Blogging in the Dark

I have been blogging for several years now and have posted on just about every topic that interests me, both here and on several other blogs that I have used over that time. In the beginning (which was about 5 years ago for me) it was more of a social thing and I was linked up with quite a few like-minded individuals all interested in blogging and paid posting and getting traffic.
Nowadays I feel like I am mainly ploughing (plowing for our transatlantic cousins) a lonley furrow, (Blogging in the dark) having progressed to the point where I have found a niche and continue to mine away for nuggets in my own little income 'seam'.

The early days of experiment, social linking and the free exchange of ideas seems to have pretty much dried up. Each of those whom I was in touch with in those early days has pursued their own niches with varying degrees of 'success' depending on how you measure it...
I definitely do things differently now, I have got into a groove and continue to repeat the formula and collect the income. However, I am not closed to new ideas, and one of the enduring truths about making money online is that the goal-posts are always moving, so you need to keep moving to stay in touch.

I am certainly guilty of resting on my laurels simply because I lack to time to keep trying new ideas at the rate that I should. I have come to terms with that fact, and it would probably need a disaster such as losing my regular full-time job to force me into 'upping my game'. So as long as I don't actually NEED to make a living wage online, I guess I will continue to keep blogging in the dark...