By Anne R. Allen

I’ve made some spectacular blunders in my blogging career. But since we learn from our mistakes, I’ve got a boatload of information now.

As Ruth and I say: “We made the mistakes so you don’t have to.”

The worst decision I made was trying to turn this blog into a monetized business blog. That lasted about six months— until my doctor said I was going to have to choose between blogging and living to see my next birthday.

This is the second anniversary of the beginning of that failed experiment, and I’ve been thinking over what I’ve learned.

My biggest mistake was that I didn’t see that an author blog has a different purpose and goal from a business blog. Author blogs aren’t about making money directly with ads or sales.

Instead, they provide a platform for your writing and a way to communicate with readers…