I suspect maybe it depends how you define “aim higher.” One moment that stand out in my mind is when Roger Ebert lost the ability to speak and posted that blogging saved his life because it gave him the ability to communicate. Would it have been less so if he was getting paid in applause? I don’t think so.

Is blogging a sweatshop? Of course, but what isn’t in this world where half of us need more money just to make ends meet. The carrots at the end of our sticks are often dollars, it seems to me.

But here’s the thing. Books don’t pack a duffel bag and go out into the world to find wealth and come home the hero. If wishes were horses. Books sell one reader at a time.

And where better a place to build a following than a place where millions of readers and writers visit daily?

Why not make a list of the underlying themes in the books you write and sprinkle in a few posts that touch on the themes your books touch on. You just might build the audience that would make a difference to that book when it’s done and the muse might decide to love you again instead of chastising.

Just my 2¢ for whatever it’s worth.