain name. Thing is, I’m quite attached to WordPress and getting a domain name isn’t exactly the cheapest thing around for a student who earns a fluctuating income on freelancing here and there.

Blog stats, on the other hand, can be easily boosted. This, I am quoting L. While not verbatim, the gist of it is there. Since I’m lucky enough to be born female with an uncringe-worthy face, all I have to do is plaster my blog with pictures of myself in order to generate higher stats. Even better, get a few professionally-taken shots of myself and it’s a done deal. Now this truly is an interesting train of thought.

When he said that, I thought to myself, “Am I prepared to whore my face out on the web for some cash?” Do I want weird, pimply teenage kids to be wanking to my blog photos? This is, of course, assuming my face would warrant such actions. The answer here is naturally, a resounding no. I am aware of several female bloggers (who do not need to be named) who do plaster their blogs with photos of themselves and I respect that as their prerogative. While I certainly do not mind blogging about my escapades with a series of photos (I have been known to indulge in such methods of blogging), I am not too keen on attempting to awaken my narcissistic/exhibitionist side by starting. That, and I’ve had pretty bad experiences with photos stolen from my Flickr account, mauled and attached to less-than-favourable images in an attempt to slander.

But the question here is – why do I blog? For what purpose does this blog exist? It is obviously not a diary since everyone knows that diaries contain sensitive and personal information – none of which appears on my blog. I enjoy keeping in touch with my friends who are now scattered in all corners of the world. I’m a lazy person. Put two and two together, you’ll realize that repetitive emails to different people are not exactly achievable.

• I enjoy writing. It is a favourite past time that comes second only to reading. While I have not written anything artistic/poetic in a while, all these musings and observations serve to satiate my need to write.
• The only part of me that is remotely exhibitionist is the opinionated side of me. I have a million opinions on social awareness, Malaysian politics, movies or other interesting international phenomena. I’m often not so verbal about these opinions however and I feel that I express myself best when I write about them instead.
• Personal gratification. I enjoy reading my old blog posts, deliberating the person I used to be, the opinions I used to have, and I most certainly enjoy reading comments that are not of the spamming type. I enjoy watching myself evolve and this is one way of ‘observing’ myself.

My point is, I’d like to think I am able to not resort to my feminine wiles in order to increase my readership and earn some extra cash. While L might not have meant what he said to be offensive, I’m afraid that the feminist part of me did, in fact, take some offense.

This blog is a part of me that is projected for the world to see and bimboticism and shallowness are the last two traits I would be proud of, or would like to showcase. I’d like my friends and whoever who follows my blog to think of me as a reasonably intelligent individual who does not have to sell-out just to get some extra money I do not need.

Would you photo-whore yourself out on your blog to earn a little extra every month or so?