Totally fair, and I agree with you. But I think a lot of people market their journals and market their subject-matter-blogs in the same fashion. They "journal f

Totally fair, and I agree with you. But I think a lot of people market their journals and market their subject-matter-blogs in the same fashion. They "journal for eyeballs," as you very eloquently put it. Which is sort of a hollow activity for both the journaler and the marketed-to audience. I see a ton of blogs that are conflations of journal and subject-matter-blog: neither fish nor fowl. And that's where things go wrong, IMO. In many cases it's a fine line to toe, but the blogs I've stopped following are the blogs that don't seem to have a consistent leaning in either direction. "I don't want folks to think the primary purpose of writing is to market something. That's bad. Very bad." It doesn't have to be bad, so long as the author of the blog is forthright with his intentions. A lot of company blogs fall into this category. Many of them are trying to sell product, albeit indirectly. I know that's what they're doing, and I'm fine with it. To your point, I wouldn't be fine with someone who's ostensibly journaling but keeps trying to sell goods or services. Or with someone who's simply content-farming in an attempt to capture eyeballs and monetize them via ads. There needs to be an honesty and transparency of intentions, one way or the other.