Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket

...NOT a good idea.

For all the faults of blogs:

• Can be set up and administered by amateurs (this might also be considered a plus)
• Most fold rather quickly
• Often badly written - grammar/spelling errors, shoddy thinking, barely literate
• Notorious for not sourcing copyrighted material (I should be better on this - I've been trying to remember to ALWAYS provide the source of pictures and graphics, but...)
• Comments often devolve into name-calling and profanity

...they have been an alternative to a flawed and biased mainstream media cartel.

Those that retained both a hefty readership, and, consequently, advertising sufficient to support the blogger, have been targeted. The various social media have used their clout to bring down successful bloggers, and have used "temporary suspensions" to limit the reach of others.

Some tactics I'd suggest for bloggers:

• Go ahead and use Blogger (free!) or WordPress. Just remember to back up the blog regularly, and store it offline. There will come a day when you will need to reboot your blog, and you don't want to lose those years of work.
• Monetization is fine, but limiting yourself to Adsense or other aggregate ad systems is not a good idea. Well, it SEEMS good, right up to that day when Adsense drops the hammer, and declares that you've violated some unspecified TOS, and yanks away your cash flow. Many a Youtube mogul has found themselves Back to Broke, within a few weeks.
• The immediacy of blogging is seductive. Just start a post, and let 'er rip. The trouble starts when you become a target, and they begin looking for excuses to drop you. That might be inappropriate language or graphics and failure to control commenters' responses (a favorite ploy is to unleash bots to post blatantly racist or libelous comments, then report your blog at spewing H8). So, check the veracity of your sources (and include the original post), take screenshots of Leftist spew (they often disappear quickly), and always credit the artist who produces any graphic used.
• Never post drunk. I know Vodkapundit makes it look good, but, I'm warning you, this will not end well.

The glory days of blogging are gone - they will not return. Those of us who continue, do so for other reasons than fame and quick cash.

It helps to bring in other contributors - If you run a blog, consider asking for volunteers to contribute. If you regularly read a particular blog, email them, and ask if you could guest post (the easiest way to break in). Essentially, by combining forces, blogs have become online community newspapers. They are not limited geographically, but develop a niche that they serve.