Blogging can be a chore for some, and a dream for others. I fall into the latter category.
I've always enjoyed journaling and/or writing in a diary. I've written books cataloging my teenage and college years and look back on the entries fondly. My audience for these books was me only -- although I think you always secretly wonder when you're writing a diary if someone else might someday stumble upon the books! :)
So why do I blog now? Great question. The best answer I can give is that I simply enjoy it.
Sometimes your thoughts just need a place to go. Sometimes there are themes I see reappearing in my personal and professional life and it's almost like I'm being led to the blog topic. Real life is my inspiration, you see. If you forced me to sit down and free write about something, I'd probably have a hard time getting started.
Sometimes I blog about companies and people. I always try to keep my blog topics positive. Nobody really wants to read a pessimist's blog, do they? Or a complainer's blog. Or a whiner's blog. Or do they? I know I don't.
Sometimes the companies and people I blog about read my blogs. That's not the reason I blog about them, but I keep in mind that they might read it. And sometimes it's pretty cool to see that people do read my blog. After all, I'm just me. I'm no Seth Godin or Ellen Degeneres. Well maybe not yet anyway...(yes I'm kidding).
Sometimes I blog because I haven't blogged in a while and I want to continue to be an active blogger. It gives me an opportunity to practice my writing style and tap into a different level of audience participation. Someday I hope to write a book and maybe a blog entry or two may make it into the book, so this is kind of progress toward that life goal for me.
But most of all, I blog for me. I can whatever I want and leave out whatever I don't want. Nobody tells me what to blog. I choose what to blog about, when to blog, and how often to blog.
There are a lot of other reasons you might choose to blog, including:
1. Demonstrating expertise on your field of interest
2. Cataloging some portion of your life: a trip perhaps
3. Gaining attention of potential future employers. Yes, it happens.
4. It provides you with a creative outlet - esp for writers
5. It's interesting to know that when you blog, the entire WORLD can read it. (more realistically, a few dozen might only read it, but still... the whole WORLD...)
6. Documenting a topic where you've gained life experience. I've read blogs about parents dealing with a child's illness and triumph when they are healthy again, women struggling with infertility and their insights gained along the way, an entrepreneur who has bumbled along and then finally found their life's calling, and so much more.
7. You think you are FASCINATING and want the rest of the world to know, too. See #5 above.
8. You have something to share
9. You think you have nothing to share -- but by blogging you discover that you DO
10. You like organizing thoughts into a list of 10 items
And that, my friends, is why I blog.
Brenda
