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"I lost my shirt, but I was hooked," said the 50-year-old La Crosse ophthalmologist.
"My wife doesn't enjoy talking about stocks with me, so I go out in cyberspace and blog," said Freedland, referring to bobsadviceforstocks, the online journal where he writes in great detail about the ups and downs of his portfolio.
Freedland and his attorney wife, Maureen, do share a passion for Democratic politics, and after the November election, Bob started a second blog supporting Sen. John Kerry for president in 2008.
"I'm an eye doctor, not an investment adviser or politician," Freedland said. But blogging lets him sound off on those subjects and find people who share his interests.
Blogs are the new darlings of cyberspace, with 27 percent of Internet users telling pollsters they read blogs online. Some blogs are big business, getting several hundred thousand visitors a day, and their authors are gaining clout as political commentators.
Other blogs are personal journals, whose authors are more interested in sharing the news of their day with friends and families. Like the rest of the Internet, blogs are uncensored, and sometimes contain profanity and adult topics.
Despite the buzz about blogs, 62 percent of Internet users don't know what a blog is, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Still, 8 million American adults say they have created blogs, according to Pew, and more than a few of them are Coulee Region neighbors. A La Crosse Tribune search identified hundreds of blogs and bloggers with connections to the area.
At Xanga.com, a blogging site aimed at young people, more than 600 users (most appearing to be in their teens) have identified themselves as living in the La Crosse metro area. At Livejournal.com, about 60 users identified themselves as La Crosse-area residents, while about 40 identified themselves as being from Winona, Minn.
While those numbers may seem large, the reality is that many people who start blogs quickly lose interest, littering the Internet with little snippets of their lives.
The Tribune identified bloggers with ties to the area who keep their sites current, and interviewed several by telephone and e-mail.
"I guess I started the blog in September of 2003 after I met someone else who also had one, and he inspired to me to start my own," Andrea Keever, 22, of Onalaska, explained in an e-mail. "It seemed like it would be a pretty good way of venting some of my frustrations. I was going through a pretty hard time, and I was looking for an outlet. It just fit."
Keever's blog, Under My Umbrella, is "mostly just about me and my mundane, trivial existence, but I do write posts regarding my political views, music and movie reviews, and other current events. It all depends on my mood," she said.
The word "blog" is short for Weblog, software that makes it easy for an author to post messages to the Internet, and easy for readers to answer back, creating conversations that are often more meaningful than you'd find in a chat room. Bloggers also do a lot of linking to other pages on the Web as a means of sharing information, backing up their arguments and even creating mischief.
"I honestly didn't start the blog wanting feedback," Keever said. "I didn't really think anyone read my site, but almost immediately I received an e-mail, and then two, and so on. I received messages on a daily basis from people encouraging me to continue blogging."
Keever said she likes the interaction and friendships. "It was nice, and most of the people contacting me had blogs as well, so I started forming a kind of community of friends from all over the world," she said.
Kirsten Stiles, a De Soto, Wis., artist, blacksmith and jeweler, has a Web site to promote her artwork but launched a blog called Leafylady "as a way to write a little bit every day. I don't like hand writing and I know I wouldn't keep a private journal. I do like the interaction of the online blog, where people of similar interests can find each other and leave input."
"It's all about ME, ME, ME," Stiles said in an e-mail. "Where else can I go to talk about myself constantly and still get others to listen? I write about my artwork, creativity, parenting and life in general. Sometimes I work harder to write well. Most times I try to keep it as relaxed as possible."
Stiles' advice to budding bloggers is to "decide how much privacy or publicity you want first. Then look at the different features of each blogsite. Some require more familiarity with html. Others are very easy to use. Some blogsites cater to specific interests. Costs vary. Many have free options."
Doug Terpstra of La Crosse updates his blog daily.
"I have family and friends all over the United States so it's directed, primarily, to them so that we can all keep in touch with what the others are doing," said Terpstra, who is retired.
Blog readership "jumped 58 percent in 2004, and now stands at 27 percent of Internet users," according to the Pew study, "and 12 percent of Internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs."
That's how pastor Paul Burgess of New Albin, Iowa, started blogging.
"It happened entirely by accident," Burgess said in an e-mail. Some blogs require you to register if you want to make a comment, and when Burgess did, "I accidentally ended up receiving a blog of my own. So I figured I'd go with it."
Burgess' blog, Let the Finder Beware, is about "Me, my interests, my own quirky take on things. My blog tends to be very subjective, the world as seen through my eyes," he said.
Burgess, 48, advises anyone starting a blog: "Be yourself. Write about what interests you. Read and post comments on other bloggers' blogs. You'll meet some neat people out there in the blogosphere."
Others use their blogs to talk about deeply personal issues. One former La Crosse resident recently wrote about coming home for Christmas and coming out of the closet to his parents. He declined a request for an interview, saying, "I don't do it for the attention, and I don't really want to draw attention to my blog."
Jim Barrett, a Holmen native who now lives, works and writes his Jimbo.info blog in Washington, D.C., says bloggers have to "remember a blog is public, and you never know who is reading it, so watch what you say about work, family, friends and partners. Do as I say but not as I do."
Blogging, he said, is "a great way to exercise your writing skills, and you'll find you can make everyday things sound interesting if you spin it the right way. Be focused about what you want to write about whether it is topical, political or just a personal journal."
Ben Lang, a student in Holmen, has two blogs, Lilium Inter Spinus and Banyan Blog. The first is about life and philosophy, the second is about his love of classical music on the accordion and his plans to earn a master's degree in the field.
Some local bloggers do it because they're frustrated with the constraints of letters to the editor.
Harold Ristow of La Crosse created The Postmaster's Blog after friends encouraged him to start one.
"They have asked me to obtain a blog site and to post my thoughts. This would be better than expecting the La Crosse Tribune to print all of my efforts," said Ristow, one of the Tribune's most prolific letter writers.
Bob Freedland sees his Kerry 2008 blog as an alternative to letters to the editor. "Before, if I wanted to write a letter to the editor, I got maybe two paragraphs of space," he said. "On Kerry2008 I editorialize, but I do it in a professional manner," using links to footnote and support his arguments.
Bobsadviceforstocks is a running diary of every stock trade Freedland makes, plus his analysis of his portfolio's performance. "Investing is my big hobby. I'm just an amateur investor. I'm not trying to sell anybody anything. I'm just showing my experiences."
Asked how much time he spends on his blogs, Freedland said, "Too much. Ask my wife. She says, ‘I wish you'd just pay the bills.'"
Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or rmagney@lacrossetribune.com.
