One man and his blog: Iain Dale on creating a monster

It's a great time to be blogging about British politics. But one of those who helped to define the genre is missing out. Iain Dale, the Conservative blogger whose blog was read by up to a quarter of a million people a month, gave it up at the end of last year to concentrate on other media opportunities - created for him by the success of his blog.

In the latest in our series on blogging for journalists, Dale reflects on what his blog did for him, what it demanded of him - "you've created this monster and you're not quite sure how to handle it" - and whether he could have made a living from blogging.

Dale confesses to having "a bit of an addictive personality", which helped him to keep writing when his readers were demanding several updates a day. But he says it wasn't always enough because, "Believe it or not, there were days when I didn't have views on anything."

Today, Dale says he's often "been desperate to share my thoughts with the world again". And he reveals he's working on a new blog which he'll only write on his own terms - when he wants to rather than when the readers expect him to.

Previous entries in this series:

- Robert Peston talks about how he uses his blog within a mix of media outlets for the BBC.

- Hollywood journalist Nikki Finke made millions from her entertainment news blog.