Why do you blog?
Yesterday, I read the last post of John Moore on “Do page views matter for your average blogger?”. I wanted to write a small comment on his blog post but decided to develop it a little bit more this morning.
So John, here is my answer:
One day, one of my colleagues asked me “Seb, why do you blog?”.
Personally, blogging enabled me to:
1. Carefully organize my research in order to easily find sources when I decide to write an article on a defined topic.
2. Organize myself in order to find the time to write an article (usually Saturday (early) morning)
3. Concentrate my thoughts on a specific subject for days. I have a lot of articles started and not yet published. Sometimes, just because I need to find more information or need to think more on a particular part.
4. Enhance my writing since we live in a society where people tend to be vague and short in their communication. Believe me or not but since I started blogging, I write 10 times more on paper than before (especially on my Moleskine on which I take all kinds of notes while on the go).
5. Increase my social network. I have met a lot of people thanks to my blog simply from the mentions and comments.
But I do not blog to promote myself and see the stats (which are not really big anyway) and if you look at my blog, you will see that quantity is not the key.
So, globally blogging enables me to develop myself in a way nothing else will ever do and that’s the most important part of a blog.
Do you agree with that ?
Be Xin Fu 
5 Responses to “Why do you blog?”
I cannot agree as I am somewhat unfamiliar with you as a person.
I must say, though, that I blog to engage with an abyssmal audience; in that I have no idea who is reading and how much they read. I feed on the desire to publicate my views, which in turn motivates me to seek interesting encounters in my world. Would you agree with me on that?
These are excellent reasons to blog. Regarding the stats, who cares really? Like I said on my post, none of us are going to make much, if any, revenue from ads and I know I have no intention of trying to either.
I love point #4 too. Writing is too valuable a skill to let it go stagnant for lack of use… Keep up the great work.
John
John,
Traffic means nothing to me personally but I’m in a unique situation. I’m a community blogger in my hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. I write about random “stuff” as a Generation X guy. Our local paper gets 4 million views a month and the anonymous comments are massive. Some are insightful, some odd, some downright hurtful. My mug is on the top of the blog and I get interesting comments throughout the day.
I don’t write for traffic. I am becoming a better writer because of blogging and those that work for the newspaper (I am not an employee) encourage me. The stuff I write about is “stuff” that I’ve always thought about but have never written or typed before. It’s liberating!
I enjoyed this post. Thanks John.
Steve Knox
Gen X in Janesville
Thanks Steve, appreciate your feedback. Personally, the kind of blogging you are doing is the stuff that excites me the most. Personally passionate topics, those that you can get excited about, are always valuable. Hey, if they are only delivering personal value alone, I think that is okay.
Now, as I note in my post, I am discussing personal bloggers, not corporate. On that side of the house page views are very important, but fun to hear about personal blogging experiences like yours.
John
For my part, I blog above all because I enjoy the unsurpassed opportunities this holds for self expression and for interaction. When I was young I built a ham radio station to communicate with my fellow humans in remote lands; now I blog, with far greater scope and reach.
Over the years I’ve blogged for my employer, for my own business, and for fun; but while the objectives of these vary, including the importance of traffic, in all cases the element of fun and interaction has been clear and rewarding for me…